Do you want to make your garden more sustainable?
Here are 21 tips for an eco-friendly garden

If you’re lucky enough to have a garden, no matter the size, you can turn it into a wonderfully sustainable space.

If you didn’t guess from my name, I’m all about low-maintenance green living.

So of course that includes eco-friendly gardening!

With deforestation still increasing, wildlife and insect species declining, and droughts becoming the norm thanks to climate change (even in rainy countries like the UK!), creating an eco-friendly garden is an essential action for saving the planet.

Today, (with the help of my children) I’m sharing tips to make your garden more eco-friendly.

What is an eco-friendly garden?

If you’re new to sustainable living, you may be wondering what an eco-friendly garden actually is.

An eco-friendly garden is designed and maintained in a way that minimises its impact on the environment. This type of garden promotes sustainable gardening practices that support the local ecosystem and protect wildlife.

21 tips for an eco-friendly garden

There are many ways to make your garden more eco-friendly. Here are some tips:

1. Use organic soil and compost

If you want to have an eco-friendly garden that is safe for wildlife and pets, avoiding toxic chemicals is a good place to start.

Unlike conventional compost, organic compost doesn’t contain manmade chemicals, such as synthetic fertilisers, pesticides or herbicides.

Choosing natural compost can improve soil quality and provide nutrients for plants.

2. Buy second hand

If you’re a sustainable gardening beginner and fancy growing food or plants, you will need pots, planters, tools, and other garden accessories.

Choosing second-hand is the eco-friendly option because you won’t be wasting the planet’s natural resources - including fossil fuels.

Buying preloved items for your garden will also save you money. This can be invested into higher-cost items you’re buying new, like organic seeds or compost.

Facebook marketplace, “buy nothing” or freecycle groups are ideal for finding garden products near you. Also look out for second-hand stores, car boot sales, Gumtree, and Olio. 

3. Provide habitats

Create an eco-friendly habitat for wildlife in your garden by providing food, water, and shelter.

Install insect hotels to attract birds and beneficial insects. Include access holes for hedgehogs with lots of undergrowth. You could even try converting an old sink bowl into a mini pond to encourage frogs to your garden.

4. Make it bird friendly

A report by the Woodland Trust in 2021 found only 7% of the UK’s woodland was in good condition. The decline of forests around the world puts animals, like birds, at risk.

You can make your garden a safe haven for birds by hanging birdhouses, having a bird bath, and growing bird-friendly plants for food. You can also chuck birdseed on the lawn or make a DIY birdfeeder to hang in the trees.

5. Conserve water

As the climate change emergency worsens, many places, including the UK, are at risk of water shortages. Watering the garden with a hose pipe uses 1000 litres of water an hour, according to Southern Water.

Water is a precious resource and it is easy to take for granted how lucky we are to have clean water from our taps. Choose to appreciate your privilege by conserving water.

The simplest way to make your garden eco-friendly is to install a rain barrel or other rainwater harvesting system to collect water for your garden.

If you want to take it up a notch, you could install a drip irrigation system or use a soaker hose to water plants directly and minimise water waste.

6. Compost garden waste

An easy eco-friendly tip is to compost your garden waste instead of throwing it away. Put the earth’s resources you don’t want back into your yard by making nutrient-rich soil for your garden.

A garden compost bin needs to be made up of 25-50% “green” waste and 50-75% “brown” waste.

• For the green part (which is rich in nitrogen), include grass clippings, weeds, and soft leaves.

• For the brown part (which is rich in carbon) you can include woody waste, like sticks, prunings, chopped-up hedge trimmings, and dried dead stems and dead leaves.

7. Compost your kitchen waste

You can improve your compost and your environmental impact by adding household waste to your eco-friendly compost bin.

• For the green part, you can add fruit and veg scraps and peelings.

• For the brown part, you can use torn-up boxes and plain cardboard (like toilet roll tubes and egg boxes), shredded paper and newspaper, and even greasy pizza boxes.

