Principles of an Ecological Garden
What makes a garden ecological?
It is a question I think about a lot in my work as a gardener and garden designer.
An ecological garden doesn't necessarily have to look wild, untidy or completely natural. It can still be beautiful, considered and designed around the people who use it.
For me, the important thing is that we think of a garden as a living system rather than simply a collection of plants and hard landscaping.
Recently I came across the work of Eco-Care / Loek Gorris, an ecological gardening and garden design practice in the Netherlands. Their approach to ecological gardens is very close to my own, and I particularly like their emphasis on diversity, working with the site and making individual elements serve several purposes.
These are some of the principles I believe make a good ecological garden.
1. Start with the garden you actually have
Every garden has its own character.
Before deciding what to plant, it is worth looking at the soil, sunlight, existing trees and plants, levels, water, aspect and surrounding landscape.
A garden in heavy clay in Chew Valley is going to have different opportunities and limitations from a sandy coastal garden or a dry urban courtyard.
Rather than fighting the site, I prefer to understand it and work with it.
Existing trees, plants, materials and features can often become the starting point for a much better garden.
2. Create diversity
Ecological gardening is fundamentally about diversity.
A garden with lots of different plants, structures, habitats, heights and conditions can support a much wider range of life.
That doesn't mean cramming every available plant into a border. Good design is still important.
It means creating a mixture of trees, shrubs, perennials, grasses, climbers, ground cover and areas of longer vegetation, alongside features such as ponds, dead wood, log piles, hedges and meadow areas.
The more variety we can create, the more opportunities there are for wildlife.
3. Think about plants as part of a system
Plants aren't just decoration.
They provide food and shelter for insects, birds and other wildlife. They affect the soil, provide shade, hold moisture and create structure.
I like planting schemes that combine plants for their appearance with plants that have a wider ecological value.
Native species can be particularly valuable, but there is also a place for well-chosen non-native plants where they suit the conditions and provide food, shelter, structure or other benefits.
The aim isn't simply to tick a list of "native" plants. It is to create a functioning, diverse planting community.
4. Create different levels
A garden doesn't have to be flat.
Trees create a canopy. Underneath them can be shrubs, climbers, perennials and ground cover.
Elsewhere, longer grass, meadow plants, hedges and low planting can create completely different conditions.
Changes in height also create changes in light, temperature and moisture.
This variety of conditions creates more niches for plants and wildlife.
5. Give things more than one job
This is one of my favourite principles of ecological garden design.
A good garden element can do several things at once.
A hedge can provide privacy, shelter, food and nesting opportunities.
A pond can support wildlife, reflect light, collect water and become a focal point in the garden.
A pergola can provide shade and structure while supporting climbing or edible plants.
A wall can retain soil, provide seating and create habitat for insects and plants.
A dead hedge can form a boundary, provide shelter for wildlife and use up material that might otherwise be considered garden waste.
When we design things to perform several functions, gardens can become much more interesting.
6. Use less lawn and paving where appropriate
Lawns certainly have their place.
If children are playing football, people are sitting outside or the lawn is being used regularly, it is doing an important job.
But there is little point maintaining large areas of lawn simply because gardens are traditionally expected to have one.
A meadow, long grass or a planted area can provide considerably more habitat.
The same applies to paving.
Paths, patios and other hard surfaces are useful where they are genuinely needed, but there is no reason to cover more of the garden than necessary.
Leaving space for soil, plants and water allows the garden to function as a living landscape rather than simply an outdoor room made from hard materials.
7. Reuse what you already have
Ecological gardening isn't only about plants.
There is also a question of what we build gardens with.
Existing materials can often be reused rather than removed and replaced.
Old timber, stone, bricks, branches and other materials can sometimes be given a new purpose.
And materials can become habitat.
A pile of old logs isn't necessarily something that needs to be tidied away. It can become a valuable part of the garden.
The same piece of timber that might otherwise be considered waste could become part of a dead hedge, a boundary or a wildlife feature.
8. Build healthy soil
Healthy gardens start below ground.
Rather than constantly feeding plants with artificial fertilisers and trying to maintain a perfect, bare soil surface, I prefer approaches that build soil health over time.
Compost, well-rotted organic matter, mulches, living roots and minimal disturbance can all contribute to healthier soil.
Healthy soil supports plants, fungi, insects and countless other organisms that are easy to overlook but fundamental to how an ecosystem functions.
A garden doesn't just grow from the soil.
It grows through the life within it.
9. Work with water
Water is becoming an increasingly important consideration in garden design.
Rather than seeing rainwater simply as something to get rid of, we can think about how water moves through a garden.
Ponds, swales, rain gardens, planted areas, permeable surfaces, mulch and healthy soil can all play a part in slowing, storing and using water.
At the same time, choosing plants that are suited to the conditions means we don't have to constantly fight the climate with irrigation.
Good ecological design can make gardens both more resilient to drought and better able to cope with heavy rainfall.
10. Design for people and wildlife
Perhaps most importantly, an ecological garden still needs to be a garden.
It needs to work for the people who live there.
There should be somewhere to sit, somewhere for children to play, somewhere to grow food, somewhere to entertain friends or simply somewhere to enjoy being outside.
Ecological value doesn't have to come at the expense of beauty or usability.
In fact, I think the two can reinforce each other.
A wildlife pond can be beautiful.
A productive vegetable garden can be beautiful.
A mature tree providing shade can be beautiful.
A meadow buzzing with insects can be beautiful.
A dead hedge can become an interesting boundary rather than something that needs to be hidden.
The best ecological gardens, in my view, are places where human enjoyment and ecological function overlap.
A garden that evolves
One of the things I particularly like about this approach is that a garden doesn't have to be finished.
Gardens change.
Trees grow. Plants spread. Shade develops. Soil improves. Wildlife arrives. Different areas become more or less successful.
That means ecological garden design can be less about creating a perfect finished picture and more about establishing a strong framework that can develop over time.
This is also how I like to work with clients.
A garden can be developed gradually, responding to what happens rather than trying to get everything perfect on day one.
Sometimes the best thing you can do is plant a tree, improve the soil, create a pond, establish a hedge or simply leave an area alone and see what happens.
A garden can be beautiful, useful and full of life at the same time.
And perhaps that is the real goal of ecological garden design — not to make a garden look "wild", but to make it work better for everything that lives in it.
