Podcast · Society & Culture

Cultivating Place

by Jennifer Jewell / Cultivating Place · English · Society & Culture

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 gard

New episodes: Weekly
Typical length: 59 min
Latest: 8 Oct 2026
Language: English

Latest episode

8 Oct 2026 · 1 hr 3 min

The Essence of Thriving with Dr. Garrett Liles, Center for Regenerative Agriculture & Resilient Systems, CSU Chico

For the next conversation in our intermittent series on what regenerative cultivation looks like in our world-at many levels, Cultivating Place is speaking this week with Dr. Garrett Liles, cofounder and faculty affiliate of the Center for Regenerative Agriculture and Resilient Systems at California State University, Chico. The Center is all about caring cultivation of place, understanding and supporting better systems, and training the next generation in the ethos and the practices. The Center is directed by nationally recognized regenerative agriculture leader, Dr. Cynthia Daley, an…

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Earlier episodes 29 most recent

1 Oct 2026 · 55 min
Sweet Peas & Sweet Homes: Where Flowers Become Memories
To welcome October, this week on Cultivating Place, host Ben Futa welcomes Colleen Raney of Washington State’s Songbird Seed Company and Diadem Flower Company. Colleen founded Songbird Seed Co., a seed company devoted to cultivating and preserving exceptional sweet peas. What started as a personal fascination with the sweet pea became a deeper study of their history, varieties, cultivation, and extraordinary diversity. Today, Colleen grows hundreds of sweet pea varieties each year, selecting and sharing seeds that she finds particularly beautiful, unusual, and worthy of being grown again.…
24 Sep 2026 · 54 min
The Gospel of Asa Sims, a Garden History Love Story
Happy Autumn! Cultivating Place is proud to launch an occasional series from Host Abra Lee, delving into our Garden past to better understand and illuminate our Garden present and future. Sometimes we have to look back to grow forward! This week, Abra shares her research into an intrepid and unflagging cultivator of place from our past in Virginia’s Tidewater Region: Asa Sims. A businessman, educator, floral grower, and designer, Asa was also a cofounder in 1932 of the Historic Black Garden Clubs of Virginia, then known as the Negro Garden Clubs of Virginia. Listen in! Cultivating Place now…
17 Sep 2026 · 55 min
To Leave the Land Better Than We Found It, Bryce & Brita Lundberg–Lundberg Family Farms
To “leave the land better than we found it” should be the ethic of all Gardeners. It is the North Star ethic of regenerative and organic farming leaders: Lundberg Family Rice. Third- and fourth-generation stewards of rice, land, and planet, Bryce and Brita Lundberg join Cultivating Place this week to share why, and all that grows from that single dedication. Cultivating Place now has a donate button! We thank you for listening over the years, and we hope you'll continue to support Cultivating Place. We can't thank you enough for making it possible for this young program to grow and engage in…
10 Sep 2026 · 1 hr 6 min
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 in cultivating a flower-farming economy in our country. Her innovative and dedicated seed research and breeding work of the past decade, however, is a whole new lens through which to appreciate her work. As we look toward the Autumnal Equinox later this month, please enjoy this favorite conversation! Back in 2017, when I first interviewed Erin for the program & for The Earth in Her Hands, she was already a tireless advocate for local flowers and for supporting more…
3 Sep 2026 · 56 min
A place for healing, safety, comfort, joy, and belonging, with David Jacques
As the season begins to show signs of turning its next page, Cultivating Place host Ben Futa heads to Vermont! This week he's in conversation with David Jacques, also known by the internet persona "Davey Wavey". David is the owner of Frog Meadow Bed & Breakfast, a retreat for men in southern Vermont. For nearly 20 years, David has been pursuing his passion for gardening while serving an audience (online and in person) of primarily gay men. In their conversation this week, they explore childhoods spent in the soil, how David’s career led to an East Coast homecoming, and a newfound connection…
27 Aug 2026 · 54 min
The Art of Black Southern Agrarian Magic, Whitney Jaye
Whitney Jaye is a florist, flower farmer, and the creative force behind Sunbird Flowers, based in Decatur, Georgia, and providing sustainably grown, beautifully curated flowers for the Atlanta area. Seeing her work through the lens of Black Southern folkways that (re)center agrarianism, and through the ancestral memories and practices of coastal Carolinian culture, Whitney Jaye’s work sits at the intersection of land care, history, and building community through flowers. This week, Cultivating Place host Abra Lee joins Whitney to explore how flowers can connect us to place, to one another,…
20 Aug 2026 · 1 hr 6 min
The Gardens of Alcatraz, with Shelagh Fritz
