A vibrant mix of manicured perennials and fresh produce, Dotterer’s garden is more than a passion project — it’s a reflection of her wealth of life experience and most cherished values.

“Gardening is my therapy. If it wasn’t for gardening, I wouldn’t be walking anymore,” Dotterer said, pulling a weed from among her vegetables.

Her son, Ralph Dotterer, Jr., also attributes her longevity and mobility to her daily gardening routine.

“She keeps her hands strong by pulling weeds constantly,” chimed in her son. “She could put a lot of young girls to shame.”

Verna Dotterer, 98, of Mill Hall, proudly tends her garden, July 24. HUNTER SMITH/THE EXPRESS

Despite the challenges of aging, Dotterer’s garden continues to flourish, though she admits the heat and lack of rain have taken their toll this year. Her strength and determination keep her working, sometimes for hours, even under the hot sun.

Her tireless work is how she manages to grow and maintain her stunning display of perennial flowers — daylilies, lupins, hollyhocks, coneflowers and peonies — and a rich array of vegetables, including asparagus, peas, string beans, lima beans, cabbage, tomatoes, lettuce, spinach, strawberries, melons, pumpkins and cucumbers.

Chosen for both utility and looks, Verna grows plants that either supplement her family’s diet or appeal to her. She’s known to let certain weeds grow, like milkweed, which attracts the monarch butterflies she loves. The different species of plants in her garden weave together organically around subtle stone paths, making it almost feel as if the garden sprouted there without human intervention.

Raised on a fruit and vegetable farm, Dotterer’s green thumb has deep roots. At the tender age of five, after the death of her babysitter from the Spanish Flu, she found herself in the fields, learning to pull beets and plant cabbage.

“At that time, nobody knew anything about the inside of the body, and she hemorrhaged until she was dead. Nobody knew how to stop the bleeding,” said Dotterer, who was born before the advent of many staples of modern medicine.

HUNTER SMITH/THE EXPRESS Verna Dotterer, 98, of Mill Hall, proudly tends her garden, July 24.

“I knew my babysitter was gone, and I had to go out in the field,” she recalled. “I often had to help before I went to school.”

As a child, Verna attended a Pennsylvania Dutch-speaking one-room schoolhouse in Mahantongo Valley, Schuylkill County.

With mornings spent milking cows and tending plants before a mile-long walk on a dirt and gravel road to school, her early start in agriculture sowed the seeds of her lifelong passion.

Growing up in the throes of the Great Depression, Dotterer learned early in life the value of caring for those around her — particularly in times of hardship.

At the time, her father was a farmer and regularly delivered produce to their neighbors, often enlisting the help of Verna and her older sister.

HUNTER SMITH/THE EXPRESS Plants grow in Verna Dotterer’s garden in Mill Hall.

“We would help the ladies take their things in the house, and they were to give us the money. And I kept telling him, ‘You’re losing money. They didn’t give me enough money,'” said Dotterer.

She remembers her father asking if she was hungry and her reply that their family had plenty to eat, even if some of it was seconds.

She then recalled her father’s response, “‘You don’t know what they have to live on. Maybe they don’t have any money,’ he said, ‘I don’t want them to die because I had a lot of food, and they didn’t get any. I’m letting them pay what they can pay now and we’ll try and make do with what we get.'”

Verna said this was an eye-opening lesson about how you should value other people’s lives.

“I found out that you can live, if you have to, on a little less money so somebody else can still live and have the food they need,” she said.

HUNTER SMITH/THE EXPRESS Plants grow in Verna Dotterer’s garden in Mill Hall.

“I think that’s why I wanted to work in missionary work. I thought I could help people,” she said.

Volunteering at Lock Haven Hospital and her involvement with exchange students and agricultural programs reflect her lifelong dedication to helping others.

Her natural intelligence led her to Penn State at the age of 16, where she studied Home Economics. Growing up with English as a second language, Verna continued to take English courses well into college, earning her a minor in the subject by the time she graduated in 1945.

Though Verna’s dream was to share the teachings of Jesus Christ in India, her life would take a different path.

“I always told my parents, ‘I’ll never marry a farmer. I’ll never marry a farmer.’ I repeated it over and over, and I was serious. I was going to be a missionary,” she said. “And doggonit, I fell in love with this farmer.”

Married in 1946 to Ralph Dotterer, Sr., who she met at Penn State, she balanced raising three children with teaching Home Economics and participating in 4-H programs, while submitting for and judging agricultural competitions at local county fairs.

Participating in the Clinton County Fair since it took place at the site of the Lowes on Hogan Boulevard, Dotterer has won countless ribbons for her flower arrangements and produce in Clinton County and beyond.

For several years, she was a judge at the Centre County Grange Fair in Centre Hall and the Clearfield County Fair in Clearfield.

This year, she said she will try to take tomatoes, potatoes, beans and flowers to the fair.

“I generally have good luck with my flowers, and if I put arrangements in, I generally do, too, but I’m getting older. I can’t do everything I used to,” Dotterer said.

“I think I had a good life, and it’s still good, but I ache a little more,” she said. “I can say I’ve had more fun in life by working than I would’ve if I had been sitting around pitying myself, saying, ‘Oh woe is me, I have to do this, I have to do that.'”

Even at 98, Dotterer remains a pillar of strength and wisdom in her community.

“Good health depends on the value of the knowledge of the person who’s supplying the food for the rest of the family,” she says, adding that, “there’s joy in seeing things grow and becoming the food you had expected.”

Her garden, much like her spirit, stands resilient, a reminder for us all of the joys and challenges of a life deeply rooted in the earth.