Cultivating Place

In the wake, and still the fury of the #CAMPFIRE here in Northern California - we lean into some escapism on this long weekend of the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday. Last week we prepared ourselves for the season of gratitude and this week we here in the U.S. lean into the long Thanksgiving Holiday weekend with an aspirational armchair tour of inspirational new gardens around the world. We’re joined wi...

This week on Cultivating Place, we revisit our Gratitude Special of last year - celebrating this season of harvest, of taking stock, of giving back, of deep GRATITUDE and of preparing for the restorative dark of winter ahead. Our central conversation is with earth artist Day Schildkret, who makes meaning and beauty with his daily practice, and now global outreach and book known as Morning Altars....

In this week after All Hallow eve, Day of the Dead, Samhain, All Saints Day, and All Soul’s day – I thought – let’s visit a garden for our ancestors. This week we head East, to hear about a renovation project of the Asa Gray Garden at the historic Mt. Auburn Cemetery in Boston, Massachusetts. No ghosts, but a good story. Join us. Cultivating Place now has a donate button! We thank you so much for...

Soul Fire Farm is a working farm in upstate New York committed to ending racism and injustice in the food system, co-founded by Leah Penniman. Leah is also the author of Farming While Black, documenting her work and passion for black and brown people coming back into healthy relationship with land and good food, which is out on shelves this week. The inspirational Leah Penniman shares more with Cu...

"Our craving to connect with nature continues to be the perfect foil for the magic of the human imagination," writes photographer Ngoc Minh Ngo. This week Cultivating Place wraps up "Artober" with Minneapolis based 3-dimensional paper artist Ann Wood, of Woodlucker Studios, and a revisit to a conversation with Vietnamese-born, New York-based artist and writer Ngoc Minh Ngo, who spoke to us about h...

There’s an ancient association between the botanical world and the inspiration it provides to artists of all kinds. For our Botanical Artistry series part three, we meet Julia Lucey, whose painterly aquatint etching collage pieces evocatively depict the rich personalities of native flora and fauna. Join us! In case you didn't hear, the Cultivating Place team now has a donate button! We thank you s...

There’s an ancient association between the botanical world and the inspiration it provides to artists of all kinds. For our Botanical Artistry series part two, we meet Obi Kaufmann – author and artist of The California Field Atlas – he sometimes calls it a family album of his lifelong relationship with the physical being we know as California. Join us! In case you didn't hear, the Cultivating Plac...

There’s an ancient association between the botanical world and art inspired by it. This week on Cultivating Place, we kick off a four-part series in which we hear about the process, purpose and passions of five different artists all expressing their love for plants through their artistry. Today we hear from the bold and the heroic when we’re joined by botanical illustrator Kate Blairstone of Portl...

This week on Cultivating Place, our final in the Seeds of September series we're joined by Matthew Benson of Stonegate Farm in New York's Hudson Valley, where he is his very own, very small agricultural district sowing seeds to grow other growers. Join us! For photos visit cultivatingplace.com. The show is available as a podcast on SoundCloud, iTunes, Google Play and Stitcher.

This week on Cultivating Place, the third installment in the Seeds of September four part series– we’re joined by Rowen White, founder of Sierra Seeds a seed and seed advocacy cooperative in Nevada County, Calif. Rowen, a Mohawk woman who serves on the Indigenous Seed Keeper’s Network and is current chair of Seed Savers Exchange, shares with us her love, purpose and poetry of seed stewardship. Joi...

This week on Cultivating Place, the second installment in the Seeds of September four part series – when we’re joined by plantswoman, seed advocate, farmer and author Ira Wallace of the Southern Exposure Seed Exchange and the Heritage Harvest Festival in Charlottesville, VA Sept 20 – 22. Join us! For photos visit cultivatingplace.com. The show is available as a podcast on SoundCloud, iTunes, Googl...

Welcome to The Seeds of September – this week on Cultivating Place we kick off our four-part series in conversation with Jere Gettle of Baker Creek Seeds, and more from the Organic Seed Alliance and Redwood Seeds. I think you’re going to love it! For photos visit cultivatingplace.com. The show is available as a podcast on SoundCloud, iTunes, Google Play and Stitcher.

