When Stacy Martin and Kevin Lehman moved to suburbia six years ago, the property they purchased provided them with a blank canvas, as the landscaping was devoted almost exclusively to a lawn. Today, thanks to Stacy’s green thumb and Kevin’s artistic talents, their little slice of nirvana has been transformed into an enchanting garden that is good for the soul and for the environment. 

A carpet of lawn defined the backyard of the house Stacy Martin and Kevin Lehman purchased six years ago. Since then, the couple has added water features, gardens, a composting area and more to create an environmentally friendly backyard habitat. Stacy says that designing the backyard was“tricky,” as half of it is in sun and the other half is in shade during the day.

The neighborhood in which Stacy and Kevin live dates to the late ’50s and therefore boasts large lots. Other than a few trees and some overgrown shrubs, an expanse of lawn defined the couple’s yard. “Grass was pretty much it,” Stacy says of the landscaping. So, she went to work, creating meandering pathways, islands, gardens, water features, sitting areas and a composting area in an effort to transform the lot into a natural habitat. 

Her methodology doesn’t employ grand measures – Stacy simply uses a garden hose or roping to create the outline of a bed and then, depending on the time of the year, smothers the grass by covering it with newspapers or cardboard. As for the artistic element, Kevin supplies that via his pottery, sculptures and glass creations. 

Like most gardens, theirs is a work in progress. “I’m always doing something,” she says of her goal to reduce the scope of the lawn and replace it with beds filled with plants that attract birds, insects and pollinators such as bees and butterflies. Thus far, she’s probably eliminated 60% of the lawn. “I keep eyeing the front yard,” she admits. “I’d like to do more there.” 

Annabelle hydrangea, verbena bonariensis, butterfly weed, love-in-a-mist and other perennials define this garden.

It’s In the Genes 

Stacy and Kevin both grew up in the New Holland area. “We’ve been together since the seventh grade,” she notes. Stacy credits her grandmother and great-grandmother for her interest in gardening. She remembers that the gardens at their homes in New Holland were meticulously maintained and bloomed with color from spring to fall. Stacy’s payment for helping them with gardening chores came in the form of plants. “I’d take them home and create flower beds,” she says of beautifying the yard at her family’s house in East Earl. 

Stacy concentrates on including plants – such as liatris – that benefit pollinators. “The monarchs are constantly on them,” she says.

Some of those plants have followed Stacy on her travels. “I have daffodils from my grandma’s garden,” she notes. She also remembers that her grandmother never complained about having to wash dishes. “She loved to look out the kitchen window and take in her garden,” Stacy recalls. She ventures a guess that the window over the kitchen sink is partly what attracted her to the house she and Kevin bought, as it provides a panoramic view of the backyard. “I often think about my grandmother when I’m working in my garden or doing something at the kitchen sink,” she shares.  

Life’s Work 

The pond started out small but has grown over the years. The primal-fish sculpture was created by John Morrow.

Stacy’s early introduction to the world of gardening created the foundation for a career. She is a graduate of Gettysburg College and earned her master’s degree in agronomy – with a focus on plant breeding and genetics – from the University of Nebraska. She launched her career with Green Leaf Plants, which is a division of Aris Horticulture and is located in the Bird-in-Hand area. Green Leaf provided Stacy with the opportunity to travel to such destinations as Colombia, South America, which ranks second in the world as an exporter of cut flowers. “I went there five or six times to help start perennial programs,” she explains, noting that the goal was to develop “juicy colors.” Similar trips took her to Guatemala. 

Her next career stop was DuPont Pioneer, which produces seeds for agricultural purposes. That experience prompted her to pursue her master’s degree. “It was like they were speaking a foreign language,” she says of the expertise her colleagues possessed. 

Working for DuPont Pioneer initiated a move to Elkton, Maryland, which provided Stacy with evidence that there’s nowhere quite like Lancaster County, where gardening is concerned. “Grass right up to the houses,” she says of her neighbors’ idea of “landscaping.” 

