By Donna Des Rochers
With the scenic Columbia River Gorge in her front yard, Robin Ross loves herbs, flowers and feeding people. Living on top of the Rowena plateau, outside of Mosier at the end of a mile long gravel road, in a comfortable, vintage 1800’s farmhouse, the views are panoramic. The wind, native grass, deer, and limited water offer gardening challenges for this long time Master Gardener.
Gardening has always been a big part of Robin’s life, no matter where she has lived, and that is many places. Each area offered its own challenges and rewards, be it limited space, long, cold winters or cool summers.
As a young girl who spent the summer at Grandma Elsie’s in Forestville, CA, she enjoyed watering petunia’s, Mountain Ash and learning the names of local plants. Her first rose bush was bought for her by her brother Peter, who understood her passion. Later in British Columbia, she planted a garden in the woods, watering it daily by hauling water in a pail up from a well, pouring it into an old fire extinguisher and carrying it to the garden through the trees. Moving to Wisconsin Robin always found the perfect places to plant tomatoes, asparagus and flowers in raised beds, be it at a house or an apartment. She discovered one of her favorite herbs, basil, in Wisconsin, and has planted it in every garden since.
In 2020, while traveling through the area, Robin stopped in to see Jean, a friend of a Wisconsin friend. Robin went back to Wisconsin but returned when Jean invited her out to help with her property. Jean has a beautiful established place with a grape vineyard, fruit trees, roses, perennial flower garden, a green house and a pottery studio. To enhance existing raised beds, Robin hauled carloads of bags of dirt and fertilizer for her plants in the dry and windy environment. It helps to have a year-round cistern plus domestic water available for use.
Robin has a thriving garden with herbs, basil, rosemary, asparagus, strawberries, annual flowers, anise hyssop, kiss me over the garden gate, Brazilian verbena from seeds brought from Wisconsin that now self-seed. Walking through the lush garden, that contrasts with the golden native grass fields, it is refreshing to smell the aromatic marigolds, anise, basil and dill that fill the air from various garden beds. Due to the abundance of deer, 6-foot wire fences surround each of the gardens on the property. Robin tells a story of checking her garden one morning and seeing a large rattlesnake coiled in a flower bed. She gave him/her/it lots of space for a week before the visiting rattler moved on to get the next meal. Coyotes are often seen running across the fields or on the rim rocks.
In many of the areas where Robin lived, she joined local Master Gardener groups. The Wisconsin Master Gardeners had a very large group, and she volunteered at the public library to put in a native plant garden. To staff the plant clinic, it was required to take many special classes before volunteering.
At another Master Gardener group, a church made property available to grow food for the food bank. In the Spring, the Master Gardeners handed out seeds, flats, and soil to congregation members. After 4 weeks the volunteers would bring the young plants back to re-pot and later plant them in the garden. Extra plants were donated to the community. The garden beds had religious names like “Holy Grounds” and “Hope Garden.”
She was a member of The Dalles Master Gardeners before finding her happy place with Central Gorge Master Gardeners.
Robin has a thing about sharing food with friends and at neighborhood dinners. She loves to cook using whatever is in season, be it zucchini or plums. Her dog and Jean’s dog, who both visit and make themselves comfortable at both homes, are a joy.
For Robin, the outdoors with the wind, fields, birds, seasons, clouds rushing through the Gorge are her inspiration. Robin is passionate about spreading gardening information to kids and adults. As a volunteer on most Saturday mornings and a member of the Steering Committee at the FISH Garden, she is amazed at willingness and dedication of both Tracy and Dennis to share knowledge.
Robin enjoys the comradery and sense of purpose of the Central Gorge Master Gardeners. She was afraid and thrilled at the same time to be able to volunteer at a Plant Clinic with little experience. Megan and the other volunteers made her feel welcome and were willing to share information and processes. It turned out to be fun and easy since it was so well organized.
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