STORY BY KRISTIN FLETCHER

PHOTO BY KAREN BOSSICK

The Sawtooth Botanical Garden will celebrate the end of summer and the Trailing of the Sheep Festival with free guided tours of its most popular gardens.

Two daily tours will be offered Wednesday through Sunday, Oct. 4-8.

Morning tours highlight the Garden of Infinite Compassion, which features a rare Tibetan prayer wheel constructed at the Dalai Lama’s monastery in India. The garden was created to honor the 2005 visit of the Dalai Lama to the Wood River Valley and hosts a rare Tibetan prayer wheel—one of only two of its size in North America.

Afternoon tours feature the newly installed Garden of the Five Senses; the Montane Garden, which features native plants, and perennial beds filled with cultivated plants that flourish at high altitudes.

Here’s the lineup:

·         Wednesday, October 4:  10-11 AM with SBG Education Director Kristin Fletcher and 4-5 PM with SBG Garden Manager Kathy Noble.

·         Thursday, October 5:  10-11 AM with SBG Education Director Kristin Fletcher and 4-5 PM with SBG Garden Manager Kathy Noble.

·         Friday, October 6:  10-11 AM with Buddhist teacher Mary Ann Chubb and 4-5 PM with SBG Garden Manager Kathy Noble.

·         Saturday, October 7:  10-11 AM with SBG Executive Director Kat Vanden Heuvel and 4-5 PM with local garden expert Helen Stone.

·         Sunday, October 8:  10-11 AM with Buddhist teacher Mary Ann Chubb and 4-5 PM with SBG Garden Assistant Susan Sheffield.

SBG is located at 11 Gimlet Road, 4 miles south of Ketchum. For information, visit  www.sbgarden.org or call 208-726-9358.