Most gardeners begin growing flowers, shrubs, and trees to beautify their landscapes—but also to benefit the Earth.
Whether you plant for pollinators, attract songbirds with seedheads, or create wildlife habitats for furry friends, growing your garden sustainably protects your furry, feathered, and fluttery neighbors. But while you may practice organic principles and create inviting habitats for wildlife, it’s challenging to know if the plants and garden products you purchase—and the companies behind those garden goodies—also embrace sustainability.
Sure, you can find vegetable plants labeled “organic”—but does that company also champion sustainable growing methods in its production facilities? And how much greenwashing takes place in a company’s PR?
Fortunately, National Garden Bureau member companies strive to boost the benefits of their plants and products on the environment, reducing non-sustainable production methods and minimizing their carbon footprints
Sustainable production doesn’t happen overnight, but the following National Garden Bureau members are implementing exciting new strategies to make their production processes environmentally friendly, so you can feel good about where your plants and green products originate.
Good Bugs, Great Growing: Biological Controls Create Sustainable Opportunities for PanAmerican Seed®
Many gardeners embrace Integrated Pest Management (IPM) in their home greenhouses or gardens.
After all, encouraging beneficial insects, like ladybugs or praying mantises, to snack on pesky pests proves much gentler on the environment than spraying pesticides. But when a company grows thousands, hundreds of thousands—even millions of plants, can sustainable practices combat pests in large-scale production?
Why yes, they can! In fact, PanAmerican Seed®, the world’s leading flower seed-producing company—produced 1.1 billion seeds using biological controls.
Produce More with Less
“Our primary focus in seed production is to ‘produce more with less’,” says Katie Rotella, Marketing Communications with Ball® Horticultural Company. “An integrated pest management strategy has played a critical role in achieving our goals.” (PanAmerican Seed® is a division of Ball® Horticultural Company.)
Using biocontrols—beneficial insects, such as predators and parasitoids, or pathogens, like fungi—allows PanAmerican Seed to control unwanted pests or plant diseases sustainably. Much more environmentally friendly than chemicals, biocontrols cause no pollution and don’t harm the environment.
“We’re proud of this achievement,” says Rotella, “and our excitement has encouraged us to raise the bar and expand our goal to an incredible 5 billion seeds for the 2023-2024 production season”—all with the support of biocontrols.
Embracing Change to Benefit the Environment: Sakata® Seed America, Inc. Sets—and Achieves– Sustainability Goals
Cultivating sustainability practices in large growing operations requires careful planning, execution, and timing.
After all, it’s not as easy as flipping a switch to become 100 percent sustainable overnight. But Sakata® Seed America works diligently to implement sustainable practices in its growing operations. In 2023, the company installed solar power systems to cover 100 percent of the office/warehouse energy use at its Morgan Hill, Woodland, and Yuma, AZ facilities—with the Burlington, WA facility conversion expected to be completed in 2024.
Solar Power, LED Lights, Electric Cars and More
Along with its solar power systems, the company is converting greenhouse HPS lights to LED where applicable, although some research areas require HPS. In addition to solar power and LED lights, the company is converting its fleet to electric vehicles, with the goal of a 100 percent renewable/green fleet by 2030.
Plus, Sakata is working to overhaul its water management system, installing water flow meters and soil moisture sensors, taking care to manage this precious resource. Through careful planning and execution, Sakata® Seed America continues to create sustainable production opportunities throughout its company.
To protect one of our most precious resources—water—install drip irrigation for your plants.
Not only does drip irrigation target plant roots, but it also helps avoid water splashing on leaves, which can cause disease. You’ll minimize your water and fungicide use and grow healthier, happier plants—all while benefitting the environment!
Energy-Efficient Lighting Grows Great Plants at Pure Line Seeds, Inc.
Greenhouses require a lot of energy to grow beautiful plants.
As part of its effort to increase sustainability, the plant breeding and research team at Pure Line Seeds, Inc. converted greenhouse grow lights to LED, improving energy efficiency.
LED Lights, Less Chemicals
But the team didn’t stop with lighting. They also decreased the chemical treatment on research plots by 50 percent, with the second plot of plants left untreated. By comparing the results of treated versus untreated plants, the results help target future markets. Pure Line Seeds’ sustainable production efforts ultimately deliver a more environmentally friendly product to you.
Sequester Carbon—in Your Potting Soil! Sun Gro® Sunshine® Black Bear® Indoor and Outdoor Potting Mix Prevents the Release of CO2 into the Atmosphere
Container-grown plants, whether indoor houseplants or patio pots, delight gardeners.
From small-space gardening on balconies or porches to “plant parents” who discovered the joy of houseplants in college dorm rooms or first apartments, container gardening continues to grow among gardeners. But finding the perfect potting mix—especially one that’s environmentally friendly and supports healthy plant growth—often proves challenging.
Reduce Carbon Released in the Atmosphere
Luckily, there’s Sunshine® Black Bear® Indoor and Outdoor Potting Mix. A 2024 NGB People’s Choice Green Thumb Award Winner, Black Bear® stores the equivalent CO2 volume of 130 standard-size balloons or 400 hours of watching a 40-inch LED screen.
Black Bear® biochar is formulated with carbon-rich biochar that contributes to carbon capture and environmental sustainability. Black Bear® biochar is created through pyrolysis and provides enduring benefits for hundreds of years by capturing carbon that otherwise would be released into the atmosphere as CO2 greenhouse gas. Reducing carbon in the atmosphere and producing beautiful plants—it’s a win-win when you use Black Bear®!
Plant These Pots: Proven Winners® Introduces New Biodegradable Nursery Pots
We all worry about our towering stacks of nursery pots.
