Resilient Landscapes for Resilient People
At Divergence, we design, install, and maintain resilient landscapes that help humans and ecosystems flourish.
We specialize in native plant landscaping, edible and medicinal gardening, woodland restoration, and organic landscape maintenance that cares for the needs of your plants, your land, and your land's inhabitants (people, pets, pollinators, and wildlife). We consider how all these elements will coexist over time to sustain a beautiful, functional, and resilient landscape.
We are proudly women-owned and led. Our team draws on formal education and a combined two decades of experience with/in environmental science, native plants landscaping, permaculture, regenerative agriculture, organic land care, ecological restoration, and native landscape design.
Our Team
Donna Volles (she/her)
Co-FounderDonna brings 14 years of field experience directly observing and interacting with edible, medicinal, native perennials, vegetables, fruit and fungi—both wild in our ecoregion, and in various designed contexts/systems.
She has backgrounds in herbalism, fermentation, preservation, and mushroom cultivation and has worked on organic vegetable and medicinal herb farms and in layered food systems.
Donna spent five years working collaboratively and living communally at Rising Locust Farm, a former regenerative agriculture farm in Manheim, where planting trees and establishing habitat were as important as tending livestock and growing food.
The last five years have been spent in the field of ecological gardening and restoration, including running Fernwey, her own native plant nursery. Donna loves how this work combines creativity and design principles with science, purpose, and function while forming connections with plants and people.
Her trainings and certifications include:
- Chesapeake Bay Landscape Professional (CBLP)
- Ecological Gardener Training Program (Horn Farm)
- Ecological Restoration Certificate (Horn Farm)
- Many Ecological Landscape Design courses at Mt. Cuba
- Permaculture Design Certificate
- Wilderness First Aid (MEDIC SOLO)
Laura Newcomer (she/her)
Co-FounderLaura brings a decade of combined field experience in ecological growing/restoration and Environmental Education.
She holds a Bachelor’s in Geography (Earth Science) with an emphasis on Human Geography, or the study of the interrelationships between ecological and human systems.
Her background includes many years of field experience in ecological gardening and restoration, apprenticing on organic farms, assisting with riparian buffer projects, and teaching Environmental Education at several ecology schools across Pennsylvania and Maine.
Her trainings and certifications in this field include:
- BA, Geography (Penn State University & Oberlin College)
- Regenerative Grower Training Program (Horn Farm)
- Ecology-Based Landscape Practice Intensive (New Directions in the American Landscape)
- Colorado Master Gardener (Colorado State University)
- Ecological Gardener Training Program (Horn Farm)
- Ecological Restoration Certificate (Horn Farm)
- Wilderness First Aid (MEDIC SOLO)
Laura also holds an MFA in Creative Writing and teaches Nature Writing, creative expression, and other related topics. A former yoga teacher, she has completed her 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training as well as specialized certifications in Yin Yoga and additional practices.
Connect with Us
Let’s think divergently together! Reach out to discuss your landscape headaches, goals, and hopes. We’re here to support you in building a more resilient landscape.