By late summer, the colors in the garden shift to darker shades of yellow and pink thanks to rudbeckia fulgida, which features smaller flowers that bloom later in the season, and purple coneflowers. Annabelle hydrangea complements the hues.

The glass gazing ball was a project of Kevin’s.

Kevin’s pottery and sculptures accent the gardens.

The pond is home to fish and frogs.

Stacy is in the process of enlarging her edible garden. Seen here are black raspberries.

Hydrangeas, lungwort and hellebores surround one of Kevin’s sculptures.

Stacy treasures the two chairs that originally belonged to her grandmother.

By late summer, Stacy’s containers are overflowing with color and texture.

The “green dragon” pizza oven was a collaborative effort between Kevin (sculpted base and tiles) and John Morrow (head).

A covered patio is filled with houseplants that spend the summer outdoors.

Kevin’s oversized containers are perfect for experimenting with cannas and other large plants.

Stacy, on the other hand, surrounded her home with gardens. In the front yard, she created a cottage garden that was enclosed by the proverbial white picket fence. “People thought it was some kind of park!” she recalls, saying that she’d arrive home to find strangers “touring” the property and even helping themselves to flowers. Cars would drive by slowly to take in the sights. Someone informed her that her garden was featured on the cover of a calendar, which came as news to her. “It was crazy!” she says of the attention her garden attracted.

Missing Lancaster County, Stacy moved home after being away for 10 years. She indulged in her love of horticulture by creating gardens behind the Lancaster Creative Factory on South Prince Street, which Kevin founded and directs. 

Stacy also became employed by Seedway, which is located in Mifflinburg, Union County. Founded in 1923, the company specializes in providing farmers with high-performing seed products. It also distributes lawn and turf products. Seedway, which has been a subsidiary of GROWMARK since 2002, is regarded as one of the few remaining companies of its kind in the country. Stacy specializes in corn and soybean products for the southern region of the United States. In that capacity, she frequently takes “field trips” to southern states. 

Throughout her career, she has taken advantage of opportunities to attend trade shows, trial events and seminars. “The bottom line is you leave with lots of free plants!” Stacy says of a perk of her job.  

Garden Strategy 

A sculpture created by Kevin defines a bed that is filled with hosta, ferns and other plants.

Stacy’s strategy to eliminate wide swaths of lawn echoes the philosophy of University of Delaware entomology professor, Doug Tallamy, who is also a respected author (Bringing Nature Home) and has been profiled by many magazines and newspapers. He theorizes that if every homeowner would create natural habitats in their backyard – he calls them Homegrown National Parks – the world would be a better place. He points to the plight of birds, monarch butterflies and honeybees, sharing with Science magazine (2019) that bird populations have declined by almost 33% since the early 1970s. He theorizes that with 130 million parcels of residential land existing in the United States, property owners could create an interconnected system of nature-friendly habitats that would benefit the environment. 

The native plant, Indian pink, with its contrasting colors of red and yellow, is one of Stacy’s favorite shade plants.

Tallamy leads by example, having taken a 10-acre farmette in southeastern Pennsylvania and transformed its hay fields into a bio-diverse “park” that is planted primarily with native plants and trees that he maintains better support native birds, insects and pollinators than do the exotic ornamentals that have become favorites in the landscape over the last 50 years. 

He also admits that by living in the middle of nowhere and not having to deal with neighbors and homeowner associations, he is free to practice his style of gardening. He noted in an article written by Adrian Higgins of The Washington Post that when he first moved to the property, he rarely saw birds, insects, pollinators and other wildlife. That has changed; to date, he has identified 55 different bird species, as well as 905 species of moths. 

Phil Kreider created the fountain, while Kevin crafted the base for this water feature. It’s surrounded by hummelo (foreground), yucca and verbena bonariensis (tall purple plants), which self-seeds.