They are in your garden by the billions, they are in your food, in your house, and all over your skin. They partner us in all we do and they make all that we do well possible to start with. This week on Cultivating Place we revisit a conversation with science and food writer Eugenia Bone to talk more about her own foray into better understanding the world of the amazing and powerful world of Micro...

The right tools can make all the difference in our lives and in our work. This is as true in gardening as in all other aspects of life. This week on Cultivating Place we revisit a conversation with Dorian Winslow, president of Womanswork. Almost 33 years ago now, Womanswork introduced the first work and garden gloves designed specifically for women. Join us! For photos visit cultivatingplace.com....

This week on Cultivating Place, we spend a little time revisiting our conversation exploring and appreciating the many gifts of darkness with the International Dark-Sky Association. This conversation is from December and the season of Winter Solstice, but I really wanted to revisit it now – in the season not too far past the summer solstice. The nights are short (but lengthening now) and they are...

This week on Cultivating Place, a best of conversation with a home gardener who has moved not just gardens, but continents and hemispheres. As we just reached the height of sunlight with our summer solstice, she eased into her winter. She shares a gardening story of learning, community and adaptability. Pen Pender is a gardener, mother, wife, voracious reader, community activist, bee keeper, cook...

Leslie Bennett is a garden designer of both English and Jamaican descent working out of Oakland, CA. With a Jamaican-born husband, a two year old son, and knowledgeable, passionate views about the importance of cultural heritage, on cultivating Place this week, Leslie shares her journey navigating the marriage of beauty, function, cultural property and the radical activism of gardening. Join us! F...

The garden is a full contact playground engaging us at all levels: We can hear, we can taste, we can see and smell - touch and feel. Tovah Martin is gardener and garden writer who explores the truth and the manifold joys of this truth in her new book “The Garden in Every Sense and Season” out now from Timber Press. Tovah joins us this week on Cultivating Place to share more. Listen in! For photos...

The New England Wild Flower Society is one of the oldest native plant conservation organizations in the country and represents the New England states. Their new book Native Plants for the New England Gardens is a perfect reference for their ecological and pollinator garden workshops being held across New England this summer. On Cultivating Place this week, we learn more. Join us! For photos visit...

In May of this year, the gardening world – specifically the ecologically based gardening world – lost one of it’s great leaders, Beth Chatto. This August her gardens and educational trust are hosting a symposium to honor her life and her work. On Cultivating Place this week we hear more about the woman and her legacy – join us! For photos visit cultivatingplace.com. The show is available as a podc...

This week we’re joined by two native plantspeople – Julie Nelson and Michael Kauffmann - to delve into the unsettling case of the poached Dudleya this last year here in California – join us as we explore the interesting, sometimes bothersome issues an incident like this brings up for us gardeners. For photos visit cultivatingplace.com. The show is available as a podcast on SoundCloud, iTunes, Goog...

In preparation for the 4th of July holiday, this week we visit our nation’s capital and the U.S. Botanic Garden. We’re joined by Devin Dotson, exhibits specialist and Nekisha Durrett, a featured artist in an epic summer mural exhibit at the Gardens - join us! For photos visit cultivatingplace.com. The show is available as a podcast on SoundCloud, iTunes, Google Play and Stitcher.

On Cultivating Place today we celebrate National Pollinator Week in the US when we’re joined by British biologist, conservationist and Professor of Biology at the University of Sussex in England, Dave Goulson. A gardener and bumblebee expert, Dave is the founder of the Bumblebee Conservation Trust dedicated to growing the awareness and appreciation for the life and importance of the bumblebees - a...

It is now officially summer vacation for most public school districts in the US. Today, Cultivating Place takes a little field trip to visit Sacramento high school teacher Kevin Jordan’s garden program which adds fresh air and fresh thinking in the classroom and out, in all weather and all seasons. Join us! For photos visit cultivatingplace.com. The show is available as a podcast on SoundCloud, iT...

In the global gardening world, Piet Oudolf is synonymous with a naturalistic planting style - rich in sweeps of grouped flowering perennials (often North American wildflower and prairie plants) and characterized by dramatic seasonal dynamics and ecological grounding . A new film "Five Seasons: The Gardens of Piet Oudolf" opens in New York this month celebrating this man and his work. On Cultivatin...