1. Don't grow just a few plants, especially hybrids, in your garden. Instead grow a wide range of fruit, vegetables and ornamental plants.

2. Where possible, let your garden plants seed naturally. It's cheaper and easier to let nature sow seeds! Alternatively, gather seeds when they are ripe and store them in a paper bag somewhere dry and cool then sow them where you want them.

2. Keep up to date by reading articles on trials and research carried out by horticultural societies and seed companies for improving environmentally friendly methods of gardening.

4. As far as you can, use organic gardening methods including recycling plant matter, both from the garden and kitchen, into compost. If you don't have enough prunings of woody material to be worth investing in a shredder, why not form a co-operative with like minded neighbours, family or friends to buy one between you? All the shreddings can be added to the compost. In autumn, rake up leaves and put them in piles covered with old carpet or large plastic sacks with holes in and put them behind your shed or somewhere else out of sight. Just keep them damp and within a year or two you will have beautiful leaf mold to add to your soil - much cheaper and better than buying it.

5. Consider using natural methods like nemodes to keep your greenhouse pests under control rather than using pesticides. After all, if you want chemicals on your fruit and vegetables, it is much easier to buy them from your local supermarket!

6. Similarly, reduce or cut out the use of chemicals in the rest of your garden. If you use chemical slug pellets, you could be killing toads and birds which eat the poisoned slug unknowingly. Insecticides can kill beneficial insects like ladybugs and bees as well as pests. Wherever possible, avoid chemical fertilisers too.

7. Don't collect wild plants or seeds from them. If you see them for sale, make sure they haven't been obtained illegally.

8. Consider using peat substitutes instead of peat because it is a non-renewable resource and digging it out damages the environment and leads to a loss of habitat.

9. On the same subject, when buying ornamental stone like granite for the garden, consider that the environment and habitats are damaged by its quarrying. Some of the artificial stone is so good nowadays that it can give the same affect as real granite or other stone.

10. When buying wooden fencing and garden furniture, consider whether the wood is from a well managed forest. Deforestation is a serious problem in some areas of the world leading to loss of top soil and flooding, amongst other problems.

If you are interested in environmentalism, which really only means safeguarding the earth for future generations, find out how you can help by visiting The Green Challenge.

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