Eco Garden Tips.

1. If you have space, set up a compost heap/bin. Most councils have special offers on compost bins to help you get started. Other than grass clippings and prunings you can add all sorts of household waste to your bin too. Some examples are raw vegetables, fruit, tea bags, coffee grounds, cardboard, shredded paper, egg boxes, wood ash, hair, egg shells (crushed) and natural fibres.
2. Trying to protect your tender plants from voracious slugs and snails can be difficult but there are various non-chemical weapons that you can employ.  Create barriers around your plants with soot, eggshells, hair, sawdust, grit, sand, seashells or crushed nuts. Put petroleum jelly or copper tape around the top and bottom of plant containers. Place beer in shallow dishes in strategic places around the garden and leave overnight, the resultant slug stew can be added to your compost bin.
3. To get rid of ants, sprinkle red pepper or coffee grounds on the anthill. (Bob, Norfolk)
4. Prize roses smothered in aphids? Mix up a weak solution of soapy water (use soap or washing up liquid) and spray the infected plants. This should kill most aphids and won’t create a potential chemical hazard for wildlife or pets.
5. Collect rainwater from the down pipes on sheds, conservatories and the house. Many water companies offer discounts and free delivery to their customers on water butts.
6. However limited the space that you have, grow some herbs & vegetables. If you haven’t got room for a vegetable patch you can grow a huge variety in pots. Vegetables that can be grown in pots are tomatoes, potatoes, beans, peas, beetroot, lettuce, carrots, sweet peppers, chillies, cucumbers and much more. Nothing beats going into the garden and picking warm, ripe tomatoes off the plant and seeing if they make it back to the kitchen!
7. Leave a section of the garden to go wild. This saves on work and provides a refuge for local wildlife.
8. Water plants in the evening to help to reduce the amount of water that evaporates.
9. Add a layer of gravel around plants in pots. This will act as a mulch to retain moisture, deter slugs and snails from having a snack and help to stop squirrels from digging up your precious plants and bulbs.
10. On flowerbeds use a mulch of bark or grass cuttings to help reduce evaporation.
11. Water from baths, showers etc (grey water) can be used to water the garden. Use any grey water as soon as possible (and cooled) on flowerbeds and the lawn but not on vegetables, fruit or herbs.
12. Use a watering can instead of a hose, this will save water and give you some exercise. If you do use a hose, fit a trigger gun.
13. If you have plants that are particularly prone to greenfly or blackfly such as roses, install a ladybird house nearby. Ladybirds can consume up to 8000 greenfly a day, so a nice des res in the area may encourage them to stay.
14. Over 90% of Britain’s peat bogs have been damaged or destroyed in the last 50 yrs. use only peat free compost in your garden and try to ensure that plants you buy are also in peat free compost.
15. When buying new wooden garden furniture, check that it is made from wood from a sustainable source, which is shown by the FSC mark.
16. When planting up new pots or containers, use old corks or polystyrene in the bottom to help with drainage.
17. Create a bird scarer for your vegetable patch using old cds or bottle tops and some string.
18. To stop cats making your flower beds into a litter tray either spray a solution of citronella oil in the area or hang small bags, filled with scrap paper and a few drops of citronella oil near their favourite spots.
19. For garden waste that can’t be composted, such as large branches, use old compost bags to take them to your local council tip where they will be composted. (Jon, Lancs) 
20. When you drain the sprouts (or any other veg) for Sunday lunch, drain them into a bucket and, once cool, use the water on the garden.
21. Use old yoghurt pots or the bottom of small plastic bottles to grow seedlings. Just punch a couple of holes in the bottom for drainage.
22. Clean plastic trays from supermarket meat & fish can be used as saucers under your seed pots or herb pots on the windowsill. (Elaine, Devon)
23. Use the top part of 1 or 2L plastic bottles as simple cloches for young plants.