It’s National Gardening Week (1st-7th May) and with the weather warming up, it’s time to get outside and get your garden spring ready (opens in new tab). As more and more people are becoming climate conscious and focused on helping the environment, there’s been a significant rise in sustainable gardening. Sustainable or eco-friendly gardening consists of practices that enhance your garden and cause no harm to the earth and its inhabitants (opens in new tab).

Having an eco-friendly approach to your garden can make a huge difference to your outdoor space, including how it looks, how it functions and what it attracts. With this in mind, we spoke to Antoinette Jackson, founder of SuperBee.me (opens in new tab) who said that “by following eco-friendly gardening practices, not only do you create a beautiful, sustainable space, but you also take steps to minimise waste and reduce your carbon footprint. It’s a win-win for both gardeners and the planet.”

To find out more, Jackson gave us 8 eco-friendly gardening tips that are easy to implement and will leave your garden greener and more sustainable.

Before you get started, make sure you have the best equipment at your disposal, including the best garden tools (opens in new tab) to tackle all horticultural tasks, the best cordless lawn mower (opens in new tab) for grass maintenance and the best gardening gloves (opens in new tab) for hand protection.

1. Create a compost system

First on the list is to create your own compost system. If you’re new to gardening, “composting is the natural process of recycling organic waste, such as kitchen scraps and yard trimmings, into nutrient-rich compost for your garden,” says Jackson. In the spirit of ‘waste not, want not’, composting is a great way to reduce the amount of waste sent to landfills while also providing plants with essential nutrients. It’s also incredibly easy to do, so “to create a compost system, designate a corner of your garden for a compost pile or use a compost bin …