Joy Adler: Joy's retirement gift to herself was toenroll in the Master Gardener Program in 2004, after30 years of being in the classroom each fall. InMontgomery County high schools Joy has taughtliterature, writing, and critical thinking. She edited theold Washington Theatre Guide Magazine, and nowattempts to edit - without destroying - several too-tallbirches, misplaced maples, and myriad shrubs at homein Bethesda.Dara Ballow-Giffen: Dara is a gardener, beekeeper,chicken keeper and baker. She is passionate aboutgrowing food crops, both in raised beds in her outsidegarden and hydroponically in her inside garden. Hermission is to grow food year round. She has been aMaster Gardener since 2014 and currently co-chairsGrow It Eat It. She is also the editor for theMontgomery County Beekeeping Associationnewsletter. She lives in Darnestown with herhusband, daughter, 2 dogs, 1 cat, 5 chickens andthousands of bees.

Susan Bell: In 2002, Susan Bell followed a life-longpassion for gardening to become a licensed landscapecontractor. She has helped hundreds of homeownersenvision, create and install the gardens they alwayswanted. Additionally she helps by providing handpruning and seasonal maintenance services to keepgardens healthy and in tip-top shape. As a MasterGardener speaker, Susan develops design and gardenmaintenance presentations to pass on knowledgegained through years of hands on experience.

Bonita Condon: Bonita became a Master Gardener in2014 after retiring from the National Institutes ofHealth. She is an avid vegetable gardener, lovesperennials, and combats non-native invasive species inour parks and grasslands. Her special interests includeworking with individuals with mobility limitations,raised garden beds, and tools that accommodatespecial needs. She is a certified Weed Warrior, and anadvisor on the Town of Kensington GreenScapecommittee.

Susan Eisendrath: Susan became a Master Gardener in2011 and a Master Composter in 2015. She's theformer lead for the Demonstration Composting Site atthe Derwood Agricultural Park Master GardenerDemonstration Garden. She's passionate aboutmaking and using compost to improve soil health andshe's provided numerous composting trainings andregularly provides compost coaching. She also has a3,000 square foot organic vegetable Farmette inRockville, where she tends a native plant pollinatorgarden, a deer resistant shade garden and a low waterxeriscape rock garden. Compost powers and sustainsall her plants.

Irene Eckstrand: Irene became a Master Gardener in2017 after she retired from the National Institutes ofHealth. She is delighted to have more time to focus onsome of her major interests such as storm watermanagement, ecology and evolution applied togardens, and native plants. She has also begunexperimenting with container gardening to protect hervegetables from deer.

Patricia Eng: Patricia is a retired nuclear engineer whodiscovered gardening during a vacation to England.She became a Master Gardener in 2014, is interestedin low maintenance ornamental gardening andengaged in the never ending project of renovating herlawn. Patricia serves as a member of the SpeakersGroup TechTeam and furthers her gardeningknowledge by taking courses in Montgomery College’sLandscape Technology program.

Lynn Furrow: Lynn has had a lifelong passion forplants and natural history. She not only works outsidein her gardens, but also in her hobby greenhouse andin the basement growing plants from cuttings andseeds. She became a Master Gardener in 1982volunteering at plant clinics and answering the hotline, but left in 1986 to teach. In 2006 she returned tothe program, where she again found herselfvolunteering at plant clinics and answering the hot lineand co-chairs SWAT.

LeeAnne Gelletly: LeeAnne is a former editor andwriter of nonfiction children’s books for the schoollibrary market. A Master Gardener since 2014, sheenjoys working in the MG Demonstration Garden,mostly in the children’s and vegetable gardens. Athome, she explores ways to incorporate more nativeplants into her woodland garden. She always looksforward to digging in the dirt with her fivegrandchildren.

Joe Ginther: Joe is a retired engineer and a MasterGardener, class of 1992. Joe has participated in a widevariety of Master Gardener activities over the years.He especially enjoys working in our DemonstrationGardens and providing maintenance for our tools andmachinery.

