NEWS
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 31, 2021
HERMISTONHERALD.COM • A3
‘Kale master’ fi nds joy in
helping fl edgling gardeners
By KATHY ANEY
STAFF WRITER
Joe Hodge is an apart-
ment dweller with a green
thumb.
The Hermiston man went
from neophyte gardener to
award-winning master gar-
dener in a span of 10 years.
In 2012, though he lacked a
backyard, Hodge decided to
try gardening so he secured
a plot at the Hermiston
Community Garden at Good
Shepherd Medical Center.
Since his gardening expe-
rience consisted of weed-
ing his parents’ fl owerbed
during boyhood and tending
a tomato plant or two as an
adult, Hodge peppered vet-
eran gardeners with ques-
tions, read up on plant cul-
tivation and jumped in with
both feet. He winces at some
of his rookie mistakes.
“I had to learn about
plant spacing that very fi rst
spring,” Hodge recalled. “I
planted too close and sud-
denly all these plants were
almost on top of each other.”
Tomatoes, for example,
bush out quickly and need
about 3 feet of clearance.
Hodge kept learning and
eventually earning his mas-
ter gardener certifi cation. He
started sharing his knowl-
edge with beginners. In
July, Oregon State Univer-
sity Master Gardeners hon-
ored Hodge with a statewide
award.
Hodge shakes off the
adulation like confetti stuck
in his hair. His gardening
prowess, he says, is merely
the lucky result of discover-
ing a passion. He helps oth-
ers realize they can do it too.
Taking a unique path
Hodge’s path to this pres-
ent moment includes attend-
ing West Point and serving
10 years in the Army as an
offi cer in the Tank Corps.
He started as the human
resources manager for the
transportation offi ce at the
Walmart Distribution Cen-
ter in Hermiston when it
opened in 1998 and later he
became operations manager.
Hodge, divorced with two
grown children, retired in
2018 after 20 years with the
company.
Hodge, 56, is a competi-
tive runner who sometimes
runs the 1.5 miles from his
apartment to the community
garden, where he frequently
spends 12 hours a week
during the height of the sea-
son. When questioned about
his zeal for gardening, he
ticks off several reasons —
the physicality of working
hard, the mental challenge
of learning to grow things,
and the intangibles.
“You’re among plants
and nature and it’s a little
bit spiritual,” he said. “It
just feels peaceful to be out
here.”
Hodge enjoys fresh sal-
ads made of his own home-
grown ingredients at least
once a day. He admits that
before becoming a gardener,
he didn’t eat nearly as many
vegetables. His bedroom
windowsill is now fi lled
Melissa Lindsay/Contributed Photo
A grain bin lies on its side, partially blocking Kilkenny Road in the middle of Morrow County,
in the aftermath of the windstorm that took place on Sunday, March 28, 2021.
Windstorm damage limited
By JADE MCDOWELL
NEWS EDITOR
Kathy Aney/East Oregonian
Master gardener Joe Hodge harvests kale on March 15, 2021,
at the Hermiston Community Garden.
with pots of herbs, kale and
arugula.
Hodge readily shares his
knowledge and bounty with
others. He off ers produce
to neighbors and Agape
House. He gives away seeds
gleaned from his garden at
the dentist or the barbershop,
or wherever he happens to
be. Once during the Uma-
tilla County Fair Parade, he
walked alongside a Walmart
Distribution Center fl oat/
semitruck and, as his fel-
low employees distributed
candy, he gave away green
beans in little sacks. Most of
the kids looked at him quiz-
zically, he said, though some
sampled the beans straight
away.
Hodge, who works two
of the 80 total plots at the
community garden, said
gardeners can borrow hoes,
shovels, watering cans and
other tools from the garden-
ing shed, and use bark and
compost piled near the plots
for free. Watering happens
automatically through a drip
irrigation system. Plots cost
$10 per year.
“All you have to do is
plant and harvest,” Hodge
said.
Bringing in the bounty
Weeding and seeking
and destroying squash bugs
are also on the to-do list. In
his pair of 12-square-foot
spaces, he plants tomatoes,
green beans, squash and
leafy greens, such as chard,
arugula and collard greens.
He delights in slightly exotic
produce, such as the Arme-
nian cucumber, which is
long, light-skinned and has
the texture of a kiwi.
