In fiscal year 2023-24, Duke Gardens composted roughly 2,400 cubic yards of landscape debris — a pile roughly 15x50x70 feet — from Duke Gardens and Duke University into about 400 cubic yards of compost and roughly 11 tractor trailer loads of finished mulch, which helps grow thriving green spaces throughout Duke’s campus. This program reduces Duke’s annual costs by approximately $50,000 and shrinks the landscape carbon footprint by about 13 metric tons of carbon dioxide.
Duke Gardens also showcases climate friendly, low maintenance gardening in many of their exhibits. In 2023, Sarah P. Duke Gardens transformed a section of the historic Terrace Gardens into a crevice garden, a style of rock gardening that utilizes the spaces between rocks as planting nooks to create microclimates for plants requiring minimal care and reduces water use. By showcasing beautiful plants that thrive in poor, dry and nutrient-scarce conditions, like rattlesnake master (Eryngium yuccifolium) and the eastern prickly pear cactus (Opuntia humifusa), Duke Gardens is introducing visitors to more sustainable gardening practices they can utilize in their home gardens.