Martin Goldrosen: Martin joined the MasterGardening program in 2017 following a career as ascientist at Roswell Park Cancer Institute for 19 yearsand as a science administrator at the NationalInstitutes of Health for the last 25 years. Martin hasbeen an avid vegetable gardener for over 40 yearswho starts all of his seedlings indoors. In the lastdecade he has expanded his gardening interest toinclude small fruits. In addition he is an avidcomposter, utilizes raised garden beds and growsvegetables in containers. His approach to gardeningdraws on his lifelong experience as a scientist.

Mary Hagedorn: Mary has been a MontgomeryCounty resident since the age of 4 and a MasterGardener since 2011. In addition to her activities as amember of the Speakers Group, Mary also enjoysworking on our Grow It Eat It open houses and ourannual program for 4th graders, Close Encounters withAgriculture.

Paula Jean Hallberg: Paula served four years as chairof the speakers’ bureau and currently helps organizethe annual Close Encounters educational program.Besides herding cats, she has a particular interest inconservation, native & invasive species, and theprotection of nature. She has been a Master Gardenersince 1999.

Robin Hammer: Robin has been speaking for a longtime! She joined Master Gardeners in 2013 and is anactive member of three DC garden clubs. She workedas a lawyer and is active in community service.

Larry Himelfarb: Larry Himelfarb, who resides inTakoma Park, is a certified Master Gardener andMaster Composter. He is a co-lead for the compostoperation at the Derwood Demonstration Garden anduses his own compost for a kitchen garden at homeand for a community garden plot in MontgomeryCounty. He also volunteers for Montgomery CountyParks as a "weed warrior.

Pam Hosimer: Pam Hosimer is a 2008 University ofMaryland Extension Master Gardener fromMontgomery County with a unique blend of skills as aneducator, librarian, and gardener. Building on heryears of experience in environmental educationworking with kids K-12 she has reconnected with herchildhood love of being outdoors. With her newlyminted Master of Library and Information Sciencedegree she is using her knowledge of garden books toinspire teachers to get kids outdoors and grow healthyfood. Her passions as a Master Gardener aresupporting food gardening in Maryland as part of thestate Grow It Eat It team, developing youth gardeningprograms, providing resources to help peoplesuccessfully grow their own food and of coursegrowing her own garden.

Pat Kenny: Pat Kenny has been learning about andgrowing herbs and vegetables since 1973 when sherealized that's where better health begins. Now aretired medical illustrator and a 35-yr. member of TheHerb Society of America, she has been learning to be aMaster Gardener for 20 yrs. Inspired by The NationalHerb Garden, Pat Kenny has been gardening,cultivating herbs and giving illustrated herb talks tocounty recreation classes, garden clubs, seniorcenters, and master gardener trainings for years. Sheis devoted to giving Under The Arbor programs in theNational Herb Garden at the U.S. National Arboretum,supporting Dr. Jim Duke's Green Farmacy Garden inFulton MD and assists those giving MG programsabout herbal plants when possible.

Kathy Kircher: Kathy is a 2011 Master Gardener. Hergardening interests include perennials and shadegardening. She has been gardening on her deck it potsfor over 20 years. She started with sunny annuals andvegetables but has completely switched to shadeloving annuals and perennials as trees grew andcreated shade. She also volunteers in the MasterGardener Therapeutic Horticulture Program.

Sue Kuklewicz: Sue became a Master Gardener in2008 after retiring from teaching high school math for36 years. She has been a mentor to new MasterGardeners and is currently chair of the Plant ClinicCommittee. In addition, she volunteers at SWATevents, GIEI groups, and works as a MG advisor to acommunity garden. At home, Sue has a 1000 sq. ft.vegetable garden and also loves growing ornamentals.

Meipo Martin: A transplant from Hong Kong, Meipostarted to garden after she moved into her house in1999. The transition from growing plants in tinyplanters on the 36th floor to gardening on the groundwas no easy matter. Highly motivated by the vision oflots of vegetables from the backyard and a lovely sightin the garden, Meipo learns to garden through readingbooks and lots of experimentation. The manygardening questions from neighbors during blockparties motivated Meipo to become a MasterGardener in 2015. When she is not gardening, Meipois a wife, an Aikido instructor and a woodcarver.

