Ganna Walska Lotusland

Garden operations and public tours: Ganna Walska Lotusland's plant collections include over 3,000 taxa, including species from mediterranean regions around the world, and many are rare, endangered and some extinct in the wild. Collections include cacti, succulents, cycads, palms, ferns, begonias and conifers. Our sustainable horticulture systems are based on fully balanced, ecological soil management practices, which replenish and maintain soil fertility by providing optimum conditions for soil biological activity. Our soil practices include green waste recycling through composting, mulching and applications of compost teas, insectaries to attract and support beneficial insect populations, organic pest and disease treatments as a last resort to control unacceptable outbreaks, and organic fertilizers. Lotusland has been and continues to be a pioneer among public gardens and outdoor recreational entities in practicing and refining these techniques. Lotusland operates with a county permit limit of 20,000 visitors per year. 15,000 visitors per year can visit the gardens along with 5,000 santa barbara county k-12 students (with an emphasis on title 1 schools). All of Lotusland's visitors, including members and those attending classes, lectures, and other programs, must make advance reservations. Most of these visitors tour the grounds with a trained volunteer docent.

Open pathways: Lotusland open pathways program tours were suspended in 2022. Instead, due to the covid pandemic and safety concerns, Lotusland offered free visitation sponsored by individual donors for community groups supporting the pandemic, including healthcare workers, first responders and teachers.

Fourth grade outreach: while the covid outbreak interrupted classroom field trips, in the 2021-2022 academic year, regional elementary school's fourth grade teachers were invited to send students to Lotusland to register and take an experiential learning tour aligned with the goal of steam knowledge and exposure within the setting of Lotusland's 37-acre garden classroom. In 2022, Lotusland's fourth grade outreach program was reimagined and adapted to individual family tours, as school field trips were suspended post-pandemic. We maintained free public access for fourth grade students and their families. Trained educational garden guides met students, and staff developed a new jr. botanist program guide, integrating the ca fourth grade curriculum for life sciences. Students and families toured the garden free of charge and were gifted a plant to take home and tend, instilling responsibility for the environment and care of plants in our student population.