From July 2023<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And the answer is\u2026.Gardening! <\/p>\n\n\n\n
After the first few minutes interviewing Mary Corl, it became clear that \u201cgardening\u201d was the answer to nearly all my questions. What\u2019s 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 who has devoted her life to its pursuit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
What motivates a person to find and follow one\u2019s passion? Mary\u2019s interest in gardening grew from her roots in Sunnyside, Washington where her family raised grapes, asparagus, and other crops. Participation in 4-H club further enhanced her knowledge of gardening while deepening her curiosity about all things agricultural and horticultural. After high school, she earned an Associate Arts degree in interior design and moved to Portland, helping clients with home design and businesses with window design. Eventually a client encouraged her to become a mortgage broker, but she found this career change to be too restrictive for her creative nature. In 2002 she purchased what was supposed to have been a vacation home in Skamania Landing; today it\u2019s home to her husband, their two dogs, a cat, and 150 houseplants. While some folks collect antiques,books, or coins, Mary collects plants. A member and volunteer of Hortlandia, the Hardy Plant Society of Oregon, she is always on the lookout for new plants to add to her extensive collection. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mary has combined her love for gardening and design in a half acre garden which she describes as a \u201cjungle\u201d. She begins each day with YouTube videos on gardening, \u201cvisiting\u201d gardens worldwide from her office and gaining knowledge and insight that she brings to her own outdoor spaces. Armed with water, snacks, and music, she often spends entire days gardening. She waters each quadrant carefully by hand because installing irrigation would disrupt the ground where so many plants flourish. Mary sees her garden as a series of \u201cvignettes\u201d that flow together, with no bare ground to interrupt that flow. She believes that interior design and exterior design go hand in hand, so she puts a great deal of thought and planning into making those spaces beautiful. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Master Gardening program opened Mary\u2019s eyes to the whole picture: everything from the underground root system to the tree canopy is interdependent, and one\u2019s actions have a ripple effect. \u201cWe killed everything growing up,\u201d she commented, referring to the effects of pesticides, farming practices, and bird control by bullet on the family farm in Sunnyside. Today she rejoices in the abundance of bird, insect, and plant life in her Skamania Landing garden. \u201cEveryone,\u201d Mary says, \u201cshould become a Master Gardener.\u201d There is so much that can be learned from the program, and the knowledge can help people better understand and appreciate plants and their role in the environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While this is only her first year as a certified Master Gardener, Mary has enthusiastically embraced the volunteer opportunities afforded by the program. She\u2019s active in the FISH food bank garden and is serving as our chapter\u2019s OMGA alternate rep. She wishes she could spend time helping with other project gardens but there are more volunteer opportunities than there are hours in a day. In addition to her CGMGA activities, she also volunteers as a fire commissioner for Skamania County, serves on the architectural committee of her HOA, and is helping her sister to bring a healing garden to the Sunnyside Cancer Clinic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Her advice to new master gardeners? Pace yourself. Education doesn\u2019t stop when classes end, and time spent volunteering often far exceeds the hours required for certification. Still, Mary sees herself continuing the program in the years to come and hopes to mentor new trainees as well. Her enthusiasm for gardening and for the Master Garden program is infectious and inspiring. \u201cThere\u2019s still so much to learn and know,\u201d she says, \u201cand I want to do it all.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By Anne Gehrig<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
From July 2023 And the answer is\u2026.Gardening! After the first few minutes interviewing Mary Corl, it became clear that \u201cgardening\u201d was the answer to nearly all my questions. What\u2019s 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":997,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-spotlights"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/centralgorgemga.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/centralgorgemga.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/centralgorgemga.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centralgorgemga.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centralgorgemga.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=922"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/centralgorgemga.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/922\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":998,"href":"https:\/\/centralgorgemga.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/922\/revisions\/998"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centralgorgemga.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/centralgorgemga.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centralgorgemga.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centralgorgemga.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}