SEQUIM — Six longtime avid garden experts were handed the Golden Trowel Award on Wednesday, the highest honor bestowed on a Clallam County Master Gardener.
Those receiving the award during a luncheon at the Woodcock Road Demonstration Garden at 2711 Woodcock Road were Virginia Ahron on behalf of her late husband, Alf Ahron; Riley Bigler; Mary Flo Bruce; Michelle Mangiantini; Gail Nelson; and Dianne Thu.
About 50 of the Master Gardeners’ 150 members attended the luncheon, many sharing fond stories about the honorees they have befriended and worked with side by side over the years.
“We take nominations, but they have to be a Master Gardener for 10 years, contributing at least 1,000 volunteer hours,” said Muriel Nesbitt, Master Gardeners program coordinator and master of ceremonies at the awards luncheon.
Along with the Golden Trowel, honorees receive stones engraved with their names that are embedded on the “Walk of Fame” at the 2.5-acre Woodcock Road garden, where just about anything that can grow on the North Olympic Peninsula is grown, from roses and dahlias to orchard fruit trees and berries, ornamentals and ornamental grasses, leafy vegetables, annuals and perennial plants.
This brings to 47 the number of honorees with stones on the Walk of Fame since the award’s inception in 2005.
Alf Ahron, who died in a fall from a ladder this year after joining the Master Gardeners in 2001, was remembered as a modest, kind, intelligent person with a wonderful sense of humor.
His sudden death in June was a great loss to the Master Gardener program, Nesbitt said.
Bigler, also with the class of 2001 along with Alf Ahron, worked at the Woodcock garden early on. He worked in the orchard and vegetable garden areas and became manager of both.
In 2007, he moved his efforts to the Robin Hill garden, where he is still involved in the organic vegetable garden and orchard.
He is the organization’s fruit tree expert, and Nesbitt said he is always willing to make house calls on sick trees and to offer public presentations on growing fruit.
Bruce is well-known among Master Gardeners for her acerbic sense of humor and contagious love of life, Nesbitt said.
She has been a Master Gardener since 1998. She was the plant sale coordinator for her first two years and has been active in several projects and committees.
She joined the organization’s Youth Enrichment Program in 1999.
Mangiantini joined the Master Gardeners in 2003, and because of her hearing impairment, she had to sit in the front row in the training class so she could read the instructors’ lips, Nesbitt said.
Nevertheless, Mangiantini was able to score 100 percent on her final exam.
As an intern, she participated in all the Master Gardener activities, including plant clinics, demonstration gardens, plant sales, garden tours and the Irrigation Festival Parade.
She edited the Master Gardeners’ newsletter for several years and the Master Gardeners’ contributions to Sequim This Week.
Nelson joined the Master Gardeners in 1997, and she and her husband, Harry, started Nelson’s Duckpond & Lavender Farm.
Nelson said joining the Master Gardeners was the best thing she has done, particularly the Youth Enrichment Program, which she has participated in since 1997.
She has chaired the garden tour twice and served on the Foundation Board as a member and as president.
Nelson founded the Golden Trowel Award and Walk of Fame in 2005.
Thu joined the Master Gardeners in 1995, and her primary activities then were in the area of publicity, which has become a continuing interest.
She worked in the WSU Extension Office at the Clallam County Courthouse before any of the current staff were there.
She has served on the Master Gardeners Foundation Board and worked on all the plant sales and garden tours.
To join Master Gardeners, phone 360-565-2679 and leave a message requesting an application and volunteer screening form by leaving your name, address and phone number; or email Nesbitt at mnesbitt@co.clallam.wa.us.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
