How to Create an Eco Garden: The practical guide to greener, planet-friendly gardening. Step-by-step techniques, a directory of over 80 plants and over 500 photographs and illustrations

Gardeners have a unique role to play in easing the growing pressures on our natural world. Eco gardening can lessen our overconsumption of natural resources, reduce waste, cut energy use, and make a positive contribution to slowing climate change. Working in harmony with nature, eco gardeners can create beautiful and resilient gardens that shrink our 'carbon footprint' while nurturing vibrant, biologically rich growing spaces that build soil and boost biodiversity, and can grow edible crops that both improve health and encourage a sense of self-reliance. Each page of this planet-friendly book is bursting with inspirational ideas for creating your own eco garden on any scale - from a small courtyard to a large garden or allotment. Find out how to make soil-building compost from kitchen and household waste, how to save energy by harvesting rainwater, and how to utilize sunlight in your garden. Discover earth-friendly organic techniques that improve biodiversity and attract pest-eating animals and insects. Learn about the value of using recycled and reclaimed materials for landscaping. Six eco garden 'greenprints' , each packed with environmentally friendly ideas, include a city courtyard, an intensive food garden, dry and rain gardens, and an eco allotment. Find out how to grow food, from microgreens and potatoes to vertical vegetables and fruits. Simple and fun projects include making a pond and a wildlife hotel, turning a lawn into a wildflower meadow, and planting a 'fedge' . A fully illustrated directory of 80 plant species will help you to choose the best plants for your eco garden, from flowers for attracting beneficial insects to shrubs that provide winter food for birds. A calendar of care shows you at a glance what jobs need doing and when throughout the year. Packed with hands-on practical advice, 500 specially commissioned photographs and original illustrations, this eco-friendly book is for everyone who wants to have a beautiful and productive backyard that won't cost the earth.

• How to reduce your garden’s ‘carbon footprint’ and

create a greener, more ecologically sustainable and

climate-friendly garden by working with nature

• Explains how to establish a garden ecosystem, harvest

and store rainwater, maximize the use of sunlight, and

choose sustainable landscaping materials

• Includes step-by-step advice for making paper pots,

controlling weeds, composting with worms, making

plant foods and sowing and planting vegetables

• Detailed ‘greenprints’ show planting schemes for city

courtyards, food gardens, allotments, dry gardens and

rain gardens, as well as how to eco-fit an existing garden

• Features a fully illustrated directory of 80 plant

species chosen for their eco-friendly benefits, from

flowers, shrubs and hedging plants to vegetables,

tree fruits and herbs

John Walker is an award-winning gardening and environmental writer with over 30 years' experience in horticulture, teaching and garden media. He trained at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, England, where he was awarded the Kew Diploma in Horticulture. He was features/deputy editor of Garden Answers magazine, and contributing editor of Kitchen Garden magazine. His long-running 'Digging Deeper' column, exploring the connections between gardening and our environment, first appeared in Organic Gardening magazine in 2006. John also writes about greener gardening for national newspapers and magazines in the UK, including The Telegraph, and for the Royal Horticultural Society's journal The Garden. He wrote Weeds: An Earth-Friendly Guide to Their Identification, Use and Control and The Bed & Border Planner, and contributed to the Garden Organic Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening. John is currently making an 'earth-friendly' eco garden at his home in North Wales. He won the British Garden Media Guild Environmental Award in 2007 and 2010. www.earthfriendlygardener.net

John Walker is an award-winning gardening and environmental writer with over 30 years' experience in horticulture, teaching and garden media. He trained at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, England, where he was awarded the Kew Diploma in Horticulture. He was features/deputy editor of Garden Answers magazine, and contributing editor of Kitchen Garden magazine. His long-running 'Digging Deeper' column, exploring the connections between gardening and our environment, first appeared in Organic Gardening magazine in 2006. John also writes about greener gardening for national newspapers and magazines in the UK, including The Telegraph, and for the Royal Horticultural Society's journal The Garden. He wrote Weeds: An Earth-Friendly Guide to Their Identification, Use and Control and The Bed & Border Planner, and contributed to the Garden Organic Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening. John is currently making an 'earth-friendly' eco garden at his home in North Wales. He won the British Garden Media Guild Environmental Award in 2007 and 2010. www.earthfriendlygardener.net