Diana L. Drake
Diana Drake’s years of designing with native plant species on their shoreline property in Old Lyme recently culminated in Audubon Connecticut’s recognition of it as a healthy habitat for woodland nesting birds.
She has worked as a landscape designer for nearly 3 decades, managing large and small public projects with Judith Heintz Landscape Architecture and Wallace Roberts & Todd in New York City, finding the best-suited plants for public plazas, rooftop gardens or residential properties in New York City, Connecticut or eastern Long Island.
Her time teaching planting design at Columbia University with Darrel Morrison was a tremendous learning opportunity and deepened her commitment to using native plant species, adding to her experience at the Center for Plant Conservation and her hands-on training at Harvard's Arnold Arboretum.
Ms. Drake currently is leading sassafras55’s pro bono involvement with designing an all-native garden for Old Lyme’s Phoebe Griffin Noyes library. The goal for the garden is to delight while educating children and adults about native species - plants, but also the insects and birds that rely on them - throughout the seasons and the years.
She holds an advanced degree in landscape architecture from Harvard's Graduate School of Design, where she studied plants and design under Michael van Valkenburgh, Peter del Tredici and Michael Dirr. Prior to her work in garden design, Ms. Drake was a journalist, with a master's degree in environmental, science and medical journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia, and a B.A. in literature from SUNY-Binghamton.