After all, most gardeners amass quite a collection of fossil-fuel-based pots. We don’t want to throw them in the trash, we’re not sure about their recycling status…and so they linger, towering by the potting bench, waiting for us to plant seeds or propagate plants in them. But really, how many plastic pots can one gardener use?
Thankfully, the green industry also worries about nursery pots. Many companies, like Proven Winners®, work actively to address the issue of plastic nursery pots.
Plant the Pot Too
“Our most important achievement when it comes to sustainability is the development of our Eco+ Grande® containers,” says Jeanine Standard, Consumer Public Relations and Social Media with Proven Winners.
An industrial compostable pot, the Eco+ Grande® container is made from polylactic acid (PLA), created from natural sugars derived from corn. Starch in these sugars is processed into a biopolymer that looks, acts and performs like petroleum-based plastic. But unlike fossil-fuel-based nursery pots that end up in landfills, Eco+ Grande® pots biodegrade when planted in the garden.
Because plant nutrients, like proteins and amino acids, are built into the walls of the Eco+ Grande containers, gardeners plant the entire pot in the ground after they remove the four bottom tabs on the pot. As the container breaks down in the soil, it releases the nutrients and proteins slowly, directly into the plant’s roots, helping the plant grow bigger more quickly. Plus, by planting the entire container, the plant’s roots remain undisturbed, eliminating planting stress.
Even if a gardener chooses not to plant the pot, Eco+ Grande® containers break down quickly in an industrial composting environment—or the landfill. But why not make your life easy? Plant the pot! As it biodegrades throughout the gardening season, it releases nutrients and makes your life easier. (As the plants mature, however, you’ll want to feed them with your favorite sustainable fertilizer to ensure maximum growth and flower production.)
If you garden in a hot, dry climate, choose plants that tolerate heat and drought to minimize your water use. “Right plant, right place” goes a long way when gardening sustainably.
Water Conservation, Energy Efficiency, IPM, and More: How Monrovia® Grows More than 4,000 Varieties of Plants Sustainably
If growing environmentally on a small scale seems daunting, how does a large-scale operation like Monrovia® meet sustainability goals?
As expert growers for nearly 100 years, Monrovia® understands the need for sustainable practices. Whether recycling water and organic waste or using beneficial insects to manage pests, Monrovia® established innovative environmental practices in their four nurseries located across the country.
Recycle the Water
Back in the 1970s, Monrovia became the first major nursery to recycle irrigation runoff, drastically reducing water and fertilizer use. As drought increasingly impacts the U.S., the company continues to implement water conservation programs in production practices. From irrigation automation, monitoring temperature and wind conditions in order to choose the most effective irrigation means, to micro-irrigation that prevents wetting plant foliage, reducing diseases and the need for chemicals to treat those diseases, best watering practices prove integral to water conservation at Monrovia.
Each Monrovia nursery is designed for water recycling, with sloped fields leading to retention ponds, where irrigation runoff collects for reuse. By recycling more than 95 percent of irrigation water at its four growing locations, Monrovia saves more than 2.5 billion gallons of water per year. Now, that’s sustainable!
EPA Evergreen Award
Along with water conservation, Monrovia works to increase energy efficiency. From energy-efficient greenhouses to efficient loading practices to shipping efficiency, the Environmental Protection Agency recognized Monrovia with the prestigious EPA Evergreen Award, which recognizes outstanding pollution prevention efforts.
Create Soil Mixes that Benefit the Plants
All gardeners know that great plants grow from great soil—and Monrovia ensures this living, dynamic ecosystem is part of its sustainability efforts. Through soil nutrition monitoring, Monrovia drastically cut the amount of nitrogen fertilizer applied through irrigation. Slow-release fertilizer added to the soil also reduces the amount of nitrogen fertilizer, which is a source of greenhouse emissions, by 75 percent.
Creating more than 100 custom soil mixes so plants reach their full potential means less fungicide and fertilizer use. Plus, Monrovia adds mycorrhizae to all its plants. This group of beneficial organisms grows along the roots of plants, making the plant more efficient in its absorption of nutrients and water. When the gardener adds a Monrovia plant to the garden, the mycorrhizae in the plant’s soil spreads to other areas, benefitting the entire landscape.
Hand Weeding 22 million Plants and Beneficial Help
If you dread weeding your garden, just imagine weeding 22 million plants by hand. Monrovia’s Plant Health Team does just that—hand weeding all plants, which reduces the amount of herbicides needed. Top dressing plants with mulch also reduces weeds—and the need for herbicides.
Monrovia practices Integrated Pest Management, relying on beneficial organisms to reduce pests—and choosing biorational products, pesticides of natural origin that don’t harm beneficial organisms or the environment when needed. And, if you’re planting for pollinators and concerned about neonicotinoids, good news: Monrovia ceased neonicotinoid pesticide use in 2019, so your pollinator pals are safe sipping nectar from Monrovia plants.
But That’s Not All…
Take a look at additional information about Monrovia’s sustainability goals and efforts.
Whether you’re planting for pollinators, concerned about water conservation, or hope to lessen your carbon footprint by growing your own food and flowers, know that you’re not alone in your quest for sustainability.
Do you know that National Garden Bureau members include the most innovative breeders and distributors of beautiful plants and garden products grown and designed with sustainability? If you’re committed to reducing your carbon footprint and increasing your beneficial impact on the environment, check out the plants and products available from National Garden Bureau members.
About National Garden Bureau
Founded more than 100 years ago, the National Garden Bureau educates, inspires, and motivates people to grow home gardens. National Garden Bureau members are horticultural experts, and the information shared with you comes directly from these experts to ensure your gardening success.
“This post is written by humans and is provided as an educational/inspirational service of the National Garden Bureau and our members. Please credit and link to National Garden Bureau and author member when using all or parts of this article.”
