Make your gardening New Year’s resolution a sustainable one

Working with nature and conserving resources are important, say experts.

Expert tips to garden more sustainably – from going peat-free to no-digging (Alamy/PA) (Alamy/PA)

If you’ve failed in previous years to stick to your New Year’s resolutions, whether it’s losing weight, giving up drinking or quitting smoking, perhaps it’s time to look to the garden to turn over a new leaf.

Sustainability – minimising environmental impact, working with nature and conserving resources such as water – is a key focus of horticultural experts in 2026 and beyond, so perhaps think about realistic New Year’s resolutions to aid sustainability, which you could simply adopt as a new way of gardening.

“Sustainability is about working with the available resources in your garden and making use of everything. Rather than seeing something as a waste item that needs to be binned or taken to landfill, just think, ‘What can I do with this? What can I turn it into?’” says Kim Stoddart, editor of Amateur Gardening magazine.

Here are some ideas for realistic resolutions to help you garden more sustainably in 2026.

1. Grow from seed

Peter JonesEden Project

2. Go peat-free

3. Don’t dig

4. Grow what you want to eat

“Try and grow a few of your favourite things, be it a tomato, or a French bean. A meal with food metres, not food miles, is a joy with the benefit of greater sustainability,” says Jones.

5. Buy local

If you want to reduce the carbon footprint caused by air miles and long-distance transportation, think about where your plants come from before you buy. Native plants may be the way to go, or those grown near or at your local nursery, or even if you have a neighbour who will pass you a cutting or some seedlings, at least you know it hasn’t travelled far.

6. Choose the right plant for the right place

7. Grow your own cut flowers

8. Go native

9. Companion plant

Similarly, grow pungent plants such as leeks and garlic among carrots to deter carrot fly, or plant sacrificial crops such as nasturtiums, which cover the ground and tempt aphids away from brassicas such as Brussels sprouts.

10. Save water

With climate change ever present, try to make a few changes to help save water. It may be setting up a water butt from the down pipe of the roof of your home, your garden shed, greenhouse or other structure using a rainwater diverter, the RHS suggests.

For those who don’t have that facility, increase the water-holding capacity of your soil by adding organic matter to it, whether as a mulch or digging it in, it adds.

11. Reduce waste

12. Revive your tools

“Look after your tools. If you have high-quality tools – a lot of the good makes use really good-quality steel – that look really rusty, you can sand them down and bring them back. Take them apart, give them an oil, give them a sharpen and you’ll be amazed how much you can transform those tools.

“There’s a beauty around looking after things, upcycling, repurposing, making things last for longer and not feeling that you have to keep buying something, that feels really good.”