She loves plants. She also loves the animals who eat them. In this first dispatch of Humane Gardening Heroes, learn how they all thrive in her lush Minnesota backyard.

No one is turned away from Lisa Taft’s garden buffet: not the raccoons who used to feast on fish from her pond, not the deer who dined on her tasty tulip buds, not the coyotes who make their nightly rounds in search of rodents, and definitely not the birds who swoop in to gobble up the fruit on her trees. “I can go to the grocery store and get cherries,” she says as she passes a cherry tree underplanted with Minnesota’s state flower, showy lady slippers. “For them, it’s survival.”

With its mixture of cottage garden favorites and native species—including roses and blazing stars, clematis vines and milkweed, Japanese anemones and Joe Pye—the gardens at her suburban St. Paul property recall dreamlike settings of glossy magazine spreads. But this landscape is no static fantasy propped up just-so for a photo shoot. Though Taft loves the heady blooms and lush green leaves cascading around the waterfall built into a wooded slope in her backyard, it’s the wild visitors dependent on the mini-habitat who bring her the most joy.

“You can admire a flower, but it is not the same as watching a living being go about its life in your garden,” says Taft, a lawyer working in health plan regulation for the state of Minnesota. “The cardinals feed each other seeds during mating season and bring their offspring to my feeder. They light up the winter when they first start to sing. The does with their fawns and stags with their antlers are so beautiful it is worth a little plant damage. If there were no animals in the garden, it would be just a sterile collection of plants. I want something whole and rich and mysterious and beautiful. I want to watch all the beauty and drama of life in the garden and watch it change with the seasons. The animals bring this.”

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A Wildlife Corridor

Though her lot sits on only a third of an acre, it’s a miniature animal kingdom, with each week bringing new surprise visitors. On the morning of the winter solstice, Taft raised the blinds in her bedroom to find a flock of cedar waxwings devouring the juniper berries. On another day last fall, a wild turkey passed through. Some summers, the tree frogs are so prolific she has to stop mowing to avoid inadvertently harming those nestled into the small lawn. Years ago, she got to know her frequent fox visitors so well that she named them all.

Many animals not usually seen near the city are attracted to the waterfall, constructed at the suggestion of Taft’s husband, John. Scarlet tanagers, summer tanagers, and a variety of warbler species find respite in the oasis. Watching these birds and larger mammals meander across the steep incline, which sits at an elevation as high as a drive-in movie screen, is one of Taft’s favorite pastimes. Because the municipal water department owns the land behind her home, it has remained undeveloped, and Taft suspects wildlife have been following the same routes through the corridor long before humans began encroaching on their habitat.

When she first moved in with John after marrying him in 1999, the yard looked much like any other nondescript suburban tract: mostly grass and rock. Though she welcomed animals, her initial gardens were planted more traditionally, inspired by English perennial borders. That style remains, but as her knowledge and tastes have changed, the plant selections have broadened. Taking a cue from a schoolyard prairie near her house, Taft has now filled about half her gardens with native species. In the partial shade of the aspens to the left of her waterfall, she has planted sensitive fern, sedges, and grasses that provide food and shelter for birds and caterpillars, including wild rye, bottlebrush grass, switchgrass, and prairie dropseed. In the sunnier area on the other side are asters, blazing stars, and common milkweed. A courtyard garden by her patio includes maidenhair ferns, trillium, and lady’s slippers—one of her favorites.

Taft’s open invitation to animals might come as a surprise to fellow plant aficionados accustomed to poisoning, trapping, or otherwise maligning those who nibble on their prized blooms and leaves. But Taft is not that kind of gardener. She avoids pesticides and rejects the very sentiments that underpin their widespread use. A truly humane gardener doesn’t practice selective compassion, inviting in certain species while shunning others as “pests” and “nuisances.” “People should try to understand that they are creatures just trying to survive in a harsh world,” Taft says. “If you help them by giving them food, water, sanctuary, they will reward you with their beauty.”

Beyond Her Backyard

When a coyote pair began visiting in the evenings, Taft at first felt fearful for her dogs. After educating herself about coyote behavior and the unnecessary harm often inflicted on the species, Taft fears more for the safety of the coyotes. “I learned that it was my responsibility to be careful as a dog owner,” she says. She leashes her two dogs in the evenings and is considering banging pots and pans to gently instill fear in the bolder coyote—a recommended practice for preventing conflicts with people. “Coyotes are magnificent, beautiful, intelligent creatures, and I hate to haze them,” Taft says. “But I know if I don’t teach him to be afraid, he may get into trouble and end up in an incident where he is killed.”