Stacy thoroughly agrees with Tallamy’s philosophy, saying if everyone would create even the simplest of habitats, nature would benefit. 

One thing that immediately stands out at Stacy and Kevin’s home is the fact that the garden is a kaleidoscope of color. The pop of color begins at the front door, which is painted a color called Flamenco Pink. “I had to work with the color tones in the stone and siding,” she explains. “I always bounce ideas off my mom, who is good with color – I can always count on her to reign me in!” Then, another shock of color – orange – materialized when Stacy added a few butterfly-weed plants along the walkway. In the fall, she harvested the seed-filled pods and scattered them in the bed she had enlarged. 

The juxtaposition of the two neon-like colors somehow works. As is often noted, any color or combination of colors seem to look natural in the great outdoors. Another bed filled with a variety of flowers and plants fills a sloped area of the front yard. 

Stacy’s aesthetic has shifted to a fondness for using contrasting colors. Here, the Flamenco Pink door color contrasts with vivid-orange butterfly weed that reaches peak bloom in late June.

Stacy became a convert to utilizing the front yard for gardens as a result of taking a trip to England following college graduation and embarking on garden tours. “There was very little lawn left at my house in Maryland,” she notes. Still, she was always nervous about “making waves” wherever she lived but became a little bolder upon meeting Fergus Garrett, who is a protégé of author and gardening extraordinaire, Christopher Lloyd, and succeeded him as the head gardener at Great Dixter, which is a historic house and garden museum in East Sussex that was restored by Lloyd’s father.  

Stacy met Garrett when he made an appearance at Terrain in Glen Mills several years ago and loved the fact that he questioned Americans’ reluctance to fill their front yards with gardens. “I told him what I was planning to do and, sensing I was asking for his permission, he told me to ‘Just do it,’” she relays of their conversation. 

She is also a huge fan of the English television series, Gardeners’ World, which is hosted by horticulturist and writer, Monty Don. “That show opens your eyes to new ideas,” she says. Stacy also names the public garden, Chanticleer, in Wayne, Delaware County, as a source of inspiration.  

Kevin Lehman and Stacy Martin take a break from their spring gardening chores. Photo courtesy of Stacy Martin.

Stacy goes outdoors as soon as the weather cooperates. If it’s a tolerable day in February, she is outside cleaning up beds, checking on things in the greenhouse and making plans for the coming season. Fall 2021 was devoted to creating a stone-lined path that leads to a new patio outside the greenhouse. 

As for the floral display, Stacy employs a combination of annuals and perennials to ensure colorful blooms from spring through late fall. “I’ve gravitated to a palette of opposite colors,” she says. The landscape is also filled with several varieties of hydrangea, as well as native shrubs. Containers are filled with a combination of annuals, perennials and tropicals. While she mulches every year, Stacy does not treat the lawn. “It doesn’t have to look perfect,” she says. 

With Longwood Gardens as her playground, a grandmother whose gardens served as a classroom and a mother who operated a flower shop in Chadds Ford, it only seemed natural that Laura Lapp’s career path would take her in a horticultural direction.  

What was once an Amish-owned greenhouse that specialized in geraniums became the home of Perfect Pots. The company’s roots extend back to 2007, when owner Laura Lapp began creating container gardens for friends, family and neighbors in the driveway of her home.

Actually, there were a few detours along the way before Laura’s company, Perfect Pots, took root in 2007. “I saw how hard my mom had to work,” Laura says of Nancy Clegg. “It immersed her life,” she continues, alluding to such red-letter days as Valentine’s, Easter, Mother’s Day and Christmas, not to mention weddings and other life events that required flowers. 

Laura ultimately took a different direction; as a college student, she majored in psychology and developed an interest in neuroscience. After earning her degree, she worked in the lab of a pharmaceutical company. Still, plants were never far from Laura’s mind, as she couldn’t help but notice the similarities that neuroscience and horticulture share. “Both involve a lot of trial and error,” Laura points out. 

