I'm no expert, but I add peat moss to my garden in Spring and Fall, whenever the area is plant free and I need to add more. Compost can also be added any time that you have it and that the area is plant free, just mix it on in.

I'd go with as much compost as you can afford/spare and mix it on in. I don't think that you can overdose with it. I'd be on the conservative side with the peat moss, since your soil already drains well.

Peat moss. The best soil amendment I ever added to my garden.

*waiting for kimmsr*

Peat is good. Compost is better. (my opinion of course) Compost gives full service to the soil food web, loaded with microbes, lots of nutrients released as it decomposes further. Peat may retain moisture a little better though. I never use peat although I wouldnÂt hesitate to supplement my compost with it if I didnÂt have enough compost for my needs. Cover your bed with one inch of compost/peat right now, then cover your beds with 6 inches of shredded leaves from your Autumn leaf fall .(free compost) Side mulch your plants with compost throughout the growing season. Bill Hill

Hi hamiltongardener...Why are you waiting for kimmsr? Franklin

Franklin, he probably recognized this as being almost the same as the bait you posted in this thread.

Since you fessed up to what you were doing in that thread, maybe kimmsr will ignore the bait this time. It's only been three months, so kimmsr may still remember the other time.

Next time, maybe you should word it a little differently so it looks like a new question.

Forget the Peat and go with the Compost. The only thing peat is good for, is to hold moisture but compost will do it too. Plus it's really hard to keep peat wet enough to get it to soak up water. For whatever reason, dry peat will repel water unless it's been soaking in it for a while.

Franklin lives in Maine and the last 5 times I was in Maine they still had a lot of trees that produced a lot of leaves every year that are a better source of organic matter than peat moss ever will be, and those leaves are free.
Why would someone pay money for a source of organic matter when he could get a material that is better for free?
No matter what you use you want about 5 to 8 percent humus in your soil, add the amount of what you use to get to that level.

It won't be long before trolls hibernate. We're still 95% forested. Most of the trees are softwood but there's more than enough hardwoods to provide leaves if we go get them. They haven't all fallen yet. There's plenty of time.

Franklin just likes to ruffle feathers. After a while one learns to appreciate his humor. I'm not criticizing him, I really do find him entertaining. A sence of humor is a necessity here, some folks just lack that element in their personalities.

Franklin, it seems you will have to find a new approach for controversy, or different subject matter.

Karen

I appreciate the troll factor, but since I'm kinda a newbie I still have real questions. I mean, I really am ignorant--not just pretending.

I've heard about peat not adding nurients to the soil and being water repellant when it dries out. I actually have a bit of long fiber peat--not the ground up stuff-- left over from my son's carniverous plant hobby.

BTW, we have a big aquarium/terrarium with peat and distilled water (those carniverous plants die from nutrients!) and the dried bagged peat has enough seeds that we've created a nice three inch carpet of green growing peat.

Anyway, I have the remains of two terrariums that have been abandoned, and two bags of the long peat. I've been nervous about what to do with it. I don't want more water repelling soil! Or a mulch that functions as an umbrella. Do those water repellant issues just apply to ground up peat? Does peat rot over time like any other brown? Should I just save it to put in the bottoms of flower pots on my front porch? Can I put it in the bottom of perennial planting holes?

See? I told you all I was ignorant! LOL! What should I do with it, please?

Anyway, I have the remains of two terrariums that have been abandoned, and two bags of the long peat. I've been nervous about what to do with it. I don't want more water repelling soil! Or a mulch that functions as an umbrella. Do those water repellant issues just apply to ground up peat? Does peat rot over time like any other brown? Should I just save it to put in the bottoms of flower pots on my front porch? Can I put it in the bottom of perennial planting holes?

LOL! We're a great lot of help, aren't we?

As long as your peat is mixed into soil or compost it won't repel water. In fact, it will absorb water and nutrients that would otherwise leach away. Two things to remember. Always mix it into the soil, and never use it as a mulch. The best I've done is to mix half manure and half peat moss.

