Cultivating Place

THIS WEEK on CP - OUR NEXT CP LIVE podcast! And we head to Indiana with our very own Ben Futa. Botany & Co. in South Bend, Indiana is dedicated to “empowering more people to plant more plants in more places!” In a town that has seen more than its share of social, economic, and environmental challenges in the past few decades, Botany & Co., Ben’s dream come true, is stimulating community, biodiversity, economic growth, and joy.  It was bitterly cold in South Bend last March, but Botany Shop was warm with sharing, with growing, and with community – all of which you can hear in this conversation. The full cohort of the ten 2024/2025 transformative CP LIVE experiences is right now being crafted by the CP LIVE team into a powerful documentary film experience, sharing the many–often surprising and unseen–ways that (big G) Gardeners cultivating their places with care grow us ALL better. And when we see the full power of Gardeners, we value them more appropriately. When we value and support them, they can grow our world better, even more beautifully, more intentionally, and more effectively. This July 4th week here in the U.S., as we think about the privileges, opportunities and responsibilities of being citizens of our places, we’re so pleased to share forward this conversation with Ben, a remarkable plantsperson, ecosystem and community steward, and regular host here on Cultivating Place.  For much more about the CP LIVE documentary film in-process:  ➡️ cultivatingplace.org/film to see, share, and support for yourself 💚. Cultivating Place now has a donate button! We thank you so much for listening over the years, and we hope you'll support Cultivating Place. We can't thank you enough for making it possible for this young program to grow and engage in even more conversations like these. The show is available as a podcast on SoundCloud and iTunes. To read more and for many more photos, please visit www.cultivatingplace.com. All photos are courtesy of Ben Futa, Botany & Co., Myriam Nicodemus, and Jennifer Jewell. All rights are reserved.

This week on Cultivating Place, guest host Abra Lee is joined in conversation by someone whose path into horticulture is both inspiring and honest—Richard M. Smith, director of the School of Professional Horticulture at the New York Botanical Garden. Richard grew up in Belle Glade, Florida—folks there call it Muck City, thanks to their deep, rich soil. And while Richard didn’t start off in horticulture, that love for plants was always in him. Now his career is focused on helping people from all walks of life find their way into this field—building careers, finding purpose, and growing something meaningful. As someone who is growing more than just plants, Richard is all about access, mentorship, and ensuring the door stays open behind him. Enjoy! Cultivating Place now has a donate button! We thank you so much for listening over the years, and we hope you'll support Cultivating Place. We can't thank you enough for making it possible for this young program to grow and engage in even more conversations like these. The show is available as a podcast on SoundCloud and iTunes. To read more and for many more photos, please visit www.cultivatingplace.com.

Have you ever heard of a Moth-er? Yes, it is the moth equivalent of a birder – someone who loves and follows and studies the incredible diversity of moths. Creatures whose lives benefit ours and yet take place primarily under the cover of the dark of night. In this week of the Summer Solstice, in our seasonal period of longest days and shortest nights in the Northern Hemisphere, we pause to consider and revel in the importance—the life-nurturing, life-giving, and restorative magic of the dark. Leigh Ann Henion is the author of Night Magic, Adventures among Glowworms, Moon Gardens and other Marvels of the Dark – a beautiful road map for all of us in better knowing and appreciating the greater fullness of the lives of our places – especially those lives that bloom, grow, and come out at night. Listen in and enjoy! Cultivating Place now has a donate button! We thank you so much for listening over the years and we hope you'll support Cultivating Place. We can't thank you enough for making it possible for this young program to grow even more of these types of conversations. The show is available as a podcast on SoundCloud and iTunes. To read more and for many more photos, please visit www.cultivatingplace.com.

Every year since 2007, when the US Senate passed sanctions declaring it, the third week of June is celebrated as National Pollinator Week. It is no accident that this is the same week as the Summer Solstice, when many pollinators reach their peak. Since 2017, however, the state of Colorado has celebrated June as National Pollinator Month, and this week we hear more, celebrate wins, and focus on the work remaining with two members of PPAN – Colorado’s own People & Pollinators Action Network. Promotes pollinator-friendly land management and landscaping practices through community education, engagement, and advocacy to preserve biodiversity and safeguard public health. They beautifully envision a world with healthy, sustainable ecosystems where people and pollinators can thrive now and for generations to come. They conduct their world-improving work at the grassroots, municipal, and state levels, advocating for policies and practices that reduce or eliminate the use of pesticides and create and connect swaths of pollinator-safe habitat with the intent of reversing the drastic decline of pollinator populations. Joyce Kennedy, PPAN's executive director, and Emily KenCairn, director of communications and development, will join us this week to share more about how they are doing all that they are doing and how we can, too. Both of them are Gardeners with a capital G. Enjoy! Cultivating Place now has a donate button! We thank you so much for listening over the years and we hope you'll support Cultivating Place. We can't thank you enough for making it possible for this young program to grow even more of these types of conversations. The show is available as a podcast on SoundCloud and iTunes. To read more and for many more photos, please visit www.cultivatingplace.com.

