Spotlight on Anne Debbaut: A Journey from Engineering to Master Gardening
Anne Debbaut’s journey is a testament to the power of following one’s passions, even when they lead down unexpected paths. Despite not coming from a family of gardeners, Anne has always had an eye for landscape designs, colors, and plant types. Her early fascination with horticulture was evident during her first semester of college, where she simultaneously took both horticulture and engineering classes. The horticulture class was filled with students from large family nurseries, which made Anne uncertain about job prospects in the field. This led her to major in Biomedical Engineering, a decision that shaped her career for the next 15 years.
Long before becoming a biomedical engineer, Anne’s early involvement in 4-H Cooking and Sewing Clubs left a lasting impact. She fondly recalls sewing, cooking, and making outfits. These skills she continued to use for many years, including making her own clothes, tennis outfits, and party dresses in college. A humorous memory from her 4-H gardening project involved her and her father’s surprise at how small a bundle of 50 strawberry plants was and that they didn’t need the station wagon to pick them up after all!
Anne’s engineering career required a slightly different set of skills and was marked by significant achievements, including her work at the Norfolk Naval Base. As the youngest and only female engineer, she faced numerous challenges. Her major project involved starting up one of several seven-story oil/coal-fired boilers that had lain dormant for a decade. She had to learn its workings from scratch and getting it operational involved meticulous maintenance checks that alone took a full year of work!
After moving on from Norfolk to Cary, North Carolina, Anne’s passion for gardening resurfaced. She became a Master Gardener, although raising young children made it difficult to fully commit at that time. Later, she pursued a master’s degree in landscape architecture and gained experience working in both wholesale and retail nurseries.
Anne has long possessed a love for travel, which was nurtured by family camping trips across Canada and the US, visiting almost every single national park in the process. These experiences fostered a deep appreciation for the West Coast and the Northwest, contrasting with the hot and humid climate of North Carolina. In 1999, Anne made a bold move to the West Coast with her late husband and two children, eventually settling in Hood River, Oregon, attracted by the good schools and gorgeous outdoors. The family embraced windsurfing, camping, and frequent hikes.
Anne’s engineering and landscape architecture background fueled her interest in urban planning and city design. She secured a job as a Land Use Planner at Hood River County, where she worked for 10 years and played a crucial role in adopting Riparian Protection Ordinances. This was followed by 12 years at the State Department of Land Conservation and Development and particularly enjoyed her work with Portland Metro Area communities and engaging in the legislative process.
Anne’s cottage gardening style reflects her love for both flowers and vegetables, using some raised beds and experimenting with various plants in her shade garden. Her garden features annuals, perennials, herbs, several types of berries and a couple of fig trees, which provide fruit for her homemade fig jam, a wonderful addition to Indian food.
Beyond gardening, Anne enjoys camping, hiking, and visiting her grandchildren in North Carolina and Hawaii. As a Soroptimist board member, she co-chairs the Speaker Committee, organizing guest speakers for regular meetings. She’s also remodeling her 1940’s house, adding modern amenities like a new roof, solar panels, and a heat pump.
Anne is very interested in permaculture (permanent agriculture), an idea from the 1980’s focused on creating self-sustainable properties. This includes raising fish to fertilize gardens, keeping chickens and goats for food, and implementing water conservation techniques. She would love to move more in that direction in the years ahead.
Master Gardener projects have included working behind the scenes with the online Plant Sales spreadsheet with Joanne Willis, seed staring and transplanting. Anne has spent time off and on at the Library Garden and the Learning Garden. As we were leaving the library, true to her nature of always looking at landscapes, Anne noticed one plant in the MG xeriscape garden was dry and wilting and immediately began solving the issue.
With two years as a Central Gorge Master Gardener, Anne is inspired by the organization’s energy and thoughtful processes. Her advice to new Master Gardeners is “If you have time, work a shift in each of the gardens. Do a little at a time and don’t get overwhelmed. Don’t worry about all the information that comes your way, just enjoy the classes and each of the different speakers.”
Anne Debbaut has come full circle, returning to her lifelong passion for landscape design. She enjoys creating new features and just loves to dig in the dirt and mix things up every year. Her story is one of resilience, adaptability, and the love of growing things.
by Donna DesRochers
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