A successful sustainable gardening program is built by incorporating various practices and ideas relevant to the specific site that encourage as much compatibility among diverse organisms as possible. The following strategies practiced at Lotusland are not compatible with chemical inputs that can be toxic and degrade biological systems. Many of these strategies are easy to implement and can begin or add to a green garden maintenance program.

Garden green waste is managed on site in compost piles and returned to the garden as mature compost to improve and maintain healthy soil conditions. Difficult to compost green waste such as fibrous agave leaves and palm fronds is transported to the County's green waste recycling program. Lotusland uses large quantities of organic material from the County green waste recycling program as well as wood chips from tree companies as part of our sustainable garden program. We promote the use of mulches in all of our educational outreach programs to help raise awareness of the value of using this valuable resource.

Nutrient cycling is occurring in many garden areas at Lotusland. The need for supplemental fertilizer applications is reduced or eliminated altogether. In garden areas where supplemental nutrients are required, organic fertilizers are used which benefit the soil food web organisms and eliminate the possibility of pollution of underground water by nitrate fertilizers.

Insectary areas established throughout the garden increase biodiversity and attract beneficial insects to promote a balanced insect ecology resulting in reduced insect damage to plant collections. Insectary plantings are part of a strategy that replaces the dependency on insecticides for pest insect management.

Recycling attachments on lawn mowers return finely chopped grass clippings to the lawn. The clippings soon decompose and release valuable nutrients into the soil. Fertilizer requirements are greatly reduced. Crabgrass and other annual weed control is provided by the use of corn gluten, a product made from corn meal that acts as a pre-emergent herbicide, as well as providing 10% nitrogen to help provide nutrients for our turf areas. The clover that is a welcome part of our main lawn provides biodiversity, attracting beneficial organisms to the garden as well as fixing nitrogen from the air to the soil where the turf grass is able to use it as needed. Control of annual weeds was formerly managed by using a toxic herbicide. Because the lawn area is used for many public functions such as family day, etc. it is managed without the use of any toxic materials.

Supplemental releases of beneficial insects are occasionally made as needed. Beneficials can be harvested from insectaries with a vacuum insect net and then released in other areas of the garden. On rare occasions when caterpillars exceed our damage threshold, limited applications of Bacillus thuringiensis are made. Even though environmentally safe, use of this material is limited because of its effect on butterflies. Soil grubs eat roots of ornamental grasses like the blue fescue in Lotusland’s blue garden. Beneficial nematodes are microscopic worms that feed on soil grubs. The chemical insecticides used in the past for soil grub control have been eliminated. The use of antagonistic fungi to combat pathogens and beneficial fungi to strengthen host plants is also being widely used.

Soil management has a very high priority at Lotusland. An on-going effort is underway to increase the disease suppression capabilities of the soil throughout the garden. This is done through increasing the soil organic matter content (through the use of our compost during garden renovation and the use of organic mulch). These practices help provide natural management of soil borne diseases which have been a serious problem in the past. These soil borne diseases were formerly managed (not always successfully) by routine drenches of chemical fungicides.

The value that earthworms provide to our gardens is fully recognized and appreciated. Management tactics that are implemented to provide conditions conducive to their health include: no chemical pesticides and fertilizers are applied, mulch is maintained to provide food and shelter for them, and compost tea, calcium and other soil improvement materials are added as needed. In return the earthworms aid the soil microorganism and plant communities by cycling decomposed organic matter and aerating the soil for the easy movement of water, oxygen and other nutrients to plant roots.

Foliar disease management has evolved through the years from a completely conventional approach (such as using applications of fungicides, the traditional method of rose care) to one using routine applications of special formulations of compost tea. The compost tea provides a film of living beneficial organisms that prevent fungal disease spores and bacteria from infecting the plants. The tea does not kill pests or disease pathogens, but is effective as a preventive.

Supplemental drainage has been installed in selected gardens to reduce root rot incidences. This together with the soil management practices listed above has greatly improved the root health of our plant collections and eliminated the routine soil drenches of chemical fungicides which were a former strategy in managing root rot.

Cover crops are used in future garden areas to improve the soil as well as to help in attracting beneficial insects to the garden. The soil in the garden area slated for the Dunlap cactus collection has been greatly improved through several years of cover cropping.

Weed management, which was at one time almost exclusively done through the use of herbicides, is now predominantly performed by mechanical means and extensive mulching throughout the garden. An organic herbicide is occasionally used in the garden to control weeds coming through the mulch and in areas with gravel mulch such as in the cactus. This material, approved by the California Certified Organic Farmers, is a soap mixture formulated to act as a herbicide. It is rarely used, our primary defense being mechanical and mulching.

Snails were once controlled by poisons but are now controlled by a nontoxic material that breaks down into an iron product that plants can use as a nutrient supplement. Gophers, a continuing problem, are no longer controlled by strychnine poisons. A combination of strategies that include trapping and attempts to increase the owl and raptor population of the garden have been employed. Innovative trapping techniques include the use of weedy malva leaves and anise oil as lures.