Daphne Minner
Contact Daphne at [email protected]
I have been gardening my entire life. Growing up in a Delaware farm family, my early memories were of planting radishes in a small patch of a much larger garden, full of vegetables to see us through the winter. Helping out in the garden was a joy and a chore that taught me planning, how to recognize what plants need to thrive, and how to deal with disappointment when they didn't. Since those early years, I have continued to have my hands in the soil.
In my Penn State graduate studies, in human development, I focused on understanding how humans develop their views of and relationship to the natural world. I have worked as a researcher and program evaluator to improve science education in schools and nature centers throughout the country while maintaining my Boston gardens.
My interest in native plants began in Pennsylvania when my husband and I would visit a local trout stream bank that was home to numerous species of native wildflowers. With field guide in hand, I would key out each new plant and study its characteristics. I soon learned many new plants that I had never seen in Delaware and thus began my interest in botany and native plant communities.
After relocating back to Massachusetts, I began my studies in field botany at the Native Plant Trust, where I learned about the ecology of plant communities in New England. I learned botanical survey techniques and monitored endangered plant populations through the Plant Conservation Volunteer program. After a short stint at the Arnold Arboretum, I was ready to embrace native plants more fully, so I worked for the Native Plant Trust to develop education programs for PreK-4 grade school students. I was the curriculum developer for the Pollinate New England program, for which I developed an online course called Gardening for Pollinators and helped install twelve pollinator gardens throughout New England in 2018. These public gardens were installed during hands-on workshops, where I realized how much more typical homeowners need to know about gardening, especially native plants and pollinators. Thus, the idea for this consulting business was born.
In my Penn State graduate studies, in human development, I focused on understanding how humans develop their views of and relationship to the natural world. I have worked as a researcher and program evaluator to improve science education in schools and nature centers throughout the country while maintaining my Boston gardens.
My interest in native plants began in Pennsylvania when my husband and I would visit a local trout stream bank that was home to numerous species of native wildflowers. With field guide in hand, I would key out each new plant and study its characteristics. I soon learned many new plants that I had never seen in Delaware and thus began my interest in botany and native plant communities.
After relocating back to Massachusetts, I began my studies in field botany at the Native Plant Trust, where I learned about the ecology of plant communities in New England. I learned botanical survey techniques and monitored endangered plant populations through the Plant Conservation Volunteer program. After a short stint at the Arnold Arboretum, I was ready to embrace native plants more fully, so I worked for the Native Plant Trust to develop education programs for PreK-4 grade school students. I was the curriculum developer for the Pollinate New England program, for which I developed an online course called Gardening for Pollinators and helped install twelve pollinator gardens throughout New England in 2018. These public gardens were installed during hands-on workshops, where I realized how much more typical homeowners need to know about gardening, especially native plants and pollinators. Thus, the idea for this consulting business was born.
Newly installed pollinator garden at Wells Reserve at Laudholm Maine (June 2018)
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Police station Wellesley MA (July 2019) pollinator garden one year after installation.
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After learning about native plant ecology and pollinator needs, my husband and I were very excited to transform our yard into habitat. So starting in 2007 we began to change our 6000 sq.ft. yard (0.14 acres). Over the next several years we focused on removing invasive shrubs, adding one new garden a year, increasing the diversity of native plants as well as adding raised vegetable beds. Here are some backyard photos before the transformation.
Over the years we have increased the diversity of plantings and as of December 2022 we have 202 species of plants in our yard, 61% are native to the Northeast. We have identified 208 species of insects, mostly natives. Here are some after photos of our gardens in the back and front yards.
At the same time, we have observed increased diversity of animal species using our yard for food, shelter, or rearing the next generation. In our medium size yard we have documented 84 different species of birds from turkeys to songbirds to raptors (red-tailed hawk, sharp-shinned hawk, Cooper’s hawk, screech owl, great horned owl); 13 species of mammals (gray squirrel, groundhog, chipmunk, opossum, striped skunk, big brown bat, coyote, red fox, white-footed mouse, short-tailed shrew, meadow vole, raccoon, eastern cottontail); and 15 of the 26 insect orders found in the U.S. (flies, wasps/ bees/ants, spiders, dragonflies, beetles, moths/butterflies, etc.).
Some of the most exciting visitors are the birds who migrate long distances to show up in the spring resplendent in their jewel-toned feathers. One of these migrating songbirds is the blackpoll warbler (Setophaga striata) who, after breeding on the nesting grounds in the Taiga of Maine and Canada, travels down to Cape Cod, and then fly non-stop for 1,800 miles across the Atlantic Ocean to land on South America, then proceed inland. These beautiful black and white warblers only weigh about 12 grams (or 12 jelly beans) by the time they reach our yard in Boston in May after having expended another 12 grams on their long northward journey from the Southern Hemisphere. They stop in our yard each spring and fall for a couple of days of dining on worms and caterpillars.
I am also a NOFA Accredited Organic Land Care Professional (AOLCP).
Some of the most exciting visitors are the birds who migrate long distances to show up in the spring resplendent in their jewel-toned feathers. One of these migrating songbirds is the blackpoll warbler (Setophaga striata) who, after breeding on the nesting grounds in the Taiga of Maine and Canada, travels down to Cape Cod, and then fly non-stop for 1,800 miles across the Atlantic Ocean to land on South America, then proceed inland. These beautiful black and white warblers only weigh about 12 grams (or 12 jelly beans) by the time they reach our yard in Boston in May after having expended another 12 grams on their long northward journey from the Southern Hemisphere. They stop in our yard each spring and fall for a couple of days of dining on worms and caterpillars.
I am also a NOFA Accredited Organic Land Care Professional (AOLCP).
Contact Daphne at [email protected]
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