How Native Plants and Natural Landscape Design are Transforming Pennsylvania Communities | Gardening Tips and How-To Guides

For Lydia Ramos Martin, it's been a journey spanning more than 20 years as her passion for nature and all things natural blossomed into a career as an environmental educator and ecological design consultant.

Martin has long advocated for the use of native plants and ecological design practices that benefit both humans and wildlife.

It all began in Martin's early teens, growing up in Adams County, Pennsylvania, when she'd get her hands in the soil to nurture wildflowers, work in the vegetable garden with her father and forage for edible berries and plants with her mother.

Lydia Martin is in her Hidden Valley home, with a restored pond in the background.

Lydia Martin

As an adult, she served as a Penn State Master Gardener for eight years and is also a Pennsylvania State Master Naturalist, bringing years of training and self-education to her work.

Examples of her impact can be seen in the pollinator and native plant gardens at Penn State's Agricultural Research and Extension Center, as well as at Manheim Township libraries and parks.

In addition to her ecological design and consulting work, Martin, 49, is the community engagement director for Let's Go 1-2-3 in Lancaster, a nonprofit organization founded in 2019 to provide outdoor experiences for adults and children.

This allows Martin to share his vision that land and water conservation is for everyone, regardless of where they live. The group is a sister organization to Let's Go Outdoors, a minority-owned business founded in 2010 in Philadelphia by sisters Keisha and Tasha Scovens.

“Through nature-based activities, Let's Go 1-2-3 strives to make urban and suburban families more aware of the outdoor world around them and their impact on it,” she said. “We spark an interest in natural sciences and encourage environmental stewardship in both adults and students.”

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The pond is the focal point of Hidden Valley during spring rainstorms.

Art Petrocemollo | Correspondent

Martin, her husband Doug Martin, a contractor, their daughter Yvonne and their three sons moved to a nine-acre property called Hidden Valley in Conestoga, about 20 minutes southwest of Lancaster, in 2010.

“Hidden Valley was and still is a hidden gem,” Martin says, “with a gorgeous untended pond at its center, and our midcentury ranch home was overgrown with vegetation and too much grass.”

It was a challenge, but the Martins embraced the opportunity to work with nature and enrich the land, rather than against it. Over the years, they introduced local and native plants from the Mid-Atlantic region to Hidden Valley. It also gave the Martins an opportunity to test their own vision of natural landscaping.

Today, Hidden Valley is a reflection of the Martins’ vision for the property, featuring a diverse range of native oak, hickory and dogwood trees along with spring ephemerals and seasonal wildflowers.

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The back stairs of the Hidden Valley home lead to an arbor that attracts plenty of wildlife.

Lydia Martin

The spring-fed pond, just over an acre in size, was once overgrown with grasses and invasive species around the water's edge but is now surrounded by trees and shrubs, including birch, wild oak, sweet bay, magnolia, buttonbush and dogwood. The understory vegetation attracts 80 species of birds, including wood robins, red-necked larks, warblers, grey herons, ospreys and hummingbirds.

Over the past two decades, the message of Martin and other naturalists has begun to resonate with homeowners who want to create natural habitats on their property that help protect native trees, plants and flowers and provide homes for the birds, bees, butterflies and other small animals that help sustain ecosystems.

She and her husband have built their Highmark Construction business, which now includes sons Angel, 30, Gabriel, 24, and Tristan, 22, and have found new clients looking for help landscaping their properties.

“In reality, most homeowners were starting from a blank slate or copying their neighbors,” Martin says, “but they were open to beautifying their properties with local landscaping but didn't know how, so I started helping them.”

Martin’s consulting business has grown primarily through word of mouth and exposure to clients and friends of Highmark Construction, and the two properties she is most proud of are a historic home in Lancaster County and the new 911 call center building in Lebanon County.

Martin's work on the original 1725 Hoover Farm home on Newport Road in Lititz has been transformative.

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The pond is the focal point of Hidden Valley during a spring rainstorm. Photo by Art Petrosemolo.

Art Petrocemollo | Correspondent

The land is now owned by the Weaver family, and the original house is an important site for the Moravian Church: German Count Nikolaus Ludwig, who founded the Moravian Church in Lititz, and Moravian Bishop Reichsgraf von Zinzendorf preached here in 1745.

“It's been so exciting working with the owners over the past two years to revitalise the landscape using local trees and plants to bring it closer to how it looked 300 years ago,” Martin said.

Martin is completing work on Lebanon County's new 911 Communications Center call center, scheduled to open this summer.

“The county welcomes natural landscaping with native trees and plants on the 10-acre site,” Martin said. “My work will include restoring nature trails that highlight native plants and landscaping for pollinators and wildlife, and installing interpretive signs and videos to educate visitors.”

Blessed with a deep love of nature, Martin is keen to share that love with others, and she regularly leads tours of the transformation of Hidden Valley and speaks to school children, garden clubs, churches and conservation organisations, groups dedicated to connecting people with nature and protecting our natural environment.

“It all starts small and grows,” says Martin, who no longer sees herself as a vocal presence in nature. “My work is so satisfying because it helps so many people and the wildlife around us.”

This spring, Martin spoke about her favorite Hidden Valley native plants at the Lancaster History Museum’s Nature Series, giving group presentations and collaborating with women leaders from across the state.

She also partnered with Pennsylvania Trout Unlimited and the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission to plant more than 50 native edible trees and shrubs along Bald Eagle Creek at Godspeed Lodge in Port Matilda.

Martin led the Southeast Community Green Team at the Nature Festival at Hazel Jackson Middle School in Lancaster and continues to help teachers educate and support students in caring for the environment.

Her work has been recognized by local and regional organizations: in 2019, she received Penn Future’s Women in Environmental Education Award for her dedicated work educating the community on sustainability and environmental policy, and in 2021, she received the Lancaster County Community Foundation’s Baldwin Leadership Award for her work advancing diverse voices in women and environmental stewardship.

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