SANTA CRUZ, Calif. - The sweet aroma of nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon and loamy soil fills the air every morning. It’s called Chai Mulch, an inventive new environmentally friendly compost made from recycled tea.

When Ken Foster, founder of Santa Cruz, California’s Terra Nova Ecological Landscaping learned that the local tea factory was trashing an entire dumpster-worth of chai-waste every day, he had a sudden inspiration. Foster and his crew of 10 to 12 employees transformed the landfill-bound waste into nourishing fertilizer.

In 1988 Foster co-founded Terra Nova Ecological Landscaping, a radically new - yet profoundly ancient - approach to landscaping.

“The mission of Terra Nova is that we work with the intelligence of nature... using nature as a mentor,” says Foster, who has a degree in landscape horticulture and is now the company’s sole owner and master landscape designer. Terra Nova uses only organic fertilizer, and never herbicides or pesticides. Native species that don’t use too much water are particularly emphasized.

“We create landscapes that are full and diverse and serve many functions,” says Foster. He says that landscapes designed by Terra Nova are not only beautiful, but often integrate organic vegetable and herbal gardens, and provide irrigation and water catchment.

Recycled materials are utilized wherever possible. Foster uses sawdust from a local cabinetmaker for pathways. For stepping stones and patios, he uses mosaics of rocks, bricks, and urbanite - an affectionate term for reused concrete which can be beautified by staining it with iron sulfate.

“The Bicycle Landscaping Company”

It was Earth Day, 1990, and Foster was busy managing two festival booths - one for Terra Nova and the other for Conservation International. His friend gave him a trailer made from recycled bike frames for transporting his materials to the booths. Immediately recognizing the potential, Foster, a long-time cyclist himself, cleaned up and painted the bike trailer.

After serendipitously meeting a bike trailer manufacturer at a Santa Cruz hearing on the establishment of bike lanes, Foster commissioned him to increase his fleet. Thus, what Santa Cruz residents now know as “The Bicycle Landscaping Company” was born.

Although Terra Nova used a regular pickup truck in 1988, it has since sold it and employed mountain bikes with detachable trailers, quadracycles with truck beds, and a biodiesel-powered vehicle.

Terra Nova has five garages and storage units across the city to make transportation without motor vehicles feasible.

“Bicycles are one of the more elegant forms of transportation on the planet - second maybe to walking,” Foster jokes.

He also likes to minimize using equipment that contributes to air and noise pollution. “I used to have a backpack blower and I sold it,” he recalls. “That was a great day.” Foster and his crew use hand shears, rakes and brooms in lieu of electric hedge trimmers and blowers, although a battery-powered lawnmower is used when necessary.

Sustainable Business Model

Foster seeks to run his business with the same attributes of an ideal ecosystem - there is no waste, and everything has use.

Terra Nova is committed to being on the cutting edge of sustainable business practices - “to be an example, to show that it is possible.”

In fact, Terra Nova really is a leader. Eight years after Terra Nova was founded, the Ecological Landscaping Association was established in Massachusetts. Now Foster is helping to create a West Coast chapter. “It’s becoming a national movement,” he says.

Last year, Terra Nova won Sunset Magazine’s Western Living Award gold medal for its experimental building façade with a roof of green plants, a cascade of blooming flowers on the outer wall, a fruit garden, and a labyrinth. It cost Terra Nova $10,000 to build.

Foster integrates spirituality with his business. He believes that nature should be respected and listened to; plants are alive and also have a type of intelligence. He therefore makes an effort to treat people, plants, and animals all with a high level of generosity, kindness, and respect.

Terra Nova employee Pablo Jenkins says of Foster, “My boss is a really openhearted, passionate man. He’s accepting of ideas and he cares about the Earth.”

Foster says he has no interest in patenting any of his ecological innovations like Chai Mulch. He encourages everyone to copy the idea because it’s good for the planet and good for human beings.

Despite fluctuating economic conditions and steep competition among Santa Cruz’s dozens of landscaping companies, Terra Nova has held fast to its business principles. Foster believes in a triple bottom line: Financial success, Community/Social Equity, and Ecological sustainability.

“The triple bottom line is [about] seeing that all three are connected,” says Foster. “When you ignore one, they all suffer.”