Many of us think of our gardens as our refuges from the world but our attempts at turning our own little patch into an idyll can have far reaching and detrimental consequences. A little effort can ensure your garden stays beautiful without harming the planet.

✔️ Better Ways To Water

• Avoid using a hose wherever possible – use a watering can for the garden and buckets of water for washing the car.
• Try to water plants at sunset, rather than in the heat of the day – this will enable the water to soak through to the roots, rather than simply evaporate.
• Collect rainwater for watering plants and cleaning your garage.
• Water plants more effectively by pouring water through an upturned plastic bottle with the bottom chopped off and the neck buried in the ground. This will ensure that the water reaches the roots more directly.
• Let your grass grow a little longer – it will require less water.

✔️ Recycle Your Rubbish, Reduce Your Pollution

• Start a compost heap or wormery – these recycle organic waste, including food, and produce excellent compost.
• Don't burn rubbish – this can produce toxic chemicals, as well as releasing carbon dioxide, which contributes to climate change.
• Don't use chemicals in the garden – as they will eventually end up in the sea and can upset the delicate balance of lifecycles.
• Organic and environmentally friendly fertilisers and pesticides are available – organic gardening reduces pollution and is better for wildlife.

✔️ Respect Nature

• Don't buy peat or plants grown in peat. The harvesting of peat from bog ecosystems destroys balance and risks unclean water and destruction of rare wildlife habitat. Look for available alternatives.
• Only buy garden bulbs from cultivated stocks.
• Plant native wild flower seeds.
• Encourage wildlife in your garden – put up nest boxes, build a pond and plant a wide range of native flowers and plants.