Perhaps when walking around the villages of Miami Shores and Biscayne Park you’ll notice an ever-evolving landscape – one that’s more natural, less pristine and almost too manicured. Much of that is due to the handiwork of Mary Benton, founder of Bound by Beauty.
Benton, a decadelong Miami Shores resident, first became fascinated with butterflies when her gardener brought her milkweed. The plants quickly became covered in caterpillars.
(Courtesy of Cecilia Ise)
Miami Shores resident Cecilia Ise, 16, educating kids at a summer camp with her interactive wheel.
“Once I saw a chrysalis monarch butterfly seven years ago, I was hooked … from then on, I started planting to attract butterflies,” said Benton. “Then birds started appearing, too. I believe butterflies have the power to create a paradigm shift that can also shift neighborhoods.”
Another transformative event was something an organizer at the Southeast Florida Regional Climate Change Compact Conference said that stuck with her.
“‘There must be a paradigm shift in thinking so that every expenditure of taxpayer dollars is put through the lens of climate change and sea-level rise. Otherwise, it is an irresponsible expense.’ That statement begged the question of how can I create a paradigm shift in a region that operates in a business-as-usual fashion and believes there’s nothing they can do?” Benton said.
It was then that she took a closer look at her garden and – after spotting those monarch butterflies – was transformed from an egocentric gardener into an eco-centric one.
Benton’s passion and mission grew further as she experienced the reactions of others who visited her garden.
She recalls the sight of a cloud of zebra butterflies fluttering overhead transforming a young woman’s face from grief-stricken into awestruck. And how a cloud of male Atala butterflies convinced a visitor to stop using the weed killer Roundup in his yard, something she says “he had refused to stop using, even after his dog was diagnosed with a cancer associated with its use.”
(Jacki Hughes Morris)
Mary Benton (in hat), Bound by Beauty founder, educating children from the Miami Shores Recreational Center at her butterfly circle at Constitution Park in Miami Shores.
For those and similar reasons, Benton formed Bound by Beauty, a nonprofit “whose mission is to create programs to connect people with nature,” she said. “This is why the four key words in the organization’s mission are to connect, educate, transform and replicate.”
She fulfills that mission in myriad ways, mainly by collaborating with as many people and organizations as possible to help educate the community on the importance of connecting with nature.
She loves collaborating with artists, photographers, community groups and schools in a variety of ways. The list is long and it reaches far and wide.
The organization collaborated with artist Kim Heise to create portraits of native wild plants that host butterflies and perform other important functions in the ecosystem of South Florida, but that are always dismissed as lawn weeds.
“The art helps open people’s eyes to their beauty and also educates them,” said Benton.
Bound by Beauty also collaborated with Alex Salcedo, an educator at TERRA Environmental Institute and an avid macro photographer, to capture images of the butterflies and other pollinators that are attracted to these plants “because many of them are so small that people don’t see them,” said Benton. “We have also used Laura Langlois Zurro’s gorgeous photos of native bees to highlight their beauty.”
And invaluable to their educational work, Benton says, “one of our favorite people and organizations to collaborate with is Corinne Mariposa of Miami Seed Share, who helps us propagate the wild native host plants that are not available in nurseries and gives workshops on propagation and other relevant subjects.” Through the collaboration, she says, “we provided plants and expertise in creating the Pollinator Picnic Area at the Enchanted Forest Park in North Miami.”
(Photo Courtesy of Cecilia Ise)
Cecilia Ise proudly posting her Pollinator Patch sign at the first one she created at Barry University in July.
Benton also has presented workshops and talks on such topics as “Using Art to Harness the Transformative Power of Butterflies to Combat Climate Change” and “Mummies and Cannibals in the Garden: The Life Cycles of Some Plant Pest Predators.”
Wanting to reach people of all ages, Benton created the “Field Guide to Wild Plants That Host Butterflies” (download it and other resources for free at BoundByBeauty.org), something she and collaborators use to lead kids of all ages on “Wild Plant Scavenger Hunts” and “Cool Bug Safaris.”
“We have a network of neighborhood ‘nurturies’ where many of these wild plants are grown, along with other native plants for wildlife,” Benton said. “Through these programs, we connect people with nature in a fun and educational way, and connect gardens to create corridors for pollinators and other important wildlife.”
Benton herself has influenced others in her community to take up her cause and mission of educating, including 16-year-old Cecilia Ise, a Miami Shores resident and neighbor.
“My friends and I have been going to Mary’s garden since we were 2 years old. She was always so welcoming, and I even had a garden party when I turned 5,” said Ise. “I have always loved nature and being outside.”
After attending I Prep for middle school where she took an environmental science class, Ise was hooked, and that’s when she knew she wanted to be an environmental lawyer. It also inspired her to start pollinator patches at home and around the community, which became her project for Girl Scouts back in 2021.
“The first community pollinator patch I did was placed at Barry University this July. Unfortunately, like Mary mentioned, people see these patches and think they’re weeds,” said Ise. “That’s exactly what happened with this one – students thought it was weeds and hacked away at it. We’ve since replanted it from seeds and it’s now back.”
She plans to host an educational workshop at the site to prevent that from happening in the future.
Ise also planted a pollinator patch in the heart of the village of Biscayne Park at NE 118th Street and NE Seventh Avenue, and has been a speaker at summer camps at Ed Burke Recreation Center in Biscayne Park and North Bay Village, two communities Ise says have been very welcoming.
“At the camps, I would host these workshops, and the kids loved the interactive nature of my presentation where they got to participate by spinning a wheel and learning about pollinator plants and their importance,” she said. “The folks that run the camps were incredibly supportive.”
Next up, Ise plans pollinator patches at North Bay Village and one at Miami Shores’ village hall grounds.
(Bound by Beauty Field Guide )
The pollinator known as “Cheesy Toes” painted by artist Kim Heise, part of Bound by Beauty's printed educational field guide.
And Benton’s educational mission continues, with plans to work with Miami Shores Elementary School and Horace Mann Middle School to educate students about the importance of nature.
“We will give a presentation at the Kampong [this month] to the School Garden Leadership Workshop that is organized by the Miami Education Fund and Broward County Public School Food Forest Program,” said Benton. “Then this winter we will host a group of students from the Whiddon Rogers Education Center in Fort Lauderdale for another ‘Wild Plant Scavenger Hunt,’ which they enjoyed so much the first time that they want to replicate it for those students who will be attending the Permaculture Convergence in March.”
Benton’s hope is that more people will plant a nectar or host plant in their gardens, and that once they watch a butterfly drinking the nectar or laying an egg, will be transformed into a nurturer of nature, just as she was.
That in turn, she hopes, will inspire people to create more beautiful, resilient and sustainable communities, using butterflies as the catalyst for change. The ultimate goal: that by stopping the use of toxic chemicals in the landscape and planting drought-tolerant native plants, we will provide sustenance to wildlife who form the basis of the food web.
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(Liangy Calli)
Children looking at caterpillars, plant pests and plant pest predators during a Bound by Beauty educational program.
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(Rei Ramirez)
Mary Benton, founder of Bound by Beauty (far left), with high school students on a “Wild Plant Scavenger Hunt” and “Cool Bug Safari.”