Shows / Cultivating Place
Cultivating Place
Gardens are more than collections of plants. Gardens and Gardeners are intersectional spaces and agents for positive change in our world. Cultivating Place: Conversations on Natural History and the Human Impulse to Garden is a weekly public radio program & podcast exploring what we mean when we garden. Through thoughtful conversations with growers, gardeners, naturalists, scientists, artists and thinkers, Cultivating Place illustrates the many ways in which gardens are integral to our natural…
Episodes
Cultivating PlaceMum's the Flower of Fall, with Jessica Hall of Harmony Harvest Flower Farm
This week on Cultivating Place, we celebrate late summer and fall on the horizon in conversation about one of fall’s stars in the garden… past, present, and…
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Seed Your Future, with Jazmin Albarran
This week on Cultivating Place, host Abra Lee dives into the world of pathways to plant professions with Jazmin Albarran, executive Director of Seed Your…
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The Generosity of an Orchard: The Giving Grove
As autumn and harvest begins to color the edges of our awareness, this week on Cultivating Place, we’re joined by two people whose work is all about perennial…
Cultivating PlaceBack to a Source: the Somme Prairie Grove Nature Preserve
Looking back, even just this year, Cultivating Place has had multiple conversations with plantspeople from around the country about the inspirational plants…
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Bright Autumn Nights - GLEAM at Olbrich Botanical Gardens
Hot August nights turn to bright August nights at the Olbrich Botanical Gardens in Madison, WI. The Garden's annual GLEAM light show is celebrating its 10th…
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Prairie Up! With Plantsperson Benjamin Vogt (BEST OF)
Ahhh, high summer, my friends – this week we continue with our CP summer-break reprisals, reminding us of the importance of the great outdoors and the care and…
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Coming to our Senses: Wildscape, with Master Naturalist Nancy Lawson (BEST OF)
The garden in summer is at its fullest sensory delight and overwhelm – the peak of sunlight, growing hours, heat, and growth, ripening, and even rotting. This…
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The Nature Place–La Crosse, WI, with Rebecca Schwarz & Paige Manges
This week we’re getting back to nature for summer camp: ALL ages invited. We’re in conversation with Rebecca Schwarz and Paige Manges of The Nature Place in La…
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A Global Garden Adventurer, Plantswoman Lucie Willan
This week on Cultivating Place, you are in for a real summer adventure on a global garden armchair tour of sorts with a plantswoman who has studied and…
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July 4th Special: Great Expectations, CP LIVE with Ben Futa of Botany & CO, South Bend, IN
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…
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Rooted in Education, Richard M. Smith, Director, NYBG School of Professional Horticulture
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…
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Midsummer's Night Magic, with Leigh Ann Henion
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…
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Getting to know our neighbors: Preparing for National Pollinator Week with Colorado's PPAN
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…
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Transformative Beauty: Ben Futa in conversation with Montreal-based floral designer Marc Sardi
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…
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Nutritious Movement & The Gardener, with Katy Bowman
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…
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Raised Beds, Raised Voices: Guest Host Abra Lee in Conversation with Philly's Guina Hammond
Guina Hammond is the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society's program manager of sustainable communities. She is also deeply involved in her hometown of…
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That Green Thing Inside US ALL, Jill Mays on Nurturing Nature, Gardening for Special Needs
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…
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A Beautiful Journey, Plantswoman Holly Shimizu, Emeritus Director US Botanic Garden
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…
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Happy May Day! Growing Home: Humble Roots & The Pacific Northwest Native Plant Primer
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…
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For the Love of Soil, Start with Soil: Juliet Sargeant
Juliet Sargeant is an award-winning English garden designer who blends beauty with purpose in every space she creates. Juliet’s unique background in medicine…
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The Holy Earth & The Nature Study Idea, John Stempien on the Legacy of Liberty Hyde Bailey
