Dody and John Holmes, John Norgord, Amanda Rosenberg and Bill Wood were presented the Master Gardeners Golden Trowel Award on July 20.

According to Lorrie Hamilton, WSU Clallam County Master Gardener Program coordinator, the Golden Trowel Award recognizes Master Gardeners that have been active in the organization for over five years, dedicated over 750 hours of volunteer time and demonstrated outstanding service in promoting education and environmental stewardship to their community. She said that this year’s award recipients have contributed a combined total of approximately 7,000 hours educating home gardeners through plant clinics, demonstration gardens and lectures, youth outreach and other programs.

• Dody Holmes

After graduating from the University of California–San Diego, Holmes received a position with the Scripps Institute of Oceanography where she and her co-workers were taken by Navy boat to an off-shore platform where they conducted oceanographic research.

In 1993, she became a Master Gardener in Arizona and then attended the Washington State University Master Gardener training in 2005 in order to adapt her knowledge to local growing conditions after she and her husband moved to Sequim.

Since joining the Clallam County Master Gardeners, she has been an active plant clinic volunteer and continues to provide leadership to the vegetable garden area at the Master Gardener Demonstration Garden at 2711 Woodcock Road.

She also has organized plant clinic scheduling and sign-ups, assisted with Master Gardener exhibits at the Clallam County fair, helped edit the Sequim Gazette gardening column, worked the garden tours and plant sales, helped with county roadside weed identification, volunteered with the Youth Education Program, wrote grants and the Memorandum of Understanding for the Carrie Blake group, and was a key volunteer at the Robin Hill vegetable demonstration garden.

• John Holmes

John Holmes, a graduate of UC–Davis, has 30 years of experience in civil engineering and managing systems of various sizes. After moving to Sequim, he took on volunteer management of a 200-connection water system for the Dungeness Meadows Homeowners Association.

Since taking the Master Gardener training in 2007, he has been the primary contact for supplying all Master Gardener Demonstration gardens with irrigation, including Robin Hill, Carrie Blake Park and Woodcock. He also has given training on installing drip irrigation. Recently at Woodcock, he worked with Clallam County Sustainability coordinator Meggan Uecker on design and construction of the new compost demonstration area and fencing. He coordinated the planting of WSU experimental hops and provided their trellises at the Woodcock Demonstration Garden.

He serves as secretary for the Master Gardener Foundation of Clallam County Board.

• John Norgord

Norgord is a Washington native and graduate of the University of Washington, but has traveled extensively around the country for his career. He was a mining engineer and managed projects in Wyoming, New Mexico, Ohio, California, Utah and Colorado before retiring to Sequim.

A Master Gardener since 2008, he is serving as the president of the Master Gardener Foundation of Clallam County Board of Directors. He has participated in the Youth Enrichment Program, a curriculum-based plant science program presented to second-grade students across Clallam County, since 2009 and has co-chaired the YEP program for the past three years. He also volunteers with the gardening program at the Boys & Girls Club in Sequim.

Norgord has given various presentations for the Master Gardener Brown Bag educational series and always is enthusiastic to share his passion for Washington native plants with the community and Master Gardener trainees, having initiated an annual plant identification walk for new Master Gardener interns. He has actively backed and provided technical assistance to demonstration gardens at Robin Hill, Carrie Blake Park and Woodcock.

• Amanda Rosenberg

Rosenberg, a graduate of the University of Montana, served as executive director of the United Way in Sweetwater County, Wyoming, for 28 years before moving to Sequim.

Rosenberg took the Master Gardener training class in 2008. She has been active in vegetable trials at the organization’s demonstration gardens, provides support to the Education Committee and has given various presentations for the Brown Bag educational series and Soroptimist Garden Gala.

Rosenberg has spearheaded publicity efforts for many of the Master Gardener Program and Foundation events, including public educational series and workshops, the Petals and Pathways Home Garden Tour and plant sales.

She also has co-chaired the YEP Program with Norgord for the past three years and volunteers with the Boys & Girls Club Garden Club in Sequim.

Rosenberg received the 2014 Master Gardener of the Year award for Clallam County, along with Audreen Williams.

• Bill Wood

A Port Angeles resident, Wood grew up on a large farm on Whidbey Island where boyhood chores included milking cows by hand, getting firewood, fixing fences, hoeing those determined garden weeds and summer haying.

He received his bachelor’s degree in biology and Masters of Science in terrestrial ecology from Western Washington University and completed a career in salmon and shellfish management with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, retiring in 2000.

Since retiring, Wood has spearheaded the effort to re-establish a functioning oak-savanna habitat on 20 acres of land north of Carrie Blake Park on the Sequim Prairie. The Gary oaks, about 1,500 of them, are well established and work continues to rehabilitate the shrub and grassy areas to the original prairie flora.

He joined the Master Gardener program in 2001. He has served on the Foundation’s board. He has chaired the Plant Clinic, where he continues to provide expert leadership identifying and diagnosing plant problems for local home gardeners. He is an active participant and advisor in the Youth Enrichment Program.

Each Golden Trowel Award honoree received an engraved rock paver which has been installed in a pathway at the Woodcock Demonstration Garden along with the 70 previous award recipients.

Clallam County Master Gardeners, a cooperative program between Washington State University and Clallam County, provides up-to-date information on sustainable gardening practices. Master Gardener volunteers also address environmental and social priorities such as water conservation, the protection of water quality, reducing the impact of invasive species and healthy living through gardening.

For more information, call Lorrie Hamilton, program coordinator, WSU Master Gardeners of Clallam County, at 417-2279.