Saso Herb Gardens Saso Herb Gardens

St. Fiacre, Patron Saint of Gardens

Happy 1998 to all of our herb gardening friends

It seems impossible, but yes, 1997 has come and gone! How quickly the time passes when there is so much to do. We made a very drastic decision last September. The only way to have more time to spend tending the hundreds of herbs and flower plants in the garden was to retire the herb nursery. It was a difficult decision to make. We can retire from the nursery business but how can you retire from a garden? Impossible, but without the nursery we should have more time to garden at a more leisurely pace. We might even find time to take a cruise to Alaska (any advice as to the best time to go, cruise line etc., would be greatly appreciated). It is very difficult for nursery people to stop propagating, retired or not, so Louie will continue to have those hard-to-find Chinese herbs, medicinal herbs, brugmansias, (angels trumpet) and unusual salvias available for sale. Virginia will be propagating a variety of ornamental origanum plants as well. Virginia hasn't enough to do so she decided to start a small business, SasoSeeds. Organic seeds collected in the Saso Herb Gardens. These will be available by mail order or from the garden. Send email to sasoseeds@saso.com for information. Or read on near the bottom of this WWW site.

Our schedule will change drastically in 1998. We will be open one Saturday a month-April through September, 9:00 to 2:30-other times by appointment only. On that day we will offer a free lecture tour through the herb garden at 10:30 in the morning. The gardens will be available for special group tours, for a fee, Monday through Friday. This year the gardens will be available for your small special event. Call (408) 867-0307 or send email to herbgardens@saso.com for information.

Our apprenticeship program has been very successful and will continue this year. The day set aside for this program is Tuesday, 9am to 1pm. The apprentices help maintain the gardens and learn about the culture and use of many culinary, ornamental, and medicinal herbs. No, we haven't retired from offering workshops altogether.

The workshops on the schedule for this year are: Planning an Herb Garden, taught by Louie in April; Change Your Diet, Improve Your Health led by herbal pharmacist Jim Mutch, in May; Herbs for Depression, Anxiety, and Insomnia taught by author and herbalist Christopher Hobbs in June. Marshal Riley L.Ac. will present a seminar, Self-care for the Childbearing Year which will also be held in June.

Virginia will continue with her wreath workshops beginning with a Wild Twig Wreath Workshop in March. She will be presenting a seminar on Growing Everlasting Flowers and Herbs for Fun and Profit at the Herb Growing and Marketing Network's annual winter herb conference in San Antonio, Texas, January 29 to Feb. 1. For more information about this conference, check out WWW.Herbnet.com. Louie will be attending a father-son retreat being held on that same weekend. We will bring home experiences that will surely enrich both our lives. Remember, if you cannot come during our scheduled hours call for a special appointment. Of course, know that you are taking a chance, we might just put a hoe into your hands. We wish you a healthy and peaceful 1998 and we are looking forward to sharing our gardens with you.

Saso Herb Gardens

Last Modified: January 31st, 1999