In this holy season of spring in the Northern Hemisphere, with the earth reviving herself in greenery and flowers, birds, bees, and butterflies all around us…
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Love Letter to a Garden, Debbie Millman of Design Matters
Debbie Millman has written love letters before. Her 20 years of creating and hosting the popular podcast Design Matters is just one of them. Her many books…
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The Vibrant New Natural Gardening of Kelly D. Norris
You might remember Cultivating Place's first conversation with Iowa-based plantsman, Kelly D. Norris, back in 2021, in celebration of his book New Naturalism…
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Transformational: From banker to trailblazing IDEA leader in public horticulture, Mae Lin Plummer
This week on Cultivating Place, guest host Abra Lee is in conversation with a horticultural leader with big IDEAs. Mae Lin Plummer is the Director of the IDEA…
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Spring Equinox Special - Practicing re-enchantment: Encountering Dragonflies with Brooke Williams
Happy Spring Equinox! To welcome Spring – especially this exact Spring in the US - practicing re-enchantment in our world seemed exactly the right focus. I…
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Life is Big: To Be A Poet Gardener, Tess Taylor
Tess Taylor is a self-described Poet Gardener – and if there is ever a season to feel the poetry of life in the garden and with the plants in every cell of…
Cultivating PlaceThe Curious Dr. Margaret Funk, Flora & Frost
Dr. Margaret Funk is the curious Midwest gardener (and doctor) behind the online name Flora & Frost. Cultivating her Minnesota garden for years, like so many…
Cultivating PlaceFrom East Africa to the World, landscape design's Wambui Ippolito
From East Africa to the World, landscape design's Wambui Ippolito by Jennifer Jewell
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Portrait of A Black Woman in Her Garden: Leslie Bennett, Pine House Edible Gardens & Black Sanctuary Gardens
In celebration of Black History Month and looking forward to Women’s History Month - this week we’re so pleased to air another of our CP LIVE: Dialogues to…
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The Curiosity Driven Growing Life of Australia's Michael McCoy
Many things motivate and drive us to love gardening, plants, and nature. Australia’s Michael McCoy, also known as The Gardenist, is a Gardener, botanist…
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The Power of Public Green Spaces: NY's Elizabeth Street Garden with Joseph Reiver
The Elizabeth Street Garden in New York City’s Little Italy and SoHo neighborhoods is a one-acre public garden founded in 1991 by Allan Reiver, an artist and…
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Creativity, Self-Knowledge, and Artistic Ingenuity: Passionflower Sue
Creativity is one of those anchors-to-windward in unsettled and worrisome times. So is a hands-on, creative project – with bonus points for working with…
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Got Topiary? A conversation with plantsman/artist Mike Gibson
This week, Guest host Abra Lee is in conversation with legendary topiary artist and star of the HGTV hit show Clipped, Mike ‘Gibby-Siz’ Gibson. Mike is based…
Cultivating PlaceThe Collective & The Seed Farmer, Dan Brisebois
This week – in the wind, rain, snow, and fires of early 2025 so far – it is good to be able to focus on SEEDs this week – seeds remind us so tangibly of our…
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Resolution Support: The Five-Minute Gardener, Nicole Burke of Gardener
Maybe your New Year’s resolution was to take up gardening, or to garden more, or in a new way? Well, this week’s Cultivating Place conversation is all about…
Cultivating PlaceHAPPY NEW YEAR 2025: Prioritizing Rest, Balance, and JOY, with Dandy Ram Farm
To ring in the New Year, this week on Cultivating Place, guest host Ben Futa is in conversation with Bo Dennis, lead farmer and designer of Dandy Ram farm…
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WINTER SOLSTICE SEASON SPECIAL: Being Still, with Mary Jo Hoffman (BEST OF)
Happy Winter Solstice season! In celebration of the planetary moment of the longest night and the shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, which…
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The King of Camellias, Sidney Frazier of Middleton Place, Charleston, SC
This week, CP Guest Host Abra Lee celebrates the season in conversation with the King of Camellias, Sidney Frazier. Sidney is based out of sunny Charleston…
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Arboreal Obsession and Growing the World: The Tree Collectors, with Amy Stewart
Many gardeners are also collectors. Collectors of things like pots, books, seeds, and - of course - plants. Some plant collecting gardeners collect flowers…
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The Garden of Words with Katie Elzer-Peters
This week, Cultivating Place’s guest host, Ben Futa, is in conversation with Katie Elzer-Peters, owner and founder of The Garden of Words, a digital marketing…
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Longwood Reimagined with Horticultural Leader, Paul Redman
