Hi! I’m Devonn, and I started Froggy’s Greenhouse in the winter of 2023. I had zero plans to start a business, but at some point during the chilly days of December and January, the idea of Froggy’s parked itself in my head and never left 🐶🌼

As a child, my brother and I often heard stories about a pup named “Froggy the Little Yellow Doggy.” Froggy was just one of many creatures in a fantastical world dreamed up by my Dad who seemed able to conjure them out of thin air—especially when gathered around a campfire. The Froggy stories were full of possibility and imagination, and we never heard the same one twice. We were encouraged to dream up and contribute our own plots and characters, making these storytelling moments wonderfully interactive and engaging. The character of Froggy has never left my memory, and Froggy’s Greenhouse was created out of those joyful childhood memories. 

A little about me: my brother and I were born in Whitehorse, YT and since then we’ve moved a gazillion times. I’ve always been around gardens and both of my parents are veritable green thumbs: my Mom taught me about harvesting things like berries and wild rose petals/hips, and the importance of thorough weeding (knowledge that I may or may not put into practice). I’m pretty sure my Dad has a secret pact with tomato plants because the ones he grows shock me every year. He grew up gardening, worm farming and selling melons to local grocery stores. I’m Métis on my Mom’s side and a member of the Métis Nation of Alberta. My familial names are Ballendine/Ballantyne, Brass, Turner and Umphreville/Humphreyville. My maternal Grandma, Vera Flora, was a gardener, a baker and a trained nurse, and her Mom was Flora Harriet Ballantyne. On my Dad’s side I’m German-American settler, and my Grandma Dakota was a master gardener in the 50s and 60s and owned a flower shop in Anthon, Iowa.

Gardening has been a constant in my life, and I have found within it that same joy and creativity that the Froggy the Little Yellow Doggy stories held for me as a child. Once I’d made that connection in my mind, the idea never left, and Froggy’s Greenhouse was born!