Yvonne Savio, UC Master Gardener coordinator for Los Angeles County, retires

Yvonne Savio, Master Gardener coordinator for UC Cooperative Extension in Los Angeles County, will retire at the end of June after 21 years of working to grow an impressively large crop of UC Master Gardener volunteers willing to work in areas where there was the greatest need.

She and her army of volunteers taught thousands of residents how to grow their own food even before public interest in home gardening and urban agriculture expanded in Southern California.

Savio worked with people at hundreds of gardens in schools, communities, senior centers and homeless shelters to get gardening information to those who needed or wanted it and became widely recognized for much of the success of the UC Master Gardener Program in Los Angeles County.

In 2004, Huell Howser interviewed the Master Gardener coordinator for his California's Gold television series. In 2010, she was named Horticulturist of the Year by the Southern California Horticulture Society and featured in the Pasadena Star-News. Recently, Savio's work with volunteers interested in gardening was featured in the Los Angeles Times.

Savio will retire in her childhood home in Pasadena with her husband, Tom, a railroad historian and enthusiast. She plans to do some traveling, continue contributing to garden-based learning, and stay busy working in her terraced garden filled with fruit trees, vegetables and roses.

Savio has developed a website (www.GardeningInLA.net) to inform Southern California gardeners of local events and opportunities. 

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