Alcatraz is a name rich with story, myth, and drama. It is also a dramatic sight where history, gardens, and how gardens grow us better all come together. This week we continue our theme of gardens and cultural landscapes as a form of social care–tending to place and people. We’re joined by Shelagh Fritz, the Senior Program Manager of Alcatraz Historic Gardens, part of the Golden Gate Parks Conservancy. For more than 20 years, Shelagh has grown with and tended this dramatic, historic, and growing garden site, and she has expansive garden goals for the future. Listen in! Cultivating Place now…
13 Aug 2026 · 1 hr 6 min
A New Garden Society, with Erika Rumbley and Renee Portonova
Erika Rumbley and Renee Portanova are Co-Founders and Directors of The New Garden Society. Now, you may hear that phrase and think of a garden club or a plant society. But this organization’s very name invites you to consider a new angle on the words Garden + Society. The New Garden Society is a Boston-based organization run by horticulturists, landscapers, and farmers who seek to expand green industry opportunities for their incarcerated and formerly incarcerated neighbors in greater Boston. They believe in the transformational potential of working with plants, and in connecting…
6 Aug 2026 · 1 hr 6 min
We're all history in the making, life lessons from garden history
All history reminds us that we are all history in the making! Garden history reminds us that we as gardeners, our gardens, our gardening, and how our culture tends to and stewards land are all that, too! What is the historical context of gardens in this moment-especially given some of the changes and impacts on national or public shared landscapes? What does garden history specifically teach us about this moment? Join us this week as Cultivating Place hosts Ben Futa and Abra Lee consider these questions through the lens of garden history and their own garden lives: from plants to quilts,…
30 Jul 2026 · 1 hr 3 min
High Elevation Balancing Act, Jennifer Bousselot, Colorado State University
At the height of summer, we head to the mile-high city to think more about cultivating place at elevation: human-made and natural elevations, in the service of people and their places. We’re in conversation with Professor Jennifer Bousselot, who leads the Green Roof and Urban Agriculture Program, Growing Food for People and Pollinators, at Colorado State University. Dr. Bousselot is motivated by balance. The author and co-author of many titles, including Trees & Shrubs of Colorado and Trees and Shrubs of New Mexico, she has also published widely on the power (pun intended) of green roofs and…
23 Jul 2026 · 54 min
Rooted in Relationships, Plantsman Allen Bush
Allen Bush is an esteemed plantsman and lifelong advocate for the joy of gardening. He joins Cultivating Place Host Abra Lee in conversation this week to share more. From his work with Jelitto Perennial Seeds to his decades sharing rich garden stories as a Garden Rant writer, Allen’s life and work invite us to look more closely at the remarkable diversity of plants and the endless opportunities they offer for curiosity, discovery, and connection. Through decades of sharing plants and knowledge with gardeners, he reminds us that our gardens are never truly finished; they are living places…
16 Jul 2026 · 59 min
A Path For All, Reeves-Reed Arboretum, Summit, NJ
What does accessibility mean in the garden? In a public garden? Reeves-Reed Arboretum in Summit NJ, an historic estate and garden, has been considering these questions intensely. How to increase accessibility for visitors and yet maintain the equally important sense of being in and with nature. One result of their thoughtful deliberations is their Path For All, which opened in May of 2026. Three members of their team join Jennifer Jewell this week to share more about their 130-plus-year history as a garden and their 50+-year history of increasing accessibility for all to loving, living with,…
9 Jul 2026 · 1 hr 9 min
Slow Design, Thoughtful Places, Andrew Fisher Tomlin
Planting design is an essential skill in garden design writ large, for the health and beauty of a site– functionally, environmentally, and psychologically. Andrew Fisher Tomlin is widely acknowledged as leading the development of a distinct professional career path in planting design through his own work and as a Director of Environmental Design at the London College of Garden Design in London and Melbourne, where he has mentored some of the most exciting new designers coming out of the UK and Australia over the past 20 years. His work bridges design, education, and industry, and he is…
2 Jul 2026 · 1 hr 7 min
Sunchoke Farms, Next in the Cultivating South Bend Series
Cultivating Place well so often comes down to sharing the abundance of growing from a place of love and a strong sense of community and home. Susan Greutman is the founder and owner of Sunchoke Farms, an urban homestead-turned-family farm in South Bend, Indiana, growing chemical-free produce on formerly vacant city lots. Susan has been farming since 2018 and also happens to be growing right in Ben Futa and Botany's neighborhood. Their conversation is filled with so many lessons derived from all of this abundance of place, and is the second in Ben’s Cultivating South Bend series, leading up…
