For the last three growing seasons, LiveX co-founder and CEO Corey Behnke has been transforming his backyard into a full‑scale pollinator habitat.
Inside the 2,000-square-foot garden across from Lambeau Field, Behnke has cultivated roughly 1,500 plant specimens including natives, ornamentals, herbs, tropicals and annual vegetables.
“It’s a compact urban yard, but it’s packed intentionally to function as a small ecosystem,” says Behnke, who was initially inspired to garden after learning about the alarming pollinator decline. “I wanted to build a space that didn’t just look nice but actively worked — feeding bees, butterflies, soil life and the neighborhood around it.”
The garden now supports more than 17 butterfly species with more than a dozen types of milkweed. His favorite right now is showy milkweed for its monarch‑attracting abilities.
“The underdogs of the plant world are usually ecological powerhouses,” Behnke says. “I love discovering what each species brings to the table and watching pollinators vote with their wings.”
Behnke, who founded his livestream production company in 2014, completed the UW Extension Master Gardener Program and is now looking to share the knowledge he’s gained. Last July Behnke’s garden was featured on the Green Bay Garden Walk hosted by the Gardeners Club of Green Bay. Behnke launched his Green Bay Gardener YouTube channel last August to document the joys and challenges of gardening in a cold-climate Zone 5A yard.
“There wasn’t a creator showing the real science, the real timing and the real trial‑and‑error that happens in our climate,” he says. “Hitting 12,000 subscribers in a couple months tells me people were looking for that.”
The addition of a 12-by-9-foot greenhouse lets Behnke stretch what’s possible in Zone 5A. He’s currently growing an Ice Cream Banana and experimenting with other tropicals.
Behnke sees many similarities between building a garden and building a company, both of which he describes as “complex systems where every part influences the others.”
“You can’t control the weather, only how you respond to it,” he says. “Adaptability, patience and long-term thinking are the traits that keep both gardens and companies alive through unpredictable seasons.”
“I love discovering what each species brings to the table and watching pollinators vote with their wings.”
– Corey Behnke, co-founder and CEO of LiveX
