12 ways to grow a low-carbon garden

Not only do hedges actively sequester and store carbon, they also providing nesting sites, food sources, and shelter for wildlife.

Use the links below to find out more about hedge habitats, including advice on planting and trimming hedges.

Hedges are the most eco-friendly type of garden boundary

A fedge is a fence built from waste wood and prunings

Fedges serve as somewhere to stack woody garden waste while it slowly rots down, providing shelter for wildlife, too. These beautiful woven borders can provide windbreaks and a handy way to dispose of anything too woody to go on the compost heap.

Coppices of hazel, birch, willow and dogwood trees provide a renewable, carbon-free source of beanpoles and pea sticks as well as a wildlife habitat. Hazel is best for the uprights, and willow for weaving poles together – don’t stick willow into the ground as it roots very readily.

Coppiced hazel poles have a much lower carbon cost than imported bamboo canes

Composting at home has multiple environmental benefits

Compost bins make good use of green waste from the kitchen and garden; this avoids waste going into landfill where it releases methane, a greenhouse gas 80 times more powerful than carbon dioxide. Soil mulched with compost holds on to nutrients and rainwater better, so meaning less need to water and feed your garden. An all-round winner!

Trees suck in carbon, storing it in lignin-rich trunks and locking it in the ground. Plant a tree in your garden and you help offset not just your own carbon footprint, but that of your children too. It's one of the most effective ways your garden can help fight climate change.

It's estimated that on average a single broadleaf tree stores 2.9 tonnes of carbon in its lifetime

There are many delightful plants you can grow in a lawn instead of grass, such as this Acaena

Tapestry lawns are full of flowers and low-growing, mat-forming plants. No-grass lawns have the benefits of a grass lawn but without the eco-drawbacks of weekly mowing. There are many suitable plants inluding white clover, chamomile, creeping thyme and yarrow.

Rain gardens and ponds are designed to absorb excess rainwater; in the diagram at the top of this article the densely planted damp garden also feeds into a deeper pond. This helps reduce flooding, benefitting both you and your neighbours.

Even a small front garden can be turned into a rain garden

Choose trees, shrubs and perennials instead of annuals and bedding plants for maximum benefit

Flower borders line the central path, with layers of trees, shrubs, and perennials. Focus on long-lived plants; this means less replanting and less soil cultivation, helping you avoid disturbing fragile ecostystems and releasing carbon that was locked in underground.

Connect water butts to downpipes for an eco-friendly water supply

Every litre, or gallon, of mains water you use adds to your carbon footprint. Rainwater harvesting will keep your dependence on mains water supplies to a minimum in summer. The best approach of all is to minimise your water use, wherever it comes from, by mulching and picking your plants carefully.

Even a small front garden can be turned into a rain garden

Bugle, violets and Arenaria grow well between the tyre tracks

Driveways of reclaimed stone slabs and infilled with low-growing plants provide parking but with added beauty, wildlife value and rainwater absorption. Concrete has a high carbon cost, so minimising its use will help keep your carbon footprint down.