The container selection at Perfect Pots is mind-boggling.

Laura’s career path took another turn with the birth of her daughters, Morgan and Kaitlyn. “I chose to be a stay-at-home mom,” she explains. Motherhood also allowed her to reconnect with horticulture. “I just started playing around with planting pots. Container gardening became my hobby. I loved it. It provided me with a way to be outside with the girls and be creative,” she explains. Unbeknownst to Laura, she had tapped into a relatively new concept that would take the gardening world by storm.   

Friends, family and neighbors began to take notice of the experiments that were being carried out in Laura’s driveway. One day her next-door neighbor approached Laura and asked for her help. He couldn’t help but notice how she had transformed her own property and explained he had guests coming for a visit and felt his yard wasn’t very welcoming. 

The greenhouse’s resident cat strolls past a container filled with succulents.

Laura, who admits she had noticed all the empty pots that dotted the landscape, said she would be glad to help him roll out the welcome mat. “I studied the property, took note of the light and came up with a plan,” she recalls. Accompanied by her daughters, Laura began visiting local greenhouses and garden centers to secure the perfect plants for the project. Her first client was thrilled with the results and his guests were impressed. 

Other neighbors took notice and approached Laura for help, as well. “Word spread and soon people were just leaving pots in my driveway for me to fill,” she recalls. The neighborhood proved to be the perfect “lab” for Laura. Her preference for using large containers filled with a selection of plants provided the “wow factor” for the small yards that defined the neighborhood. “I wasn’t trying to start a business, it found me,” she says. Still, Laura was convinced she was onto something. “I’d drive around and notice all the pots that were sitting empty in people’s yards,” she recalls. 

Designer Vicki Sullivan chooses plants for a customer’s container.

Homework revealed that the empty pots were a result of frustration – people were making mistakes such as combining plants with differing light and moisture needs or they lacked the time to shop, plant and maintain the container gardens.

Taking the next step was intimidating. “I had to do something – I was outgrowing the garage and driveway,” Laura explains. Her mother encouraged Laura to be “excited and not fearful” of where her creativity could take her. 

Laura Lapp stands among pansies that she loves to use for spring containers. Courtesy of Perfect Pots.

One day, while she was driving along the Strasburg Pike, Laura noticed an empty greenhouse. She knew it as a place that was once known for its beautiful geraniums. Age and a lack of help had caused the Amish grower to retire. Now, the greenhouse sat empty. Laura connected with the property owners and asked if they would be interested in renting her a table in the greenhouse for production purposes. The couple who once operated the greenhouse and still lived next door to it was very receptive. They welcomed Laura to set up shop and pay them what she could. “That started my dream,” she says. 

Fortunately for Laura, her dream met with immediate success. A flag that bore the message “Open” prompted passersby to stop. “Customers began showing up!” she exclaims. “It became a very grassroots enterprise – if the flag was out, we were open.” 

Laura works with vendors who fire pots at higher temperatures and then apply a glaze that allows them to withstand freezing temperatures.

The business began with a selection of pots, plants, dirt and one employee – Laura. A photo in her office captures her at work in the greenhouse as Morgan and Kaitlyn play in the background. Laura wistfully looks at the photo and comments she will become an empty nester in the fall, as her younger daughter, Morgan, will be leaving for college.   

Growth Can’t Be Contained 

Laura designed her business around two tenets. First, she wanted to provide her customers with the very best products, whether it’s pots, plants or soil. “Providing the best is what sets us apart,” she notes of dealing with trusted vendors, other local businesses and attending events such as the gift shows that are held in Atlanta and Philadelphia. The tactic has obviously paid off – Perfect Pots was invited to be a vendor at this year’s Philadelphia Flower Show, which is once again being held outdoors in June. “I was honored to be asked, but I think we’ll wait for another year or so,” Laura says. “The timing isn’t the greatest for us.” 

