Category: Spotlights

From August 2023 In Master Gardener years, Scott Fitch has been a Master Gardener for two and a half lifetimes.  In non-MG years, that’s 25 years (so from 1998!). Any way you look at it, that’s a “wow!”  As if that wasn’t a big enough deal, Scott has also been awarded MG of the Year…

From November 2023 Sandi Rousseau moved from Hillsboro, Oregon to Hood River in March 2000. By 2003 she had joined the Columbia Gorge Master Gardeners, which at the time was a single chapter comprising Hood River and Wasco counties. In 2005, Hood River County formed their own chapter and Central Gorge Master Gardeners was born.…

From October 2023 John Stevens likes to look for color, height, texture and interest when checking out a landscape. He had this in mind when he and Master Gardener volunteers started the Waterwise project in front of the Hood River Library. It is a xeriscape format—a style of landscape design requiring little or no irrigation…

From July 2023 And the answer is….Gardening!  After the first few minutes interviewing Mary Corl, it became clear that “gardening” was the answer to nearly all my questions. What’s your passion? Gardening. What do you do in your free time? Gardening. Where do you see yourself in 5 years? Gardening. Mary Alice Corl is a woman who loves to garden and…

From September 2023 In the world of horticulture, companion plants are defined as those which share a mutually beneficial relationship. In our Master Gardener chapter, Eric and Shari Bosler represent the human equivalent of companion plants. For more than fourteen years they have supported CGMGA, OMGA, and each other, sharing and spreading the joy of…

From June 2023 In speaking with Margo, one is quickly impressed with her vitality, energy and genuine love of the Master Gardener program. It runs all the way to her core. She is in charge of publicity for our program, oversees social media, started the educational writing crew and works at the learning garden as…

Katie Schmidt Finds Her Roots with a Hügelkultur raised bed “I’m a peasant,” she says quite seriously. Then she smiles and explains. Her family’s history has been rooted to the earth for centuries—farmers in Germany and in Catherine the Great’s Russia—and the family continued their craft when they immigrated to the United States, settling in…

From May 2022 Lynda cares deeply about building and contributing to a thriving community on behalf of youth and future generations. Family, ancestral connections and harmony are values that she has upheld in her gardening, educational and professional pursuits. Lynda is the descendent of the Yaqui and Tarahumara people and she is embracing a newfound…

From April 2022 Kelsey is one of the twenty-six new Master Gardener trainees this year that will be highlighted in these Spotlight articles……..for the next couple of years by my count! Kelsey is truly a PNW woman. Raised in Seattle, she has lived a good part of her life in Oregon and now calls Hood…

From March 2022 Allow me to introduce……Kathy McGregor! If you’re reading this newsletter you, mostly likely, know Kathy from her active involvement in CGMGA. A member since 2005, Kathy has held numerous leadership positions with the organization as well as the acting president in 2006. But there is so much more to this woman than…