Meet the Staff
Harold Watters
There would be no Watters Garden Center without our founding father, Harold Watters. In 1962, Harold expanded his landscaping company to include a plant nursery, and the business was born where the old bowling alley is now on Plaza Drive in Prescott. The garden center grew with Harold’s family, at one time including a pet store and flower shop. His wife and four daughters all pitched in to help. Harold’s love of plants and of beautifying his community was integral in all aspects of his life, including family vacations spent touring gardens and nurseries. By 1983, the garden center—just like the plants– needed room to grow, so Harold moved it to its current location on Iron Springs Road. He decided he might want to retire at some point, and passed the torch in 2002 to his youngest daughter, Lisa Watters Lain, and her husband Ken Lain, now the second family generation to focus on making Prescott green and natural. More than 50 years after its beginning, folks still come to Watters Garden Center and tell us how Harold gave their relative/friend his/her first job in the Prescott community, or how he planted a little sapling in their yard that’s grown into an enormous tree decades later.
Kevin Michels
We consider Kevin Michels our true Renaissance Man! Born into a military family, Kevin has lived in the Midwest and the middle of Europe but traces his love of gardening back to his grandfather, a professional baseball player, and farmer in Ohio. He has extensive experience in telling corny jokes and working in the media industry and has run businesses from restaurants to retail and flooring to farming. After moving to the desert from the Texas hills, Kevin wanted to master gardening in Arizona, and received his Master Gardener certification from Arizona State University. At Watters, his decades of experience, calming Texas drawl, and Dad Jokes come in handy teaching garden classes and giving our guests unique and intriguing ideas for an outstanding landscape. No matter his location or new venture to conquer, he’s always had a fruit and vegetable garden and loves feeding his family yard-to-table. Kevin’s latest endeavors include crafting custom furniture, surrendering the tv remote to his wife, and playing with his granddaughters. Just don’t call him Grandpa, call him Tex.
McKenzie Lain
McKenzie Lain literally has gardening experience in her blood as the 3rd generation of her family to carry on the Watters legacy. She is thrilled to be following in the footsteps of her parents and grandparents, and take the garden center to the next level under her ownership. Like her mother before her, McKenzie began her love with gardening as a cashier and by watering plants after school. Education became her major focus after high school, and she received a degree from Fresno Pacific University in Psychology and a Masters Degree in Marriage and Family Counseling from Fuller Theological Seminary. Now, she’s passionate about making sure Watters Garden Center continues to be a major part of the Prescott community by providing jobs and educating the public on the best gardening practices for success. She has spearheaded the only Rare and Exotic Tropical Houseplant selection in northern AZ, searching for plants from the jungles of South America to South East Asia. While supporting local organizations like Prescott Area Young Professionals and the Prescott Chamber of Commerce, McKenzie loves running through the garden center with her Mini-Schnauzers, playing pick-up basketball, and hiking our local trails.
Paul Auer
Watering Wonder and King of Obscure Latin Plant Names, Paul Auer’s lifelong love for plants led to a degree in Forestry and years with the Forest Service and the BLM. How tough can it be to keep thousands of plants from drying out in the brutal Arizona sun? Paul can tell you, as it’s his job to make sure all our beautiful plants are well watered and happily hydrated. The Master of the Moisture Meter, Paul is a fountain of knowledge on local plants and their pasts, and can often be found making a short story long. He’s been a Prescott resident for more than twenty years, a musician for even longer, and loves spending time in our forests with his wife and sons.
Christy Wilson
Our Christy Wilson has gardening literally in her blood, as her grandfather owned a nursery for years in the midwest. She puts her family’s roots work as part of the Watters watering team (a Hydrologist, if you ask her), and believes in talking to the plants as much as the customers. Christy’s quick with a comeback, or a sassy story to savor, like when she was told she was too short to be a flight attendant or shared an elevator with J. Edgar Hoover during her time with the FBI. She’s known as “Mrs. Kravitz” around the garden center for her uncanny ability to know everyone’s business. Fearless and fun, she can be content in her vegetable garden or cooking rattlesnake and is in heaven surrounded by her family, both human and canine.
Patty Tolbert
As our tiniest team member, Patty Tolbert puts up with a lot of sass from her coworkers but takes it all in stride with an eye-roll and a smile. Part of the Watters watering team, she’s at the garden center with the rising sun making sure our green friends stay healthy and hydrated. A resident of Prescott for 40 years, 15 spent as an educator, Patty adores plants and dogs and divides her time between her Prescott mountain cabin and visiting her son in Globe.
Ken Davis
Ken owned his own software company in New Hampshire and moved to Prescott with the intention of blissful retirement. Lucky for us, Ken decided he wasn’t quite ready to retire and joined the Watters Marketing team. A wizard with a camera and various temperamental electronics, he can be found at the garden center videotaping the ‘Saturday Morning Garden Classes‘ and guiding our Social Media presence, while rocking a nautical-themed sweater and a New England accent. Ken and his wife Patricia, are proficient in the art of trading one-liners, and in discovering the latest, greatest northern Arizona wines.
Cheryl Christensen
Cheryl Christensen is the only Watters team member with two very different and distinct titles. As our Rose Queen, Cheryl is responsible for the care and feeding of 600 plus roses every spring, which she accomplishes with a combination of sweetness, sweat, and swearing (If 600 roses each have hundreds of thorns…). Bad bugs beware, because in her second role, The Annihilator, Cheryl inspects every plant in the garden center and checks for nasty pests or diseases hurting our green friends. When she finds them—you guessed it– they’re ANNIHILATED. With decades of nursery experience, and just as much bartending, she can also whip out some incredible cocktails faster than you can holler, “Aphids!”
Lisa Watters-Lain
Lisa Watters Lain is the absolute heart of our operation, working in her family-owned garden center since she was old enough to hold a hose. She’s the engine that CAN, and powers the machine started by her parents more than 60 years ago. Lisa’s Master’s Degree in Education, Arizona Nursery Professional certificate, and a lifetime of nursery experience have created a superhero plant professional, who identifies local plants and what’s ailing them faster than a speeding bullet. You can read her garden advice columns in ‘Prescott Woman Magazine‘ and ‘ Prescott Living Magazine‘ and hear her on the Mountain Gardener Radio Show and ‘PodCast‘ with husband Ken every weekend. A board member for several local non-profit organizations, Lisa believes in giving back to her hometown community by donating her time and resources through beautification projects, like those at Taylor Hicks Elementary School and Agape House. She balances her roles as Owner, General Manager, wife, mother, dog lover, and fierce community supporter using her superpowers of compassion, sarcasm, and a heavy dose of Star Trek knowledge.
Ken Lain
Known by his friends as ‘The Mountain Gardener,’ Watters’ Owner Ken Lain has gardened and farmed in the region for 30 years and knows the best techniques for gardening in the high mountain climates. A local who graduated from Prescott High School, Yavapai College, and ASU, Ken is passionate about plants, landscape design, and spreading the good news that gardening can be easy and fun. A Master Gardener and Certified Nursery Professional, you can read his local garden advice published weekly in ‘PrescotteNews‘ and the Prescott Daily Courier, or hear Ken and wife Lisa on their Mountain Gardener Radio Show and ‘PodCast‘ every weekend. As the David of the family-owned nursery versus the Goliaths of the Big Box Stores, Ken believes in family, community, and giving more than you receive. The outdoors are his livelihood and playground, and Ken and his family spend as much time as they can in our mountains and lakes while working to make their family business succeed.