The year of 1949 is the start of our love story. This is the year two young people serendipitously meet at an evening Ballroom Dance Class in middle America Iowa. One year later the couple is happily married and ready to start their lives together and become a family. In the future add three daughters to complete that dream. 

Marion Sefren’s passion moves from “tripping the light fantastic” to the magic of the Flower Garden!! Years pass and the couple, John and Marion Sefren, are now living in the southeastern area of Missouri known as the Lake of the Ozark. Their three daughters have scattered from across America’s heartland to find one of the girls landing in the wonderful Pacific North West. 

Marion’s passion for gardening has lead her to becoming actively involved with the local Missouri Master Gardener program which includes a two and half hour commute one way. When it came time for Marion to complete the required Master Gardener volunteer hours Marion’s chapter stepped outside of the box and allowed Marion to find venues closer to home. This led Marion to meet a local young couple with a landscaping business: that led to future employment of Marion; which led to Marion becoming a land scape maintenance entrepreneur and future employment of (yes, you guessed) John. At the conclusion of this venture Marion and John had 79 clients! AND they also had an ongoing discussion of whether to use the “weed eater first and mow second OR mow first and weed eat second” - a question still not resolved to this day! Within the passage of time the Pacific Northwest daughter had influenced the relocation of the Sefren’s to Warrenton and later Seaside, Oregon. Another garden learning adventure awaits Marion. Yes, Marion is now enrolled in the Clatsop County Master Gardener program. John’s support of Marion never wavers as he waits patiently for Marion in the car during all her classes and then later with her involvement in MG meetings and volunteer programs. Marion must have had an Ah-ha moment at one point as she enrolls John in the next Master Gardner program. Oh! one minor oversight. Marion neglects to inform John of his new status as Master Gardener pupil until the last moment. John steps up and discovers his love of vegetable gardening! The rest is Clatsop County Master Gardener History.