To welcome the fullness of June, this week on Cultivating Place, guest host Ben Futa is back and in conversation with Marc Sardi, a Montreal-based scientist turned floral artist who has reinvented his relationship with the natural world, and himself, along with changing careers.  It’s an authentic conversation exploring how rediscovering our most authentic relationship with plants also allows us to know ourselves, and our world, better. It’s lush, it’s life-affirming, and it’s grounding in all the best ways. Listen in and Enjoy! Cultivating Place now has a donate button! We thank you so much for listening over the years and we hope you'll support Cultivating Place. We can't thank you enough for making it possible for this young program to grow even more of these types of conversations. The show is available as a podcast on SoundCloud and iTunes. To read more and for many more photos, please visit www.cultivatingplace.com. All photos are courtesy of Marc Sardi, and all rights reserved. Bio Image of Marc by Christophe Roberge, all rights reserved.

Summer makes it easy to move your body – to get out for a walk, to work in the garden, to hike, bike, stroll, boat, climb, swim, dance under the stars. Whatever calls you. But as we know, many of us – most of us? Do not move enough, and even if we do, we don’t get a balanced diet of movement. Which Gardening can help with, and which physical movement, expert Katy Bowman says, is essential to a healthy body, mind, heart, and attitude. Katy is the founder of Nutritious Movement, and she joins us on Cultivating Place this week to share more. Listen in! Cultivating Place now has a donate button! We thank you so much for listening over the years and we hope you'll support Cultivating Place. We can't thank you enough for making it possible for this young program to grow even more of these types of conversations. The show is available as a podcast on SoundCloud and iTunes. To read more and for many more photos, please visit www.cultivatingplace.com.

Guina Hammond is the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society's program manager of sustainable communities. She is also deeply involved in her hometown of Philadelphia as a certified organic landcare professional, PHS Tree Tender, Penn State Master Gardener, and planning team member for the Mid-Atlantic Woody & Perennial Plant Conference.  In addition to that incredible list of accomplishments, Guina is a down-to-earth plant lover at heart who desires to bring gardening to the doorstep of your everyday neighbor. As the founding member of the Chester Avenue Community Garden, a PHS-supported garden, she has grown award-winning produce for the past 38 years. CP Guest Host Abra Lee is in conversation with Guina this week to learn and share more. Enjoy! Cultivating Place now has a donate button! We thank you so much for listening over the years and we hope you'll support Cultivating Place. We can't thank you enough for making it possible for this young program to grow even more of these types of conversations. The show is available as a podcast on SoundCloud and iTunes. To read more and for many more photos, please visit www.cultivatingplace.com.

As the summer gardening season rolls into full-throated song, the idea of who has access to the work, joy, and benefits of this practice also comes into view—and feeds what Occupational Therapist and author Jill Mays calls that "green thing inside of us all." As an occupational therapist by career and calling, over the course of her professional life, it became increasingly clear to Jill how many of the occupational therapy goals she set for her diverse clients were well met by the variety of activities, sensory stimulations, and social, mental, and physical benefits of gardening—preferably outside and in the company of others. After several years of developing gardening programs in her now-home town of Truro, MA, Jill has documented the journey of her work, research, and garden program designs for a wide range of special needs in her new book: Nurturing Nature, A Guide to Gardening for Special Needs. Cultivating Place now has a donate button! We thank you so much for listening over the years and we hope you'll support Cultivating Place. We can't thank you enough for making it possible for this young program to grow even more of these types of conversations. The show is available as a podcast on SoundCloud and iTunes. To read more and for many more photos, please visit www.cultivatingplace.com.

This second week of May, we welcome gardener and plantswoman Holly Shimizu. Her four decades of work in some of America’s notable public gardens have tracked and traced some of the most impactful changes in public garden standards, expectations, and accountability in that same time frame. From her visionary leadership roles at the National Herb Garden, the Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden, and the US Botanic Garden to her current board position at the American Horticultural Society, Holly’s garden life is a beautiful public-garden journey that benefits us all. Enjoy! Cultivating Place now has a donate button! We thank you so much for listening over the years and we hope you'll support Cultivating Place. We can't thank you enough for making it possible for this young program to grow even more of these types of conversations. The show is available as a podcast on SoundCloud and iTunes. To read more and for many more photos, please visit www.cultivatingplace.com.

This week on Cultivating Place we welcome May, with all of her floral and plant profusion, revisiting a conversation we loved with Kristin Currin and Andrew Merritt of Humble Roots Nursery in Oregon’s Columbia River Gorge. Acclaimed for their native plant passions, knowledge, and integrity, Kristin and Drew are the authors of the Pacific Northwest Native Plant Primer - one of a series of such primers from around the country steering us as gardeners toward beautiful ecological gardens and place based relationships. Cheers to May and our gardens' weaving us back into the wonder of the world. Humble Roots is a native plant nursery acclaimed for its efforts in sustainability and promoting native plant passion, knowledge, and ethics across the wider eco-regions of the Pacific Northwest. The Pacific Northwest Native Plant Primer, 225 plants for an Earth Friendly Garden (Timber Press, 2023), or one of its relations might be just the inspiration we all need to get us planting in the right direction this spring and summer! Cultivating Place now has a donate button! We thank you so much for listening over the years and we hope you'll support Cultivating Place. We can't thank you enough for making it possible for this young program to grow even more of these types of conversations. The show is available as a podcast on SoundCloud and iTunes. To read more and for many more photos, please visit www.cultivatingplace.com.