Working from home allowed Laura to be a stay-at-home mom to her daughters, Kaitlyn and Morgan. Courtesy of Laura Lapp.

Building relationships is also integral to the business. “The core of our business is planting pots. Everything we do is custom. We track customers’ preferences and send the same designers to them each season.” Perfect Pots works with clients who are within a two-hour radius of Lancaster.  

Perfect Pots also stays in tune with gardening trends. With the houseplant craze showing no signs of abating, the greenhouse, market stand and flower shops are brimming with plants, succulents, pots and other needs. Yes, Perfect Pots has indeed grown over the years and now consists of two divisions, with Central Market Flowers being the newest offshoot. 

The greenhouse is filled with containers-to-go and garden art.

The expansion began four years ago, when Perfect Pots set up a garden boutique at Kitchen Kettle Village in Intercourse. “Because we focus on a different customer there – mainly visitors to Lancaster County – we offer a different product,” Laura says of the travel-friendly containers, plants and garden décor that are available. Because they typically get just one opportunity to make an impression, employees serve as ambassadors of sorts for Perfect Pots, Kitchen Kettle and Lancaster County. “We’ll answer questions about plants, as well as what sights to see,” Laura says. 

Always a fan of Lancaster Central Market, Laura dreamed of operating a stand there. Establishing a relationship with Nelson and Rose Rohrer, who operated a flower-growing farm in Manheim Township and took over a flower stand at market in 2001, provided Laura with her Central Market connection. “My mother was working for the Rohrers and when I ran out of pussy willow one spring, she suggested I contact Nelson,” Laura explains. “I bought a truckload and then began buying all my pussy willow from him.” When the Rohrers decided to end their 18-year tenure at market in 2019, they approached Laura with the idea of taking over. They only had to ask once. “I knew right away that I wanted to do it,” she says. The venture would allow her to grow in a new direction and offer customers fresh flowers. 

Taking over the Rohrers’ stand also provided Central Market Flowers with a bonus space – a small shop on West King Street that was used for production purposes. 

Color and texture define Perfect Pots’ container selection.

Central Market Flowers was an instant success and Laura soon found herself in need of additional production space. “I told my employees to keep their eyes open for space in the downtown area,” she recounts. Late last summer she received a call from an employee who happened to be driving up North Queen Street and noticed a “For Lease” sign in the window of the former El Jardin Flower & Garden Room (prior to that, it was Flowers by Paulette) at the corner of North Queen and West Walnut streets. “I knew the space – it would be perfect for us! I dropped everything I was doing and called the number she gave me.” As Laura was the first to call, the space was hers.  

The new space provides more than 3,000 square feet of showroom and production space. “We only had about 300 square feet at the other site,” she notes. The showroom area resembles a studio apartment rather than a traditional shop and is a perfect fit for the trendy 300 block of North Queen Street. (Its next-door neighbor is Space, which specializes in mid-century furniture and décor.) The window areas are filled with houseplants, while tables and bookcases hold pots and other needs. A display of succulents creates a “quilt” effect atop a vintage brass bed, while a large communal table provides ample space for consultations, classes, private parties and First Friday make-and-take projects that visitors are welcome to create. 

Substance, color and texture bring the wow factor to containers.

Floral designers work in the rear of the building to create custom bouquets and arrangements. Their assignments are guided by a theme menu that is simply geared to color and occasion. The general guidelines allow the designers to be creative, as well as utilize the products they have access to. Like everything else, the pandemic has affected the availability of floral products due to supply-chain issues, notably items coming from the West Coast and Europe. Flowers (at all locations) can be ordered for delivery on an in-person, telephone or online basis. “If you place an order by 12, it will be delivered that afternoon,” Laura promises. 

