Central Gorge Master Gardeners announce award recipients

She has helped to guide the Central Gorge Master Gardener Association by encouraging collaborative decision-making and community-oriented projects. Harty expanded the Garden Gathering Workshops to run twice monthly from March through October, hosting workshops at the Hood River and White Salmon libraries as well as the OSU Hood River County Extension Service to reach diverse audiences and extending Central Gorge Master Gardener outreach to both sides of the Columbia River in the Central Gorge.

Harty also developed the Educational Outreach Committee that brings collective knowledge of Central Gorge Master Gardeners to the community at large. She has helped to develop the new Central Gorge Master Gardener Association website, CentralGorgeMGA.org, increased the presence of Master Gardeners at community events and guides the topics of monthly educational articles in the Home & Garden section for Columbia Gorge News. Harty leads this committee with a vision as well as a listening ear and has presented the Garden Gathering pop up workshops at the Master Gardener Spring Plant Sale in 2024 and 2025. She's also an active co-lead of the pollinator garden which is part of the Learning Garden on the OSU Hood River Extension Service campus.

Harty is a leader, shares thoughtful ideas, works with others, and helps to solve problems in a kind and collaborative manner to make Central Gorge Master Gardener programs successful. She is a great contributor to the organization and is very deserving of recognition as the 2025 Central Gorge Master Gardener of the Year recipient.

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Carol Brown of White Salmon became a Master Gardener in 2023 and hit the ground running. She has made incredible contributions to the organization, staying behind the scenes but key to one of its central projects, the FISH Food Bank Garden. 

While still a trainee, Brown threw herself into working on everything in the garden but became captured by composting and vermiculture. The FISH Food Bank garden is a large production garden, growing many vegetable, herbs and fruit crops each year to donate to FISH Food Bank clients. Carol noticed the opportunity to expand the small composting area, turning the large volume of food waste from the garden and food bank into a valuable soil amendment and educational area. She immersed herself in research, even taking worms home for the winter to experiment with different systems and document the process. She shared all of this learning with her fellow Master Gardeners and recruited other volunteers the following spring to create a large-scale composting and vermicomposting system.

Brown also serves as a Central Gorge Master Gardener mentor to new Master Gardener trainees and shares her excitement and knowledge of composting by teaching others to teach this skill. The composting and vermicomposting area has developed to be a key part of the youth education programs at FISH. Groups such as Klahre House, the Leos, Little Oak Montessori School, and 4H all benefit from time in the garden even as they help others benefit from their work there.

Brown is also on the steering committee for the FISH Food Bank garden, weed whacks, mows, hauls trash and does a bit of everything. So often behind the scenes, but an ever-present and important part of the Central Gorge Master Gardener and FISH Food Bank garden’s success, Carol Brown is most deserving of the 2025 Behind the Scenes Award.

For more information on how OSU Hood River County Extension Central Gorge Master Gardeners benefit local home gardeners and area communities, visit CentralGorgeMGA.org.