From Feb 2024
Moving to Hood River in 2006, Laurel DeTar was active at the Hood River County Library and looking for another group to join. As a frequent visitor to Master Gardener Plant Clinics and seeing the fun volunteers were having while doing “good stuff “in the community, Laurel took notice.
Later, Laurel crossed paths at three different appointments with Sandi Rousseau, a long time Master Gardener. Answering an ad in the Hood River News seeking “a member of the public” to join the Japanese Heritage Garden committee where Sandi was also a member, it was beginning to fit together.
As it turned out, Laurel was the only member of the public to show up and join the committee. Along with Rita Saling, who first conceived of the JHG, and other MG’s including Sandi Rousseau, Pat Morrison, Ellen Penswick, Anne Saxby, Jordan Kim, Cindy Collins and Norma Curtis, of the Odell Garden Club, Laurel helped plant the garden. Master Gardeners met her two criteria – have fun with respect. Laurel knew this would be a good organization to join and filled out an application.
Moving to Aunt Marie’s farm as a four year old, Laurel loved being part of the “always something to do” farm lifestyle. She remembers her first job was picking up sticks in the yard. This then included weeding the family sustaining garden and learning how to “really clean the house” before she left for school. Laurel proudly states she can process all kinds of food, from fruits and vegetables to chickens, but empathically declares she won’t be processing chickens ever again. Living on the farm, where no one was ever allowed to be bored, Laurel developed a “can do work ethic”, which she demonstrates even today.
An admitted “Peony Addict”, Laurel points the finger at Lore Sampson of Rarity Gardens as being her ”pusher” and responsible for her 30 plus peony garden. Every year Laurel looks forward to meeting with Lore5 to discover new peonies to add to her collection. With a city lot size back yard there is lots of room to spread out.
Laurel’s secret passion is reading. Detective stories are the current favorite, with Kerry Greenwood’s Phryne Fisher series and Corina Chapman books all time favorites. She is currently reading My Name is Barbara, Barbara Streisand’s memoir and highly recommends the 1000 page book.
Recalling her most embarrassing gardening experience, Laurel sheepishly tells of cutting the extension cord while running a hedge trimmer at a Master Gardener work party. Husband Bob came to the rescue, gifting her a battery operated hedge trimmer last Christmas after she did it a third time. Speaking of Master Gardener work parties, Laurel is very grateful to the MG’s who came to her house one year to help out while she was recovering from a surgery. “A wonderful example of Master Gardener’s generosity.”
In the 1980’s Laurel was a Research Analyst for the California Department of Justice. She began her career there as a clerk and advanced to Research Analyst in less than 10 years, an amazing accomplishment. Her job was to record California homicides and this involved traveling the State to talk to detectives about solved and unsolved homicides. During that time most homicides were gang, drug or acquaintance related. In 1982 she published the Homicide Report in California.
As a past Project Leader for the Japanese Heritage Garden, her group participated in designing and enlarging the garden size to include the area where signage is for those who donated to the original garden.
Laurel took on the maintenance of the garden’s irrigation system several years ago. She knew little about filters, pumps or how to bring the new dedicated service line into service but with the help of Steve Castagnoli she slowly learned the ins and outs of irrigation 101. Laurel thanks Steve for his advice, guidance, help and, most of all, his patience, with getting the irrigation project updated. “This was an example of Master Gardener opportunities to continually learn something new.”
For a couple of years, Laurel was Plant Sale co-leader with Kathy Lien. Laurel fondly remembers the times of potting parties in the “old days” when volunteers went to local gardens, dividing plants and dug starts to sell at the Plant Sale. She has watched the Plant Sale evolve from potting parties to growing plant starts in the OSU Extension greenhouse to the very organized Plant Sale in the State of the Art greenhouse facility now in place. The past 4-5 years, Laurel has enjoyed ordering annual and perennial starts, going to Vanguard Nursery to pick up plugs at the end of March and leading the up-potting party.
The Plant Sale has gone from the “Wild West/Dark Ages/Long Cabin” organization to a high tech organization in every aspect over the years. One small she cites is the streamlining of the plant labeling process for the Plant Sale, thanks to Christie Bradley. In the past the labels were printed on old-fashioned label paper that were individually placed on the plant pots and then price dots were applied. This was very labor intensive, and it is so much easier to have labels printed directly on the plastic stakes.
Laurel still participates in Learning Garden, Plant Sale, and Japanese Heritage Garden activities.
An outstanding fun time was the year the International Master Gardeners’ Convention was in Portland. Laurel and Sandi Rousseau were Tour Guides on two separate buses traveling from Portland to Hood River. As an avid hiker in the Columbia River Gorge and with a Geology enthusiast for a husband, Laurel was happy to share her knowledge of the Gorge with fellow “out of towner” Master Gardeners.
In 2011 Laurel was presented with the Behind the Scenes award and in 2016 Laurel and Kathy Lien were Master Gardeners of the Year. These awards are testaments of Laurel’s commitment to Central Gorge Master Gardeners.
This year Laurel decided to become an Associate Master Gardener and step back for a while. That lasted 6 weeks because she was missing the fun, friends, classes and Plant Clinics.
Laurel’s advice to new Master Gardeners is “find what you love to do and go for it. Meet the Old Timers because they have lots of institutional knowledge which they love to share. Work parties are a wonderful place to get to know your fellow MGs. Just keep coming and enjoy the potlucks.”
by, Donna DesRochers
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