This week, when many in the US have time off with family and friends, we note our gratitude for Public Gardens and green spaces around our country and in our…
Cultivating PlaceAll flourishing is mutual, Robin Wall Kimmerer (Best Of)
In honor of the season of gratitude, festivities, long nights, rest, and reflection upon us, this week we revisit a BEST OF conversation with Robin Wall…
Cultivating PlaceExploring the frontiers of garden design with The New Perennialist, Tony Spencer of Ontario, CA
In our ongoing exploration of who gardeners are, where gardeners are, and all that they are growing in this world, this week in particular I am delighted to be…
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Somewhere That's Green, with plantsman John Kish
This week on Cultivating Place, guest host Ben Futa of Botany in South Bend, Indiana, is back, this time in conversation with John Kish in the desert town of…
Cultivating PlaceAll Hallows Eve/Samhain & our wildest dreams, with Jen Williams of Wild Dreams Farm & Seed
Sometimes our dreams didn’t start out as our dreams. Sometimes, our current dreams were once just seeds germinating in the crucible of time and experience…
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The Poetic Garden Legacy of the Harlem Renaissance's Effie Lee Newsome
Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, and W. EB Dubois are some of the many recognizable names of an intellectual cultural and artistic period in American…
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All the wild rhythms: Wild Plant Culture with Jared Rosenbaum
The wilds of New Jersey might sound like a humorous oxymoron to many – many who don’t live in New Jersey. Humor is one of our guests' great traits this week…
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LIVE with Golden State Linen (formerly known as Chico Flax)
This week, we’re so excited to air the first listen to one of our CP LIVE conversations, which were recorded live in front of an audience on the home ground of…
Cultivating PlaceKISS MY ASTER's ASTER GARDENS, with Amanda Thomsen
Amanda Thomsen is a horticulturist, garden designer, keynote speaker, freelance writer, backyard consultant, and author living in suburban Chicago. Amanda…
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The Field Guides Among Us: Dr. Alan Weakley, Director UNC Chapel Hill Herbarium
Dr. Alan Weakley is a career-long botanist and conservation biologist firmly rooted in the southeast region of the U.S. For a little over 23 years, Dr. Weakley…
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Pre Autumnal Equinox Celebration with Erin Benzakein of Floret & Floret Originals
Erin Benzakein of Floret Flower Farm needs little introduction to most garden-minded listeners. She has been so instrumental is cultivating a flower-farmer and…
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Something in The Woods Loves You, with Jarod K. Anderson
One day in his mid-adulthood, at a particularly low point after many years of battling debilitating depression, Jarod K. Anderson witnessed the presence of a…
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Gardens in Spaces of Incarceration, with Cultural Geographer Dr. Elizabeth Lara
This week, in honor of Labor Day just passed, we venture into the world of garden preservation, history through the lens of spaces of incarceration, and how…
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BEST OF conversation with Gwendolyn Wallace author "Joy Takes Root"
At this back-to-school, change-of-seasons moment, I thought we would all enjoy a good bedtime-story vibe. Enjoy this Best of CP conversation with Gwendolyn…
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Thoughtful alchemy & sustainable floristry, Shane Connolly
This week, A BEST OF conversation. In this long, hot, fiery summer here in Northern CA and wet and windy summer in other parts of the country – I really needed…
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Back to school (with plants) - Sean Doherty, VP of Education, Missouri Botanical Garden
It’s back to school time – you can tell by the ads on television and radio (yes, I was watching the Olympics!) and by the displays at the stores with…
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Welcome to the Shrub Club: Shrouded in Light Kevin Philip Williams & Michael Guidi
Late July, August, and September (the dog days of summer with the constellation Sirius high in the night sky) are perhaps the stretch of the year in most…
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The Botanical Journey & Lexicon of a Caring Plantsperson, with Tim Johnson, Native Plant Trust
Tim Johnson is engaged in the native plant and garden worlds on both personal and professional levels. Having worked with Seed Savers Exchange earlier in his…
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A Devotion to the Mysterium of Place as an Antidote to Existential Homesickness, with Janisse Ray
Working under the online name Trackless Wild, Janisse Ray is an American writer, naturalist, and environmental activist. Just about everything she does speaks…
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The Comfort of Crows, A Backyard Year" with Margaret Renkl BEST OF
This week we revisit a favorite conversation from the archive, “The Comfort of Crows, A Backyard Year," with author and backyard tender and observer, Margaret…