Eco gardening can lessen our overconsumption of natural resources, reduce waste, cut energy use, and make a positive contribution to reducing our carbon footprint. Each page of this planet-friendly book is bursting with 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 utilise sunlight in your garden. Discover organic techniques that improve biodiversity and attract pest- eating animals and insects. Learn the value of using recycled and reclaimed materials for landscaping. Six eco garden `greenprints' are packed with environmentally friendly ideas. Simple projects include making a pond and a wildlife hotel, turning a lawn into a wild ower meadow, and planting a `fedge'. Packed with practical advice and 500 photographs, this book is for everyone who wants a beautiful, productive backyard that won't cost the earth.

John Walker is an award-winning gardening and environmental writer with over 40 years' experience in horticulture, teaching and garden media. He trained at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, 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 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 has made an earth-friendly eco garden in his home in north Wales. He has won the British Garden Media Guild Environmental Award three times. He can be found at www.earthfriendlygardener.net.