Gardeners are continuing to use the country’s endangered peat supplies instead of alternative bedding, despite repeated warnings by environmentalists.

Speaking ahead of one of the busiest gardening weekends of the year campaigners have urged growers to use peat-free alternatives to help conserve supplies.

They say that peat is a vital asset in the fight against climate change, as it absorbs more carbon dioxide than trees.

However it takes thousands of years for peat bogs to develop, leaving them shrinking as they continue to be harvested for fuel, farming and gardening. According to the campaign group Plantlife commercial extraction can remove over 500 years’ worth of peat growth in a single year.

Environmentalists say despite alternatives being readily available for use as compost and bedding, British gardeners continue to buy peat, with sales at three billion litres a year in the UK and rising.

Ben McCarthy, chair of the Peat Partnership said: “In the fight against climate change, the peatlands of the British Isles are one of our greatest assets: we cannot underestimate their importance for carbon capture.

“In the UK they hold more carbon than forests, but the extraction of peat destroys this carbon-rich habitat and results in significant carbon emissions and the lost potential of carbon sequestration. Advances in alternative growing media mean that peat can be left in the ground. Governments across the UK need to act immediately to end the use of peat for horticulture and other commercial purposes”.