Mary McKnight: Mary has been a Master Gardenersince 2004 and has gardened in several states for acombined total of more than 50 years. She enjoysgrowing plants from seeds and trying new cultivarsand techniques. Prior to her retirement, she was achemist at the National Institute of Standards andTechnology. She leads the volunteers at Black HillRegional Park who plant, care for, and sale nativeplants.

Denny May: Denny taught English at Northern VirginiaCommunity College for 30 years before embarking on a newcareer as an urban gardener/composter in 2013. He becamea Montgomery County Master Gardener in 2013 and a MasterComposter this year. He’s part of the composting crew at theDerwood demonstration garden site. Denny also is veryinvolved with the management of the Blair Road CommunityGarden in Washington, D.C., the oldest and largest NationalPark Service community garden in the District. Denny and hiswife have five vegetable garden plots scattered around theTakoma Park community.

Maro Nalabandian: Maro is a Master Gardener and aprofessional chef and instructor. She has cooked alongsidemany celebrity chefs. She has also worked at Michel RichardCitronelle and The Ritz Carlton, and has taught at L’Academiede Cuisine. She volunteers for Martha’s Table, DC CentralKitchen and Manna Foods. She has an 800 sq ft. garden plotat Montgomery County Community Gardens and uses herorganically grown harvest in her creative cooking and recipetesting.

Joan O’Rourke: Joan has been a Master Gardener for nearly20 years and is among our most popular and active speakers.Her philosophy is that anything can grow in containers, soshe's become an expert on magically expanding the limits ofcontainer gardening. Her philanthropy within the gardeningcommunity is much appreciated and admired.

Terri Pitts: Terri's love for gardening began 30 years agowhen she grew her first herb garden. The herb garden quicklyexpanded into several perennial borders, a large vegetablegarden and learning to start her vegetables and annuals fromseeds. Terri has been a Master Gardener for 8 years whereshe enjoys speaking to groups in Montgomery County,educating them on the benefits of practicing Integrated PestManagement and starting plants from seeds. Recently, shehas utilized her love of photography by documenting manyMG events and working as a photo editor for the MGNewsletter, The Seed.

Susan Plaeger: Susan became a Master Gardener in 2014,having retired from the NIH as a Director in the AIDS Programin 2012. She’s a Ph.D. microbiologist originally from NewOrleans, then living for 16 years in Los Angeles, and now 16years in the Crestwood area of Washington, DC – andgardening in all three places. Her interests are home gardensand landscaping, especially perennials and interestingspecimen trees. She’s also a member of the Kenwood GardenClub. She is pictured in the garden at Dromoland Castle inIreland.

Robin Ritterhoff: Robin became a Master Gardener in 2012,having spent a quarter-century obsessing in the best possibleway over her vegetable gardens when living in Capitol Hill,Tunisia, and Bethesda. Robin is co-leader for the vegetablebeds in Montgomery County’s Derwood DemonstrationGarden, whose bounty has provided over 1200 pounds offresh vegetables and herbs as donations to MontgomeryCounty’s food bank Manna for 2016 (as of mid-September2016).

Steve Robinson: Steve became a Master Gardener in 2012.He retired after an almost 50 year career in government andprivate industry as a systems and software engineer. Raisedon a farm in Missouri, he has returned to these roots thoughwith different plants. Today, he specializes in containergardening, aquaponics, orchids, and water gardens at hishome near Rockville. He also operates a small greenhouseenjoying year round produce.

Marie Rojas: Marie has been providing Integrated PestManagement services for homeowners, nursery growers andproperty managers through her company, Borders &Butterflies, for over 20 years. She serves on several greenindustry boards, including the Professional GroundsManagement Society, D.C. Branch, the Montgomery CountyBeekeepers Association, and the Environmental ClusterAdvisory Board for Montgomery County Public Schools. Mariehas been a Montgomery County Master Gardener since 1994.She enjoys keeping heritage chickens and honey bees on her92 acre farm in Beallsville, MD.

Les Rucker: Les is retired from his first career with Verizonand a second career in consulting. During his consulting years,he was sought as a speaker at national and internationalconferences on subjects related to his area of expertise.Extensive travel in connection with his consulting kept himfrom becoming a Master Gardener until 2013. Les lives in aheavily wooded neighborhood. As such, he is a perennialshade gardener.

