We design, install, and maintain resilient landscapes that help humans and ecosystems flourish
Growing Divergent Landscapes
Our Services
Consultation for Systems Thinking
We’ll join you on your land to discuss your unique goals, challenges, and hopes for your landscape.
We apply a holistic lens inspired by Conservation Landscaping and Permaculture Design principles to analyze and integrate systems in a landscape for improved functionality, with an emphasis on enhancing ecosystem functions.
Considerations might include siting new garden beds; identifying native and edible plants that would thrive in your landscape; suggestions for rainwater harvesting, erosion management, and composting systems; recommended edits for existing garden beds; and so on.
Design & Installation of Low-Maintenance, High-Functioning Landscapes
We listen closely to your needs and tailor our design to your goals for your land, selectively integrating native plant landscaping, native medicinal and edible plants, edible gardens, rain barrels, composting systems, and so on to create habitat for pollinators and other wildlife, enhance beauty and functionality, and foster greater landscape resilience according to your priorities.
We sketch ideas in consultation with you, then design the details on-site during installation, paying close attention to cues from your landscape. We work thoughtfully and efficiently on installation day to bring visions to life, attending to details small and large.
In addition to designing, site prepping, and installing new gardens, we’re happy to design edits for existing gardens in your landscape.
Ecological Landscape Maintenance
A thoughtful maintenance plan, consistently implemented, is essential for sustaining healthy plants and a beautiful, functional landscape for years to come.
With good design, native plantings can be lower maintenance than conventional gardens—but no landscape is maintenance-free.
Our Landscape Maintenance services are rooted in ecological best practices to enhance long-term plant health and maximize support for pollinators and wildlife. All our services are 100% chemical-free and safe for people, pets, and pollinators.
We offer monthly or seasonal maintenance plans to support you and your landscape. While certainly not required, clients are invited to join us during maintenance sessions—a great way to get to know each other and share information about the landscape.
Woodland Restoration
Woodlands are a defining feature of Pennsylvania, and many landowners have woodlands on their property. No matter whether a woodland edge backs up to your yard or you own several acres of forest, we strive to restore your woodland’s ecological well-being. This supports healthy ecosystem functioning, which provides a wide range of localized and dispersed benefits.
Our Woodland Restoration services include creating a multi-phase restoration plan; assessing the ecological memory of a site; mitigating erosion issues; removing invasive plants (such as bush honeysuckle, multiflora rose, privet, English ivy, and so on); and re-establishing a diverse, native plant community using customized native seed mixes, native plugs, native shrubs and trees, and/or native live stakes.
We use mechanical methods of invasive plant removal that are 100% chemical-free, making this process safe for people, pets, and pollinators.
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The Divergence team is professional, friendly, and passionate about native plants. They bring expertise to their designs and implementation while always keeping the client's goals at front of mind.
— Amelia B., York, PA
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I’ve been working with Donna for a few months now and the experience has been nothing less than phenomenal. I am amazed at her knowledge and expertise when it comes to these plants. This is exactly what I had hoped for! If you’re looking to go native, you won’t be sorry if you reach out to them.
— Heather S., Ephrata, PA
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Divergence is taking the jungle that is my back yard and shaping it into a beautiful, healthy habitat for native plants and pollinators in the middle of Lancaster city. I look forward to continuing to work with Divergence for years to come.
— Gabrielle W., Lancaster, PA
Valuing the marginal
We are grounded in an ethos of care for land and care for people. Whether appreciating a rare native plant, experimenting with new approaches to landscape challenges, or celebrating the uniqueness of each of our clients, we believe in valuing the marginal and embracing divergence in its many forms.
We see the need for the native plant movement to continue to flourish. We want to see good designs with functional and aesthetic appeal so more people will choose native, medicinal, and edible plants for their outdoor spaces. We hope that over time, ecological landscapes will become not marginal, but the norm.
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.