A teenager who won a goverment competition to become a "climate change champion" used his £1,000 prize money to create an ecological garden at his school.

Akhil Amlani, 17, of Audley Road, Hendon, designed the eco-friendly garden on disused ground at Queen Elizabeth's School, in Barnet, to raise awareness of environmental issues among his peers.

He said: "I really hope this garden can be an inspiration, showing that helping to tackle climate change can be practical, enjoyable and educational.

"I am very proud of the finished ecological garden, and hope I have succeeded in creating a lasting impact on the environment."

Akhil became an eco-champion for London after winning the 2007/8 Climate Change Champions competition in his region.

His winning entry, a climate change website, which includes links to a carbon calculator and environmentally friendly shop on the internet, impressed judges from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in February.

The garden, which aims to encourage people to reduce, reuse and recycle, uses British-grown, drought-resistant plants that require little water, as well as solar lighting and recycled materials.

Akil also used organic soil and a pond to create an ecosystem that can be maintained naturally.

The solar-powered weather station will enable geography students to measure climate factors such as wind speed and light intensity.

And there are plans to link the station to a computer system to produce graphs and forecast diagrams.

Akhil, along with his friends Ashley-James Turner, Kishen Patel and Xi Chen, stayed behind after school for five days, working to build the garden, which opened last Wednesday at the school in Queen's Road.

They created bedding areas, regenerated a pond to attract wildlife, and installed a solar-powered birdbath and bird feeder.

Akhil added: "It felt great to finally finish the garden that we've all worked so hard on over the past few days, and there was a big sense of achievement that we accomplished it all by ourselves.

"Working on the project has been a fantastic experience for me and I'd like to thank everyone who has been involved."

Akil has already begun work on his next environmental project. He will team up with the environmental website footprintfriends.com to launch a competition in September to encourage others to transform unused areas in schools.