Some plants are easier to
grow than others. Arugula
usually germinates read-
ily from seed and can be
planted early. Green beans
need warmer soil, but grow
easily and produce a long
time.
“I’ve seen them start pro-
ducing in early July and go
all the way through the end
of September,” Hodge said.
“It’s a fun plant.”
Chelle Hankinson, gar-
den facilitator at the Herm-
iston Community Garden,
calls Hodge “the kale mas-
ter” and relies on him when
a master gardener is needed.
“Any time we do a pro-
gram, he is there,” Hankin-
son said. “He’s our Joe. He’s
got a wealth of knowledge.”
Hodge recently designed
a demonstration garden
with fellow master gardener
Norah Pratton to display a
variety of herbs. Eventually
recipes will be available for
each herb.
‘You can’t be afraid to fail’
Fellow master gardener
Jeannette Byrnes watched
Hodge’s
transformation
from novice to gardening
expert with fascination. The
two now help teach Seed to
Supper classes (when they
aren’t canceled because of
COVID) and she marvels at
Hodge’s easy and encourag-
ing style.
“I’m amazed at his pres-
ence and how much he
knows,” Byrnes said. “He’s
a very unassuming person
and you don’t expect all that
comes out of him.”
Diana Romero, formerly
OSU Extension’s master
gardener program coordi-
nator, called Hodge a “huge
asset” to the program.
“He was always avail-
able to provide his garden-
ing expertise by answering
the calls from the commu-
nity and he volunteered on
numerous community events
where he worked with chil-
dren on gardening art proj-
ects,” she said. “I cannot
think of a community event
in Hermiston where he did
not volunteer, he loves giv-
ing back to his community.”
Hodge just wants new
gardeners to fi nd their
confi dence.
“You can’t be afraid
to fail,” he said. “Have
patience. Sometimes you
think something isn’t grow-
ing and a few days later it
takes off .”

Strong winds whipped
through the Pacifi c North-
west on Sunday, March 28,
causing damage in Eastern
Oregon.
Wind speeds of 74 miles
per hour were recorded
at the Pendleton Airport,
according to the National
Weather Service, and hit
68 miles per hour at the
Hermiston Municipal Air-
port. The highest reported
location in the area was in
Mission, where wind gusts
reached 85 miles per hour.
The wind caused a few
small power outages in the
area. Tom Gauntt, a spokes-
person for Pacifi c Power,
said in the Pendleton area,
eight diff erent reported out-
ages added up to about 150
total customers who lost
power, with 11 custom-
ers yet to be restored as
of 10:30 a.m. on Monday,
March 29.
“Those are from trees on
lines and that sort of thing,”
he said.
Gauntt said Pacifi c
Power didn’t see any out-
ages that covered more than
200 customers in northeast-
ern Oregon. The compa-
ny’s largest reported out-
ages for the weekend were
in the Bend area, where
about 6,000 customers lost
Liam Hughes/Contributed Photo
A large tree toppled over in Rice Park in Pendleton during
the Sunday, March 28, 2021, windstorm.
power. But for areas where
high winds are common,
Gauntt said, the infrastruc-
ture proved resilient.
Umatilla Electric Coop-
erative spokesperson Steve
Meyers said the coopera-
tive received reports of a
“few scattered outages”
and broken poles, caus-
ing three members to lose
power in the Homestead
area and about 40 members
to lose power in the Pov-
erty Flats Road area about
8:20 p.m. on Sunday.
In Morrow County,
Commissioner
Melissa
Lindsay said she had heard
some reports trees that had
toppled over, and there was
a large sheet metal grain
bin that had fallen over
into part of Kilkenny Road
in the central part of the
county. Overall, however,
she said the damage didn’t
seem to be nearly as severe
as the May 2020 wind-
storm that caused exten-
sive damage to the Wilson
Road Mobile Home Park in
Boardman.
“I made some phone
calls, did some double
checking, and I think Mor-
row County did OK,” she
said.
The wind blew dust
across Interstate 84 and
Interstate 82 in the region,
at times obscuring drivers’
view. The Sherman County
Sheriff ’s Offi ce posted
warnings to Facebook about
dust shrouding Interstate 84
along the Columbia Gorge.
And according to a traf-
fi c alert from Washington
State Patrol’s public infor-
mation offi cer, a “minor
injury” crash involving
seven vehicles temporar-
ily blocked the westbound
lanes of I-82 outside Rich-
land, Washington.