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Today, September 1, was the Feastday of Saint Fiacre, the Patron Saint of gardeners. I would not have known if I had not earlier seen this very thorough and informative article written by Doctor David Marsh of the Gardens Trust;

https://thegardenstrustblog.wordpress.com/2018/09/01/st-fiacre/

In all my writing, I had mentioned Saint Fiacre only once, and only in regard to garden statuary. I described how Saint Francis, who happens to be the patron saint of animals, is popularly believed to be the patron saint of gardeners because his statue is so popular in gardens, often in conjunction with statues of frolicking animals, but that statues of Saint Fiacre are very rare.

Besides the Feastday of Saint Fiacre, this September 1 also happens to be the first year anniversary of my blog. I have now been posting articles from my weekly gardening column, as well as other elaborations, for an entire year. With the exception of September 2, the day after establishing the blog, I have posted an article daily. Since participating with the Six on Saturday meme, I have been posting two articles on Saturday. There were even a few days in which three articles were posted.

Unfortunately, back in February or March, my weekly gardening column was discontinued from the Silicon Valley Community Newspapers, which was the first newspaper group that I started writing for nearly twenty years ago. Silicon Valley Community Newspapers still has access to the articles, and can use them if they choose to; but I am no longer employed with them. Because I write for several other newspaper groups, I did not want to stop writing my weekly gardening column just yet. I enjoy it too much. I will have been writing it for twenty years in October, but blogging is still new to me.

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35 thoughts on “Saint Fiacre Day”

  1. Wow! I read the Garden Trust article. Interesting! I’ve never heard of him before. He was one hard working guy. You are one hard working author. Congratulations on your 1st anniversary!

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  3. You teach us things. I always thought St Francis was the saint of plants and animals. I have a small St Francis statue in my garden. It was in my mother’s yard before she passed away. Thank you for the interesting article.

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    1. That is what most people believe. I happened to like my statue of Saint Francis . . . before it was stolen out of the back yard in town. I tried to find a statue of Saint Fiacre online, but he looks like an ugly little troll; so I will stick with Saint Francis. I sometimes wonder if a statue of Saint Clare would keep the squirrels out of the garden.

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      2. She would keep me away. She is scary. However, there is a big statue of her in a big park in Santa Clara, and all the pigeons do what pigeons do to statues. Apparently, she does not keep them away.

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      3. Maybe you should avoid her then, since you don’t like scary……or creepy. One reader on my FB page asked me whether Sir Albert knows about the squash named Audrey, but she’s up a hill and he doesn’t know about her.

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      4. She is at the center of one of the most important towns of the Santa Clara Valley (which is also named after her). She is unavoidable! She is holding a lily, which makes here slightly less scary.

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      11. Oh, it is VERY pretty . . . expect for the angry looking Saint Clare. It used to be much prettier. It is the Valley of Heart’s Delight. Not many here know that now. It offends me that people refer to this region as ‘Silicon Valley’. That was the name of our local newspaper group, the Silicon Valley Community Newspapers’. The name itself is very unlocal.

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      15. San Jose City Hall was build about the same time in 1965, and incorporated the first koi pond in America. The first koi to be imported to America (as a gift from Japan) lived there, and proliferated so much that another large pond was built at Happy Hollow. Eventually, the extremely valuable koi had to be given away, which is how they were popularized in ponds throughout America.

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  4. I really enjoyed this. I know of St. Francis, of course, but St. Fiacre was new to me, and I’m happy for the introduction. And congratulations on growing your blog so well. I really do enjoy it — I’ve learned a good bit already, and I’m looking forward to reading you in the future.

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  6. Happy blog-versary. I’ve known about St. Fiacre for decades, but he’s not my favorite since he didn’t think women belonged in a garden, but otherwise it’s nice to have a patron saint for gardening.

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