8. Grow native plants

If you’d like an eco-friendly garden that doesn’t need loads of extra work (hello fellow lazy gardeners), native plants are a great choice. When a plant occurs naturally in a specific place without being put there by humans, it is called native.

Native means the plant evolved and adapted to the local climate and growing conditions, and doesn’t require pesticides or much extra water.

Native plants have formed a mutually beneficial relationship with native wildlife over thousands of years, and therefore offer the most sustainable habitat.

If you’re in the US, put your location into this native plant finder tool to work out which plants are native to you.

In the UK, you can buy native plants from the Wildlife Trust.

9. Grow pollinator plants

As pollinators are a vital part of both peoples’ and animals’ food cycles, including pollinator plants is an effective way to make your garden more eco-friendly.

Here are some examples of plants that attract pollinators in the UK:

• Sunflowers

• Lavender

• Bluebells

• Fuscias

• Zinnias

• Coneflowers

• Marigolds
  
  Native British wildflower assortment packs are available from Pure Seeds UK.

Pollinators, such as bees, butterflies, moths, flies, wasps, birds, and bats, are a crucial part of our food system.

1 in every 3 bites of food we take is created with the help of pollinators, yet due to habitat loss, modern farming practices, pesticides, and the way we use land, pollinators are in decline.

A pollinator is a creature that helps move pollen from the male part (stamen) of a flower to the female part (stigma) of another flower. Once the flower has been fertilised by the moving of pollen, it can produce fruits and seeds.

Most of our food comes from flowering plants and 80% of flowering plants need pollinators to reproduce.

Adding colourful native flowers to your garden (and local neighbourhood) is a great way to improve biodiversity.

10. Grow perennials

Perennials are plants that live for a season, die, and then return again the following season. They are ideal for low-maintenance gardeners because you don’t have to keep planting them again and again - they just grow themselves!

They are good for the environment because they have longer roots which allow them to hold onto carbon and moisture, making the soil richer, even during some droughts linked to climate change.

11. Choose sustainable materials

If you want an eco-friendly garden, you need to consider the materials you choose for your garden. Furniture and hard landscaping can seriously increase your environmental impact and carbon footprint. Thankfully, there are lots of sustainable alternatives available.

Concrete is a major cause of greenhouse gases so look for alternatives when possible, for example, reclaimed stone slabs and recycled gravel.

Ensure new wood products are bought from trustworthy brands with clear sourcing information and an FSC100 logo to prevent illegal deforestation in Asia.

The most effective way to be eco-friendly is to avoid buying new unless you have to. It is often easy to get garden furniture and landscaping materials on local marketplace sites.

If you do need to buy new, supporting independent businesses in your area (with local manufacturing) is also a good way to reduce your carbon emissions and support your community.

12. Upcycle furniture

As the Spring and Summer sun shows its warm face, you may want to relax in the garden with friends or family. Instead of buying new garden furniture that nowadays is as fast and ugly as fast fashion, consider getting your crafty head on and upcycling some preloved furniture.

There are so many tutorials on the internet for repurposing garden bits. Or you could simply grab some sandpaper and paint and give your furniture a fresh new look.

If, like me, you’re not into DIY, lots of people are buying old furniture and then selling the new and improved upcycled version on Facebook marketplace.

13. Avoid artificial lawns

Many people choose artificial lawns for simplicity, but they are damaging to the environment and native wildlife. As we expand our cities to fit more houses, gardens are the only spaces left for insects, birds and small mammals in some places.

Yet the popularity of artificial lawns is increasing with global sales expected to reach 4 billion by 2027.

Synthetic lawns are made from different types of plastic which is derived from fossil fuels - the main contributor to climate change.

The issue doesn’t end there. Laying plastic grass across your garden may leach microplastics (that may be contaminated with toxic substances) into the soil.

