Cultivating Place

The best public gardens are in fact community gardens at some level, this week on Cultivating Place we’re speaking with gardeners from New York City’s Borough of Brooklyn where for 25 years the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens has hosted the Greenest Block in Brooklyn competition. Promoting streetscape gardening, tree stewardship, and community development in New York’s borough of Brooklyn through block and merchant associations and other groups – this is gardening as community activism of the highest order. Join us to hear more about this Greening Up. 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. For photos visit www.cultivatingplace.com. The show is available as a podcast on SoundCloud, iTunes, Google Play and Stitcher.

LIFE FORCE: In honor of mother’s day here in the US this coming weekend, we’re joined by artist, floral designer, textile designer and all around creative Louesa Roebuck, co-author of the beautiful book Foraged Flora – A year of Gathering and Arranging Wild Plants And Flowers - exploring the life force to be found in our mothers - biological and earthly. Join us. 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. For photos visit www.cultivatingplace.com. The show is available as a podcast on SoundCloud, iTunes, Google Play and Stitcher.

TRUTH, BEAUTY, CHAOS & PLANTS - May Day is upon us and we celebrate in conversation with Australian gardener and writer - Georgina Reid. Based in Australia, her work under the name of The Planthunter finds truth beauty chaos and what it is to live an important life – in constant relationship with Plants. Join us. 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. For photos visit www.cultivatingplace.com. The show is available as a podcast on SoundCloud, iTunes, Google Play and Stitcher.

Irish plantswoman Mary Reynolds has cultivated a deep love of her place in the mountains of Wicklow, Ireland - in all its complexity and mystery. As a plantswoman and guardian/gardener - she listens to her place, and works in partnership with her place to move us all forward towards a better world. Mary is a nature activist, a self-described reformed Landscape Designer, the author of "The Garden Awakening", and the inspiration behind the 2015 movie Dare to be Wild – she joins Cultivating Place this week in an extended celebration of Earth Day, and our bonus Habitat Garden Series Episode #6. 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. For photos visit www.cultivatingplace.com. The show is available as a podcast on SoundCloud, iTunes, Google Play and Stitcher. TAGS:

In our fifth episode in our five part series on our gardens as habitat and we gardeners as powerful land stewards and biodiversity protectors, we visit a remarkable public garden in California during California Native Plant Week. The Nature Gardens at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County are testament to just how much one garden can do to turn back time and help restore habitat even in downtown LA where once a parking lot sat barren and overheated. We’re joined today by native plant expert and Horticulturist Carol Bornstein, Director of the Nature Gardens, and by Lila Higgins, Senior Manager of Community Science there. They will bring us up to speed on what the Nature Gardens and the habitat they provide can offer to us all. 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. For photos visit www.cultivatingplace.com. The show is available as a podcast on SoundCloud, iTunes, Google Play and Stitcher.

Hummingbirds are a beloved and charismatic creature of the Americas, the more than 350 species of which have coevolved with the flora of the Americas for millions of years. Cultivating Place is joined in our ongoing discussion of our gardens as important refuge habitats by Dr. Susan Wethington, research scientist, Program Developer, and Executive Director of the Hummingbird Monitoring Network. 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. For photos visit www.cultivatingplace.com. The show is available as a podcast on SoundCloud, iTunes, Google Play and Stitcher.

In this our third in a five part series, on our gardens as important habitat links for the wildlife of our regions we’re joined by Horticulturist Christine Nye of Chicago’s historic – and state of the art 21st century - lakeside Shedd Aquarium. Christine’s visionary gardens there reminds us that the “healthy habitat” of our gardens expansively includes the fish in our waters and the bird’s in our skies. Join us! 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. For photos visit cultivatingplace.com. The show is available as a podcast on SoundCloud, iTunes, Google Play and Stitcher.

In 2018, scientists reported dramatic losses in populations of one of North America’s most charismatic insects, the Monarch butterfly, with an estimated 14.8 percent decline of Eastern Monarchs and a precipitous 86% percent 1-year decline in Western Monarchs. While Monarchs are known for seasonal fluctuations in their numbers, this week we speak with Monarch researcher Dr. Anurag Agrawal of Cornell University to learn more. 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. For photos visit www.cultivatingplace.com. The show is available as a podcast on SoundCloud, iTunes, Google Play and Stitcher.

The news goes from bad to worse when we’re talking about biodiversity, insect declines and habitat loss in our world. This week we kick off an all new five-week curated series on the critically important habitat our gardens provide - what it means, what it looks like, how we can improve it – we start with an overview in conversation with with Scott Black, and by Phyllis Stiles of the Xerces Society for invertebrate conservation and their bee city initiative. Join us! 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. For photos visit www.cultivatingplace.com. The show is available as a podcast on SoundCloud, iTunes, Google Play and Stitcher.

Spring is right around the corner and Spring Break Season is here – have you been outside lately? Have you been outside to play? Our guests this week on Cultivating Place are Amanda Thomsen of Kiss My Aster and Backyard Adventure, and Nancy Striniste of Nature Play At Home. They both remind us of the health and wellbeing involved in the activity of going outside to play. Join us. 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. For photos visit www.cultivatingplace.com. The show is available as a podcast on SoundCloud, iTunes, Google Play and Stitcher.