Back on West King Street, Laura was able to reimagine what had been Central Market Flowers’ production space. “We’ve turned that into a wonderland for everlasting florals,” Laura reports. Everlasting florals? Back in the day, they were called dried flowers and be assured, they don’t look anything like the dust collectors of old. “Dried flowers have made a huge comeback,” Laura reports. Indeed, the product is vastly improved – the 21st-century version is colorful and whimsical. It’s also thoroughly modern – one of the favorite First Friday projects involves wiring a few sprigs of everlasting florals to a crystal. In addition to the everlasting florals, the shop is stocked with unique plants, mini-sized plants and succulents, garden décor, containers and more. 

In the beginning, Laura rented one table in the greenhouse, which she used for production purposes. Now the business fills the entire greenhouse, as well as an outdoor area.

Laura is pleased with the success of Central Market Flowers. “We’ve experienced rapid growth in business since September,” she reports. However, she is looking for more ways to branch out and hopes to become more involved in weddings and special events. “We’ve already had a lot of wedding interest,” she shares. For such events, she is experimenting with combining Perfect Pots’ colorful containers with fresh flowers.            

Meanwhile … Back at Perfect Pots

The popularity of container gardens prompted Perfect Pots to grow exponentially. Early on, Laura hired plant-loving retirees and moms of school-aged kids to work at Perfect Pots. Now, the workforce is more diverse and includes plant lovers of all ages and abilities. “We’ve gone from one to 33 employees,” she noted in February. Perfect Pots also took over the entire greenhouse, as well as the plot of land that surrounds it. It’s also become a year-round venture, as designers change out pots to reflect all the seasons of the year. The greenhouse is also stocked with plants on a nearly year-round basis. 

This container appears to be crafted from volcanic rock.

The main show – the pot selection – is astounding. The pots are available in a rainbow of colors and interesting textures and finishes. The sheer size of the largest pots is mind-boggling. “You want your pot to make a statement,” Laura says. The sizes and the colors of the pots definitely achieve that! “We rely on our trusted suppliers for our pots,” Laura says. “They’re made of high-quality material and the clay is fired at a higher temperature. The glaze protects them from cracking – they can stay out in all weather.” She is so confident in the performance factor of her pots that Laura says, “You will have these for the rest of your life.” 

Actually, moving the pots could prove to be back-breaking. “We fill them bottom to top with soil,” Laura points out. “They are incredibly heavy.” Designers have found that a pot filled with soil provides the best growing conditions for plants. Laura notes they have conducted experiments – partially filling a pot with “peanuts” and topping it off with soil – only to discover at the end of the season that the roots had grown through the peanuts. Compared to pots that were totally filled with soil, the plants were not as robust due to a compromised root system. Laura also doesn’t like to fill the bottom of pots with rocks/stones, as one could become lodged in the drainage hole and cause the soil to become soggy and thus result in root rot. That’s not to say that soil has to be replaced each year. “We freshen the soil on top,” she says. “It’s a one-time soil fill.” 

Garden art ranges from whimsical to dramatic.

Of course, DIYers are welcome to choose containers and the plants to fill them.  

As for the plant aspects of the pots, the possibilities are endless. For spring, Laura likes to go with the tried-and-true – pansies. “Nothing beats a pansy,” she says of the harbingers of spring that can tolerate just about any weather condition that comes their way. The color selection continues to expand.    

For summer, she has become a huge fan of that old-fashioned plant, the coleus. Today, it’s a thoroughly modern plant thanks to hybridization that has helped to create plants of all sizes and colors. It thrives in summer heat as well as fall’s cool temperatures. “We have 80 different types of coleus,” she notes. Laura is also a fan of salvia, which she describes as a “Hummingbird magnet.” To mix things up, Laura likes to incorporate houseplants into pots, “especially for shady areas.” 

For fall, Laura thinks beyond mums and likes to incorporate other perennials into pots. She also introduces texture via grasses and elements such as pumpkins and gourds. When winter rolls around, evergreens and natural accents such as pinecones and birch branches define the pots. 

Perfect Pots is located at 745 Strasburg Pike. For more information, visit perfectpots.com.