GROW-YOUR-OWN PHARMACY

Christopher Hobbs, an herbalist and medical botanist from Santa Cruz, will
present a workshop Saturday at Saso Herb Gardens, 14625 Fruitvale Ave.,
Saratoga.

Hobbs will explain how to use herbs as both calming agents and to improve
sleep quality. He is a fourth-generation herbalist who founded the American
School of Herbalism in Santa Cruz with Michael Tierra.

The five-hour class will include touching, smelling and tasting healing
plants; identification of major medicinal herbs for mood disorders; and how
to use St. John's wort to combat depression. Hobbs also will discuss which
herbs counteract stress and promote relaxation and better sleep, and how to
use California poppy extract for anxiety and insomnia.

The herbalist has a garden called Living Farmacy in Bonny Doon where he
grows many of the herbs used for his clinical practice. There is a medicine
chest bed, a California native bed, a traditional European bed and a
Chinese medicinal herb bed. ``Basically we have herbs growing everywhere!
We have also put in a lot of trees valued for their medicinal qualities,
such as ginkgo and vitex,'' says Hobbs, who also has an acupuncture
practice in Santa Cruz.

Checked-by: Richard Lake