Yes, peat rots over time. The difference is that it will stay in your soil for 2 or 3 years instead of just 1 season. This makes it a great long term soil conditioner. Use a lot the first year, and less in subsequent years because much of the original peat will still be there. It's fantastic stuff for clay soil, but I don't have first-hand experience with peat in sandy soil.

Remember to add compost to your soil as well for nutrients.

By the way, where are you getting your peat moss and what kind is it? It sounds like you have a top layer of a bog or something. I generally wouldn't be able to get peat growing from the dried peat moss usually sold.

That layer of peat is usually kept for reseeding the bog after harvest.

Oh boy, I can add fuel to the dead horse fire.

"Mosser Lee -- brings your plants to life" purchased at either Lowes or Home Depot.

"long fibered SPHAGNUM MOSS"

tHIS PACKAGE CONTAINS 100% ORGANIC SPHAGNUM MOSS. uNLIKE PEAT MOSS OR SPHAGNUM PEAT WHICH ARE NON RENEWABLE, DEAD PRODUSTS DUG FROM THE EARTH, mOSSER lEE sPHAGNUM IS A RENEWABLE RESOURCE HARVESTED FROM PERENNIAL LIVE PLANTS THAT GROW IN THE RICH wISCONSIN MARSHLANDS."

Ooops, forgot to take off my cap lock. Now that I read it, I guess it's not even 'peat,' which by their definition is dead? We placed this moss in an aquarium with some pearlite and gave it several gallons of distilled water. Various Venus Flytraps, Butterworts, Sundew, and Pitcher Plants were placed still in their own pots with holes, but snuggled down in the moss so they think they are in a bog with the constant wetness. We put on typical aquarium grow lights over a glass top that I forget to turn off most of the time. It took a few months and one day my son pointed out some moss strands that looked kinda green. It's been up over a year now and some of the little butterworts have been overgrown and now they are lumps under thick green moss.

I know this isn't soil related, but the sundews are amazing and sooo beautiful, especially with a magnifying glass. They have hundreds of leave hairs, each with a tiny sparking drops of sticky nectar. Yeah, it's a bog garden inside.

A couple of times I've left out a banana and apple to rot inside a big cup, and he slaps a top on it and shoo's the fruit flies inside the terrarium so that they land on the plants. The next day the leaf has curled up over them. It spoils the looks of it for a little while, but ya know, they gotta eat. The fruit then goes outside to the compost pile.

Kewl, I guess they are live plants.

My brother does this kind of work for a living, restoring bogs after harvest. They use the scraping of the top layer of live plants (which sounds like what you have) to reseed a bog after companies harvest the peat from underneath. What you buy as peat in the stores usually isn't the living layer, but the layers underneath.

That stuff you have would be cool for creating your own water garden in the backyard.

Hi Karen...I like to laugh...and throw alittle humour on the list..:-) Some folks are so up tight that their face would crack if they even smiled...;-) I don't know where the idea came from that I like to cause trouble...:-) Believing that there is enough peat moss to cover the world...and is renewable... isn't really causing a problem for me anyway. Franklin

Call it a hunch that you're a trouble maker. I've followed the forum long enough to know you somewhat.

And it do appreciate humor- even yours!

Karen

I've heard the talk about not using peat in the garden and I'm skeptical. I salvaged a bag from somebody who was throwing it out and I'll be putting it into the bottom layer of topsoil in my new garden.

My soil is clay. It can get compacted and I'm certain the peat will help with that. I also have several yards of compost to add, so the peat won't be the primary medium for my plants.

If the peat was just going to be tossed out, there is no good reason not to use it. Heck, a huge portion of what most people think of as trash is great to put in the compost or the garden. On the other hand, most of us would probably tell anyone not to go buying lots of peat to put on the ground since you can get leaves for free and they are probably better.