Pick the right plants

The right plant in the right place has long been the advice of green-fingered gardeners. Don’t choose sun-loving plants for shady spots and vice versa. Always plant specimens wherever they are happiest. Stressed plants need constant watering and feeding. It’s not sustainable, for example, for people living in a chalky area to truck in tonnes of acidic soil and peat so they can grow lime-hating camellias and rhododendrons. This not only harms the environment where the peat came from but changes the habitat of the garden and will require lots of watering and upkeep.

The key to creating a garden that is both eco-friendly and beautiful is to accept your soil type and plant accordingly. Dry, chalky soil, for example, is best suited to plants that like poor soil - lavender, beech, Fuschia, lilac, rosemary and bulbs, such as alliums and tulips. On rich, clay soils, hydrangeas, hardy geranium and Japanese maple thrive. Look at what is flourishing in your neighbours’ gardens for inspiration.  

Plant trees and hedges

If you have the space, plant a tree. Trees are great for absorbing carbon dioxide and pollutants. Adding trees to your outdoor space can provide more blossoms, pollen and nectar than just flowers alone. If you plant fruit trees, your garden is more likely to attract bees and other pollinators. There are small, spring-flowering trees that you can grow in your garden, balcony or even a container. Have hedges instead of fences – hedges offer wildlife habitats and counter air pollution.

Create your own compost

Making your own nutrient-packed compost is a great way to make your garden more sustainable and will save you money on bagged compost bought from garden centres. Vegetable peelings, tea bags, coffee grounds, leaves, eggshells, grass cuttings, wood ash, and even vacuum cleaner contents can all be composted. Avoid meat, cooked food and animal faeces. A healthy soil, rich in organic matter, feeds essential micro-organisms which in turn keep worms happy and helps plants to build up resistance to diseases and pests (reducing the need to use chemical controls). If you buy compost, choose peat-free. Peat is dug from peat bogs and causes irreparable damage to natural habitats.

Avoid toxic chemicals

Stop spraying your garden with pesticides and it will reduce the amount of harmful chemicals that seep into the water table and soil. Natural insecticides based on fatty acids (soap) are great bug killers – garden centres stock a huge range. Encourage natural predators. Centipedes, hoverflies, ladybirds, lacewings and ground beetles are all gardeners’ friends. Toads can keep your slug population down. Companion planting can be useful too, for example French marigolds help control blackfly on tomatoes while onions and chives grown under roses keep blackspot at bay. Carrots and leeks ward off each other’s pests.  As for pesky weeds, like dandelions, dig them up when they are young and before they seed. Weeds need sunlight to grow, so covering your veg patch or flower border with 2-3 inch of mulch will stop them taking root.

Increase wildlife and biodiversity.

Every garden is a potential nature reserve. Endangered slug-eating hedgehogs and slow-worms love piles of leaves and log piles. The less you tidy up, the better for wildlife. The solitary bee, Osmia bicolour, one of the first bees of spring, makes its nest in empty snail shells while blackbirds love pecking at windfall apples.

 Instead of using pesticides, encourage natural predators to your garden. Cumbria Wildlife Trust explains how to create a hedgehog hole https://www.cumbriawildlifetrust.org.uk/actions/how-create-hedgehog-hole Bats feed mainly on insects, so grow as many flowers as possible to attract a diversity of insects: Ox-eye daisies, wild angelica, lavender.

If you have decking or a patio, make space for nature around the edges. Perhaps dig a border and plant climbers such as scented honeysuckle or jasmine which will attract bees and butterflies to your garden.  As well as growing flowers, put up nest boxes and bird feeders. Encouraging wildlife makes your garden more entertaining as well as eco-friendly.

Go for local suppliers and materials

Choose plants and materials, such as paving and pergolas, that have been grown or sourced locally. Trees and large shrubs are sometimes grown abroad, often in heated greenhouses, then flown or shipped to the UK. Local nurseries tend to grow most of their own stock, so specimens bought there will have travelled fewer plant miles and be better adapted to local conditions. For timber products and desking, look for a Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) or Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) logos.

Save water

Rainwater can easily be harvested by installing water butts on downpipes. Don’t water your lawn in summer. Let it go brown – it will recover. However, newly seeded lawns need regular watering in the first summer. A good soak a couple of times a week is better for plants than a brief spray every day. In flood-prone areas, water management is also vital. Use permeable paving, gravel or grass reinforcement grids for paths, terraces and parking areas rather than solid paving to reducing the impact of flood water on storm water drains.

Reduce plastic in the garden.

One simple way to make your garden more planet-friendly is to reduce your use of plastic. If you buy specimens from a garden centre, chances are you will bring home plants in plastic pots which quickly pile up and mostly end up in landfill. Save plastic nursery pots for growing your own seeds at home and/or pass on to other gardeners. Look for pots made from compostable materials like coir or paper. Hillier Gardens Centres are the first in the UK to introduce recyclable taupe-coloured plastic pots. Use wool or jute twine ties not plastic. Similarly, if you have the choice, buy bulbs in paper bags rather than pre-packed in plastic.

Simply having a green space is better than nothing at all when it comes to helping wildlife and our planet. That said, we can all look for ways to make our gardens more eco-friendly. A bird feeder to encourage wildlife, a compost heap and a water butt are all steps in the right direction.