A few full-time gardeners, with the help of many interns and volunteers, take care of the 66-acre zoo grounds. Each geographic location has its own watering system, as well as a specific schedule of weeding, planting, pruning and fertilizing.

Soil in the garden beds is enriched with ZooDoo, a fertilizer made from the composted waste of herbivorous animals that live at the zoo. Instead of throwing all that manure away, it is recycled right here on zoo grounds.

Many clippings and pruned branches are also recycled. An important part of the gardeners' jobs is to provide browse to the animals for enrichment. Browse can be anything from a carrot harvested from the Family Farm, to a leafy branch for the primates to examine, pick apart and eat, to a large tree trunk for the beavers to enjoy. Zoo gardeners have extensive knowledge of which plants are safe to feed to the animals and are very careful not to expose them to anything toxic. Since the browse gardens are managed using organic practices, the animals are not exposed to harmful chemicals.