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 with horticulturist and longtime public garden administrator, Chris Woods sharing with us about his new book: GardenLust. Join us.

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. Woven throughout the episode are gardeners from around the world sharing with us what gratitude in the garden looks like to them. It’s incredibly painful again to write this week - one week since the #CAMPFIRE of California broke out and swept across (so far) 148,000 acres of this beautiful landscape of the California Floristic Region, close to 10,000 human homes destroyed, hundreds of businesses, at least three nurseries destroyed or damaged, the members of several dedicated garden clubs and master gardener groups profoundly impacted. And that's just what we know as of today. I know that the fires continue south of here, ravaging those landscapes. I recognize that there's loss, devastation, and tragedy of all scales around our globe daily - today my heart is heavy here, in my home - home of the Maidu, Wintu, Concow and other indigenous peoples, home of so many endemic and native plant and animals friends and lives held dear, home to me and my family for 11 years now. Several weeks ago now Sarah and I determined to revisit our Gratitude Special from 2017 this week, in part to prepare ourselves for this traditional season of harvest and thanksgiving and in part to celebrate the publication of Day Schildkret's new book Morning Altars. Which is well worth celebrating. It did not of course occur to us that this episode would air in this time of chaos and loss. And yet it did. While for some the storylines might feel too soon, too raw, to hard to hear - I hope for others it hold seeds of hope and possibility for the next season of growth. While the landscape and nature all around us in the midst of natural disaster might not seem like a source of solace, might instead seem like causes for fear, the words of Leah Penniman of several weeks ago come back to me: "While the land might be the scene of the crime, the land itself is NOT the crime." While she was of course speaking to Black and Brown farmers and cultivators, reminding them of their rightful, beautiful, and dignified reciprocal and ancient relationship to the land - I would offer her thought out as a seed of hope for all gardeners in my region for whom gardening, relationship, and pleasure from their scarred landscape might seem distant right now. While so much is being done in the here and now for immediate needs of people affected by this disaster - my thoughts are toward the many dedicated and passionate gardeners in our area and all that they’ve lost. Losses like these will come into clearer focus as time goes on and be very painful, and yet might also seem insignificant to these gardeners in the face of everything. I want you gardeners to know that you are seen and supported, and that the gardening community wants to help your and your important gardening passions as they rebuild. Stay tuned for support efforts in the works and coming soon. I am grateful to be here with you in community, Love, Jennifer

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 listening over the years and we hope you'll support Cultivating Place by heading to cultivatingplace.com. 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.

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 Cultivating Place this week. 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 by making a donation at cultivatingplace.com. We can't thank you enough for making it possible for this young program to grow even more conversations like this one with Leah Penniman. For photos of Leah and Soul Fire Farm visit cultivatingplace.com. The show is available as a podcast on SoundCloud, iTunes, Google Play and Stitcher.

"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 her book: "In Bloom: Creating and Living with Flowers," a collection of 11 portraits of artists inspired by the natural world. These two artists portray beautifully the endless creativity of botanical artistry. Join us! In case you didn't hear, the Cultivating Place team now has a donate button! We thank you so much for listening over the years and we hope you'll support Cultivating Place by donating to the podcast at cultivatingplace.com. 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.

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 so much for listening as over the years we've discussed expanding our views on the powerful nature of gardens, plants, and gardeners as intersectional spaces and agents of change for the better in our world. We hope you'll support Cultivating Place by hitting the donate button at www.cultivatingplace.com and we can't thank you enough for making it possible for this young program to grow even more of these types of conversations. You can also find photos of Julia's work at cultivatingplace.com. The show is available as a podcast on SoundCloud, iTunes, Google Play and Stitcher.

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 Place team is rolling out its first campaign to create sustainable funding for the production of Cultivating Place going into the future! We thank you so much for listening as over the years we've discussed expanding our views on the powerful nature of gardens, plants, and gardeners as intersectional spaces and agents of change for the better in our world. And for those of you who choose to be one of the first to monetarily 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. To give your support - head to cultivatingplace.com. There you'll also find photos of today's episode. The show is available as a podcast on SoundCloud, iTunes, Google Play and Stitcher.

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 Portland, Oregon, followed by a conversation with international urban muralist, Mona Caron. 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, 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. Join us! For photos visit cultivatingplace.com. The show is available as a podcast on SoundCloud, iTunes, Google Play and Stitcher.