Taft’s efforts extend well beyond her backyard. When foxes were a common presence in the community, she frequently emailed neighbors to explain that the animals were simply looking for rodents to feed their families. After the coyotes began taking the foxes’ place as top canine in the area, Taft began providing specific tips for peaceful coexistence, encouraging neighbors to follow her lead by leashing pets and bringing them in their front yards where the coyotes are less likely to wander.

After discovering that the city had been hiring a contractor for decades to round up and kill geese on public and private property, Taft also worked with wildlife staff at the Humane Society of the United States to educate municipal officials and homeowners about proven alternative methods for preventing human-goose conflicts. Now a volunteer training is held every spring, and Taft, her husband, and another animal lover locate nests and oil eggs to prevent hatching. “It is very hard for me to oil the eggs, which we only do in early gestation,” she says. “But I tell myself I am saving them from a worse fate.”

Before taking on the goose project, she’d never tried to implement community change by herself before, she says, but the roundup “violated my philosophy that this planet does not exist solely for humans—it is also here for all the other species.”

Top Tips Inspired by Lisa Taft’s Garden

Here are tips for fellow gardeners who want to share their space with other creatures:

Remove more turf grass each year.

Rather than taking on a large area all at once, complete your transition to a more wildlife-friendly yard in stages. It’s likely to be more effective, more rewarding, and less disruptive to animals already using existing habitat.

Plant early-flowering fruit trees and shrubs.

Plums and other spring-blooming trees provide food for emerging pollinators in Taft’s yard. “I can hear my giant pussy willow buzzing with insects before anything else is in bloom,” she says. The fruits of elderberries and cherries sustain squirrels, chipmunks, and birds later in the season. Though some gardeners shy away from crabapples, considering them “messy,” the animals do a great job of devouring all the fruit of the two crabapples in Taft’s yard.

Add moving water.

Taft’s waterfall draws uncommon birds, raccoons, coyotes, and many other animals. But even a birdbath with a drip feature will be music to the ears of resident and migrating songbirds, and it doesn’t have to be expensive. A DIY birdbath could be as simple as stacking two plant pots and adding a tray on top; a dripper can then be made from a plastic bottle or watering can suspended above.

Leave wild areas for shelter.

Unmanicured spaces are the best kind of refuge for many creatures. Ground-nesting bees will be grateful for sunny, pesticide-free patches of bare soil where they can lay eggs; birds will find abundant insects and seeds in the undergrowth; and small mammals will take cover in the vegetation and leaves. Leaving more for the animals may also lessen the nibbling of treasured plants, says Taft: “I think it helps to have a wild area where the deer can browse.”

Use humane deterrents.

When she wants to protect something likely to be popular with the grazing set, Taft plants it close to the house where the animals are less likely to browse. Occasionally she has applied strongly scented, nontoxic repellents to plants. A motion-detecting sprinkler helped her keep predators away from the fish she used to keep in the pond. But Taft’s favorite method is tolerance of plant nibbling; she knows the animals passing through need their nutrition just as much as she does.

Minnesota Resources

Community guides to humane conflict resolution: The Humane Society of the United States has developed extensive materials about proven methods for coexisting with wildlife, including Solving Problems with Canada Geese: A Management Plan and Information Guide and Techniques for Resolving Coyote Conflicts.

Wildlife rehabilitation and education: In the Twin Cities, the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center of Minnesota treated nearly 13,000 sick, injured, and orphaned animals last year. In Duluth, Wildwoods cared for more than 1,000, nursing them to health for eventual release back into the wild. Both organizations also provide helpful information about preventing conflict and minimizing unintentional hazards to wildlife.

Native Plant Education: The Minnesota Native Plant Society hosts lectures, workshops, and field trips to further native plant preservation and awareness. Wild Ones Twin Cities, a local chapter of the Wisconsin-based national organization Wild Ones, organizes native plant sales, conferences, presentations, and other activities to educate the public about the importance of native species in encouraging biodiversity. Find other chapters in Minnesota and beyond at the Wild Ones national site.

Native Plant Retailer: Prairie Moon Nursery is not just a Minnesota institution; it’s a national treasure for native plant gardeners, long dedicated to ecological restoration and preservation. The nursery’s site offers seeds, plants, books, tools, and indispensable advice.

Supplier Directory and Planting Tips: The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources offers many recommendations and tips for converting to a more nature-friendly yard, including Minnesota Native Plant Suppliers and Landscapers and Nurture Nature: Stewardship in Your Backyard.

Online Field Guide: Minnesota Wildflowers is a helpful tool in identifying plant species, both native and nonnative, in the Minnesota landscape.

Find more profiles, tips, and inspiration in The Humane Gardener: Nurturing a Backyard Habitat for Wildlife, due for release from Princeton Architectural press in April. Learn more about the Humane Gardening Heroes series, and tell us your story.

*Credit for all photos except the schoolyard prairie image: Lisa Taft