Landscaping can be eco friendly if the materials you use are natural, fertilizing is done from composters using kitchen or garden waste, and an attempt is made to tap into the rain water that falls on the plot or its adjuncts.
Use eco friendly materials or recycled materials to create the different areas in your garden or when you are doing any terracing. Completely shun the use of cement and bricks and other products that have been manufactured using scarce earth resources. If stone is available naturally on your plot, see if you can use it to create retaining walls (without cement) or even to protect the slopes that can be used to differentiate levels. I have done this during my career as an engineer and created level differences of up to 10 feet without the use of anything else but the natural stone that was available in plenty.
Use the natural soil that is available on your plot, and condition it with peat free soil conditioners to improve the quality of the soil. These are naturally occurring fertilizers and you do not have to worry about whether these are manufactured ones. The only production process is gathering of the soil rich in peat from areas where it occurs naturally. Dig up the existing soil by about 8 to 12 inches, mix it with the soil conditioner and relay it in the beds that you have created after completing the necessary landscaping terracing.
All compost that is used in your eco-friendly garden should be compost that is considered an alternative material that can do wonders to your garden. Compost can be made in composters or even in specially dug pits using the kitchen waste from the home as well as all other materials like garden waste, leaves, grass clippings and the like. Compost is very well known in all eco friendly gardens as a natural component that nourishes plants, and keeps the soil healthy and fertile. This also helps you to totally avoid the need for any chemicals or fertilizers.
Plant the variety of shrubs that are natural to the area that you live in. Your nearby nursery would be your best guide. If you make such a selection you are assured that the plants would survive easily and make your garden as green as you want it to be. The plants would already be used to the rainfall patterns in your area and would require far less maintenance than other exotic varieties.
If your garden has a lot of gradients, see if you can take advantage of this and create a rain garden. Create a pond or water body in the lowest place on your property and use it to recharge ground water, or even to store rain water so that you can use it for gardening. See that all the slopes and drains in your garden lead towards this depression. You can make things more attractive by naturally guiding the rain water to this area, by a series of rock formations or steps creating a musical symphony to the addition to your rain water pond when it is raining.
Going green has to start from the home and what better way to do this, than to have an eco friendly garden. It would also help you to cut costs, time and resources. By creating a garden you are helping the environment, and if you use all natural processes while doing this you will be considered eco friendly.
