New Hidalgo County horticulturist is living her dream job

EDINBURG  —  When Ashley Gregory attended Master Gardener classes in South Texas, she came away with much more than the ability to garden — she began to grow a career.

“I was just out of college and I was so impressed with the class instructor, Barbara Storz,” Gregory said. “She was so full of passion and energy. I decided right then and there that I wanted to have that job one day. I wanted to be a horticulturist with the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service, so I started looking for positions with AgriLife Extension to get my foot in the door.”

After Storz retired as horticulturist late last year, Gregory applied for and landed the position. She assumed her duties April 1, but getting there was not just a matter of waiting for Storz to step down; Gregory knew she had to prepare herself to fill the huge legacy Storz would leave behind.

“Oh, my God. Barbara is such a legend in South Texas horticulture,” she said. “She has a newspaper column, a radio show, a farmers market and a huge following. She’s very popular, but I knew if I wanted to become a horticulturist like her, I’d have to grow into the position.”

Gregory began by applying for other AgriLife Extension positions in Weslaco.

“Dr. Juan Anciso was kind enough to offer me a huge opportunity to work with AgriLife Extension,” Gregory said. “I worked in different capacities on various grant-funded projects during my six years there. I started with on-farm food safety and ended up working with water quality issues in the Arroyo Colorado Watershed.”

Gregory said she was inspired by both Storz and Anciso, the fruit and vegetable specialist at the Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center at Weslaco.

“Those six years gave me a chance to prepare for being a horticulturist,” she said. “I worked with growers, conducted research field trials, led water-related programs and so forth. I feel lucky to have received such a varied experience. I’m impressed by those who graduate from college and start working with AgriLife without experience. It’s a challenge, but they manage to learn quickly and do well.”

A native of Edinburg, Gregory earned a bachelor’s degree in agricultural business with an emphasis on horticulture at Texas State University, San Marcos, in 2007. While working with AgriLife Extension, she managed to earn a master’s degree in plant and soil science at Texas A&M University-Kingsville.

To begin her new job as a horticulturist, Gregory decided to focus first on the relatively large and popular Master Gardeners program, then rely on community members to help determine which way her horticulture program should go.

“The timing of my hiring was really good because AgriLife Extension agents were in the midst of Texas Community Futures Forum, an outreach effort conducted every five years to determine from citizens their individual county issues and needs,” she said.

At the end of that exercise, three local issues rose to the top in the category of Horticulture/Urban Agriculture:

—  Water quality and quantity, regardless of drought events.

—  Sustainable food systems to increase the availability of healthy food to all.

—  Urbanization: to find a good balance of managing population growth while maintaining green spaces and agriculture.

“I also worked alongside horticulture agents in San Antonio, Austin and Cameron County to get a feel for the job,” Gregory said. “What I found was that each agent does their job differently, depending on the needs of their areas. That tells me that I will also develop a unique horticulture program here.”

Other than Master Gardeners, who learn horticulture from experts and commit to share their knowledge with the community, Gregory said she is preparing to start a Backyard Basics program.

“That’s an AgriLife Extension program that teaches, among other things, how to start a garden, grow fruits and vegetables, can and preserve them, raise rabbits or chickens and perform other self-reliant activities. It’s an interdisciplinary program, and I am very fortunate to be able to call upon the many experts at the AgriLife Center in Weslaco to help teach these classes.”

Gregory can be contacted at 956-383-1026 or [email protected].