An ecological garden is a backyard ecosystem that seeks to mimic natural ecosystems but with increased abundance, beauty, and diversity. The ecological garden is built on a foundation of native plant communities but also includes plants that meet human needs. It provides habitat for birds, beneficial insects, and other wildlife, and food, flowers, medicines and herbs for humans. An ecological garden is based on a set of design principles that include gardening with nature, gardening for biological diversity, and grouping plants into self-sustaining communities or guilds (Hemenway, Toby. Gaia's Garden: A Guide to Home-scale Permaculture. Chelsea Green, 2001.).

Native plants provide the backbone of the ecological garden. Plants are selected and grouped into plant guilds based on their ecological functions and human uses 18KB. As a result the gardener spends less time managing weeds and pests and more time managing the diversity, variety and harvests from the garden. Ecological gardening is about cultivating relationships not just plants – relationships between birds and berry bushes, between bees and insectory plants, and between humans and plant foods and medicines.