Artificial lawns can also be harmful to human health (particularly to children) when it’s made using crumb rubber/recycled car tyres due to the lead content and the lead dust it produces. Plastic grass that is made in Europe is less likely to contain lead, however, since its popularity during the pandemic, people are opting for discounted products from China that may contain heavy metals.

14. cut your grass less

If you want an eco-friendly garden, try and ditch the perfectionist attitude to lawns. You don’t have to let your garden turn into a jungle, simply cutting it less than you already do will attract more insects to the garden and give native plants a chance to grow.

It’s also a lot of fun for kids, especially if they’re like mine and love pretending to be safari animals in the grass.

15. Replace fences with hedges

Hedges are an eco-conscious choice because they absorb pollution, so they’re particularly impactful if you live near a road. They also make your garden more friendly and accessible for wildlife, providing shelter and food for birds, hedgehogs and insects.

16. Plant trees

Trees are definitely one of the simplest ways to make your garden more sustainable. They absorb carbon dioxide, storing it in their trunks, and preventing it from escaping into the atmosphere.

Ensure the trees you choose are native to your area so they require less water and are easier to grow. If you have a small garden then look for smaller trees, or grow them in pots.

17. Grow your own food

Growing your own food is an essential skill to learn for eco-minded individuals. If you’ve never tried it before, pick something easy like seed potatoes or salad leaves and just give it a go.

Harvesting your own herbs, fruit, or vegetables reduces plastic packaging waste and the carbon and water footprint of your home.

18. Avoid pesticides

Using toxic chemicals damages the health of your garden environment and the lives of everything growing in and around it.

Pesticides, insecticides, and weedkiller are not just bad for wildlife, they are harmful to your health.

The safest alternative is prevention, for example, you can encourage natural predators, such as birds, ladybirds, and parasitic wasps.

Also planting seedlings out in early summer and generally keeping the growing space clean and tidy will help prevent infestations.

Weeds are also excellent for your garden, some of them are even pretty! But if they’re bothering or not benefiting you, removal by hand is the safest option (if you’re able).

Use chemicals as a last resort, and if you need them, why not make your own safer one using soap and water? Another popular alternative is blending garlic, vegetable oil, and soap - the smell repels many pests.

19. Use organic mulch

Mulching is when you cover the soil and the base of plants with loose, natural material. Using mulch will help you make your garden more eco-friendly.

It helps the soil retain moisture so you need to water it less. It also helps reduce pest problems, block weeds, and regulate the soil temperature.

Opt for organic or “natural” mulch as synthetic mulches are available. Natural is the best option for the soil as it will add nutrients. Here are some options:

• Bark, shredded or chipped

• Pine needles

• Grass clippings

• Shredded leaves

• Straw

  You can buy organic mulch here (UK)

20. Go peat free

Going peat free in your garden is great for the environment and essential in fighting climate change.

Peat has been used in compost mixes for many years, but it is taken from wild marshes that hold a lot of carbon. When peat is removed, all the carbon is released into the atmosphere, worsening climate change.

Not only that, peat bogs are home to a variety of wildlife. In the UK, 94% of peat bogs have been destroyed or damaged and the wildlife has gone with it.

It is absolutely essential we protect the peat that is left on the earth by using peat-free compost.

Rocketgro sells great peat-free compost for organic gardeners in the UK.

21. go electric

Garden items that use petrol, like lawn mowers, are extremely bad for the environment because of the fumes they release into the air.

If you want to reduce your emissions and air pollution, switch to electric or manual products, like push mowers.

The push mower is the most eco-friendly choice, but may be hard for some people to use. Electric has the advantage over petrol because it runs of batteries instead of a combustion engine so helps save the climate.

The most sustainable option would be to look for high quality second hand or refurbished products to give your garden the lowest environmental impact.

By following these tips, you can make your garden more eco-friendly and create a sustainable and beautiful outdoor space.

Which steps have you already tried and which would you like to try next?