Erica Smith: Erica Smith has been a Montgomery CountyMaster Gardener since 2007. In addition to speaking on foodgardening topics, she has been part of the Grow It Eat Itprogram since its inception, and works regularly in theDerwood Demonstration Garden, where she headed thevegetable garden team for 10 years. She also enjoys growingherbs, native plants, and just about anything else she can fitinto her half acre Germantown property or her communitygarden plot. She is the author of several novels.

Merikay Smith: With avid gardeners for parents andgrandparents, Merikay has been surrounded by bloomingplants and eating home-grown foods all her life. Merikay hasa 2-acre garden in Darnestown where, with the help of herhusband and son, she is converting a vast expanse of lawninto a healthier habitat of trees, shrubs, and perennials. AMaster Gardener since 2007, Merikay is the current chair ofthe Speakers Bureau. Merikay serves on the Board of theMuddy Branch Alliance and organizes their native treeinitiative. She is also the founder of Earth Stewardship East, alocal faith-based environmental group. (www.eartheast.org)

Terri Valenti: A 2011 Master Gardener graduate, Terri headsthe Grow It Eat It group. She has been an avid gardener formuch of her life, devoting a great deal of her gardening timeto edibles. Having gardened in Georgia, Texas, and Marylandshe has gained insight into the weather nuances that arecritical to crop development. Terri currently maintains a 2000square foot vegetable garden, an orchard with over 15 trees,and many cane and bush fruits, all on a typical suburban lot.

Cindy Walczak: Cindy is a 2011 Master Gardener. She hasbeen gardening in Olney for over 25 years. Her gardeninginterests include perennials, vegetables, garden design andhouseplants. She is recently retired from NIH.

Eric Wenger: Eric has been actively involved in the lawn andlandscape industry for 30+ years. He is a certified IntegratedPest Management specialist in both turf and ornamentals.Eric has been a member in good standing of The ProfessionalGrounds Management Society since 1997 and continues tovolunteer in many activities that improve the knowledge andprofessionalism within his industry. A Master Gardener since1996, Eric is a popular speaker on a variety of horticulturaltopics. He and his wife Sheree own Complete Lawn Care, Inc.and Complete Plant Health Care, Inc., companies devoted to"Growing Great Lawns and Landscapes in Harmony withNature."

Heather Whirley: Heather lives on an acre in Derwood whereshe raises two children, a flock of chickens, hives of bees andmany varieties and species of vegetable, herb andlandscaping plants. She has a dedicated culinary herb and teagarden in her backyard, just steps from the kitchen. Heatherhas been a member of the Mill Creek Towne Garden Club forthe last four years. She grew up on a 100-acre dairy farm inCarroll County, Maryland, where she developed a love of soiland sunshine. Her degree in the Bachelor of Science ofAgriculture was procured from the University of Marylandand she has worked as the Public Relations Director for theMontgomery County Agricultural Fair, where she met herhusband. She has been a Master Gardener since 2014.

George Willingmyre: George is a graduate of the MasterGardener class of 2007 and is also a volunteer MarylandWoodland Steward, having completed a 4 day MWSworkshop in 2009. George’s interest in trees began with aUniversity of Maryland research plot of experimental trees onhis property in 1982. He added a few more each year untilabout half his lot was planted with 600 trees.

Janet Young: Janet is a molecular biologist with a PhD fromthe Program in Genetics at George Washington University.She is retired from the National Institutes of Health, becamea Master Gardener in 2011, and is interested in all aspects ofgardening, especially growing vegetables, seed saving,companion planting, and climate change effect of gardening.She is a past president of the Montgomery County MasterGardeners.

Heather Zindash: Heather is a Montgomery County MasterGardener, a Maryland Master Naturalist, a localgarden/nature writer, speaker & photographer. Herblog/website, thesoulfulgardener.com brings “people, plantsand nature together for health and well-being.” Her ownNWF Certified Wildlife Habitat is a constant source ofinspiration from her own backyard, yours.