Five things you may not know about . . . Cindy Robertson
By Marsha Mercer, Extension Master Gardener
You may know Cindy Robertson as the energetic and enthusiastic president of Master Gardeners of Northern Virginia (MGNV). You may know she’s a former corporate attorney. You also may know she’s a gracious hostess and accomplished baker of delicious pastries.
But here are five things you may not know about Cindy:
- Cindy started gardening as a child, helping her mom who loves to garden and who later became a Master Gardener. When Cindy retired, her mom encouraged her to become a Master Gardener and sent her a link to the Arlington-Alexandria EMG training program. A few months later, Cindy enrolled in the spring 2022 class.
The MGNV board and Master Gardener Coordinator Leslie Fillmore then tapped Cindy to help create the Garden Buds Mentor Program, which promotes connections and fellowship among interns and EMGs. - Cindy majored in philosophy and political science as an undergrad at Vanderbilt University. Upon graduation, her artistic talent led her to apply to the Rhode Island School of Design. She lacked the art credits to enter a master’s program, so she planned to earn a second undergraduate degree. Federal rules prohibited student loans for a second undergraduate degree, so she changed course. After a trip of a lifetime, she went to the University of Illinois College of Law.
- At 23, Cindy met an architect on the subway and two months later they were traveling around the world for 11 months, visiting Japan, China, New Zealand, Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, India, Nepal, Germany, Austria, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Greece.
While parting as friends at the end of the trip, Cindy’s architect recommended she visit Turkey. She later did – and met her future husband there.|
On her travels, she learned two things. One, “If you open yourself to meeting new people, it can lead to amazing experiences.” And two, “We’re all pretty much the same around the world – with all the same hopes and dreams. It made me love humanity.”
- Cindy said her home garden is a “work in progress, but for me it is the creation of a living composition, informed by color, texture, and season.” When she and her husband, Omer, moved into their Alexandria home in 2001, the backyard was “just turf.” A young mom with two sons, a daughter, and a busy law career, she gravitated to her garden when she could find time.
She has transformed her garden with gifts of traditional plants from her mom – iris, daisies, yarrow, lamb’s ear – and a wide variety of native plants. Two Japanese maples in her yard are a tribute to her around-the-world trip. Her next project is enlarging the side and front yards with more natives.
“Gardening is one of the most authentic things you can do. It’s you, the sun, rain, the power of your hands. That’s what I love about it,” she said.
- Shy around people she didn’t know when she was younger, she was “a ham in front of my family.” Her family moved around quite a bit, and she learned to become more extroverted
“Kindness is usually contagious, and I’ve had wonderful luck in making friends in new places,” she said.
Her study of philosophy and life’s big questions made her appreciate “how truly miraculous one’s existence is – just think of all the paths taken by so many living organisms to create me – a sentient being capable of choices! I feel so grateful to be alive and want to make the most of every moment. That is what fuels me.”
Bonus: Gardens, especially in Asia, were a source of beauty and peace. “No matter how frazzled one gets while traveling, spend some time in gardens,” Cindy said.
