I have not used peat for years. The main reason I stopped using it is: weeds. The quality of peat has dramatically declined over the past 20 years. The peat started to get full of weed seeds about 15 years ago. After a terrible type of oxalis was introduced to my garden about ten years ago (which I have yet to vanquish)--I stopped using it entirely. Instead, I use composted leaves and/or wood chips. I have an arborist friend (who has done some tree cutting for me), who brings me truckloads of wood chips when he is in the area. He is glad to dump them on my property instead of going way out of his way to dump them in the area designated by the county government for organic waste. Wood is broken down by various bacteria and fungus. They feed on the wood and reduce it to compost. However, they need nitrogen to do this. A byproduct of this is production of organic acids. So---I throw a 50# sack of ground limestone, and a 40# sack of high nitrogen lawn fertilizer (24/0/17), on each 10' x 10' x 5' high pile of chips right away, and repeat in the Spring the following year after turning the pile. By then the pile has shrunk down by a third in size. In the Fall, I turn the pile again. By the next Spring it has reduced to compost that can be added to the bed. This compost is weed-free, and much better for the plants.
Many county governments and municipalities have organic waste dumps that do this process. Many of these give away the compost for free. They do not add nitrogen/ limestone to the organic waste--so you may want to test the pH of it before adding it to let you know whether you have to add some limestone to it to raise the pH. In the location I previously lived, the city government of Winston-Salem had large trucks that would go around the city in the Fall and vacuum up the fallen leaves deposited on the streets by the landowners. They would bring as many loads to your house as you wanted. I put ten loads(10' x 20' x 7' high) into my vegetable garden. 1000# of limestone, 400# of ammonium nitrate, 100# of gypsum, and two truckloads of sand were added as well. It made a great garden, but unfortunately, the leaves did not completely break down until a year after I sold the place. The person I sold the property to did not garden. For many years that 50' x 60' plot grew weeds ten feet tall.