25 Jun 2026 · 1 hr
Following What Flourishes, with Amanda Hannah
Amanda Hannah is the Director of Botanical Garden Horticulture at Holden Forests & Gardens in Cleveland, Ohio. Amanda’s path into horticulture has taken her from the agricultural landscapes of Idaho and Utah to studying in Argentina, living in Seattle, and moving through the Longwood Fellows Program. This week, Amanda and Cultivating Place Host, Abra Lee, dive into plants, the role of public gardens, conservation, and how following an unexpected passion can transform the course of a life. Listen in! Cultivating Place now has a donate button! We thank you for listening over the years, and we…
18 Jun 2026 · 57 min
Summer Solstice Special–SummerHome Garden's Lisa Negri, Denver, CO
We are finally at peak daylight and the Summer Solstice–which officially takes place June 21st this year. Summer speaks of garden parties and holidays at the beach, or lake, by rivers, or in the mountains. Summer speaks directly to our connection to the wild places we love and perhaps long for– and which, through our gardens, can be right here at home. SummerHome Garden in Denver, CO, is a playful and powerful twist on the idea that our gardens can be our summer homes. Lisa Negri of SummerHome Garden joins us this week to share more. Listen in! Cultivating Place now has a donate button! We…
11 Jun 2026 · 1 hr 9 min
Preparing for International Pollinator Week with Krystle Hickman, Author, Artist, Native Bee Adventurer
The conservation of biodiversity writ large is directly tied to the conservation of native bees, crucial pollinators in our cultivated and wildland ecosystems across most regions of the world. This week, we look forward to International Pollinator Week, which always falls in the third week of June, tied to the summer solstice. We’re in conversation with Krystle Hickman, award-winning conservation photographer, author, artist, and National Geographic Explorer. Her passion is native bees wherever she finds them, starting in her home place of California. Known online as BeeSip, Krystle’s newest…
4 Jun 2026 · 55 min
Turning Space into PLACE: ReGen South Bend
What makes a place a place, versus just any space? Tyler Kanchazeski is a sustainability advocate and the founder and owner of ReGen South Bend, an incremental development and community catalyst company based in the Near Northwest Neighborhood of South Bend, Indiana. Tyler brings business leadership, logistics, resiliency, and community experience to his work alongside neighbors to transform space into place, in order to cultivate people and their places well. Tyler joins Cultivating Place Host Ben Futa this week to share more. Listen in! Cultivating Place now has a donate button! We thank…
28 May 2026 · 1 hr 5 min
Sustainability and Stewardship – A Conversation with Brent “Fig” Figlestahler
This week on Cultivating Place, public gardens as living classrooms, the quiet power of trees in city life, and how tending landscapes can cultivate resilience, curiosity, and belonging. Host Abra Lee is in conversation with Brent “Fig” Figlestahler, horticulturist, landscape architect, educator, and devoted steward of public green spaces from the cultivated collections and urban woodlands of Cylburn Arboretum Friends, to classrooms, community gardens, and neighborhoods across the city of Baltimore, Maryland. Fig shows what it means to care deeply for plants — and for the people and places…
21 May 2026 · 1 hr 2 min
A Radical Plan: Village Homes in Davis, CA turns 50!
This week, we continue plumbing the potential of gardens and gardeners for growing a future we want to cultivate- for the benefit of all. In order to look forward, we look back to the radical plan of a 50-year-old intentionally-designed community and sustainability-oriented housing development, Village Homes, in Davis, California. Central to the intelligent design? You got it, Gardens and Green spaces at every turn, and accessible to all. With the community now celebrating its 50th year, Cultivating Place is joined by Carol Hillhouse, UC Davis Student Farm Associate Director Emeritus, and…
14 May 2026 · 58 min
Tiny Gardens Everywhere, with MIT's Kate Brown
Kate Brown is an MIT Distinguished Professor in the History of Science. Across her career, her research has sometimes inadvertently documented the impact of urban, often small and under-resourced gardens and gardeners in our world. Her new book, Tiny Gardens Everywhere: The Past, Present, and Future of the Self-Provisioning City, compiles this research and her own lived experience of its truth and potential benefits. Listen in! Cultivating Place now has a donate button! We thank you for listening over the years, and we hope you'll continue to support Cultivating Place. We can't thank you…
7 May 2026 · 59 min
Flora Culture with Christin Geall of Cultivated by Christin
This week on Cultivating Place, we continue with our flower theme as we celebrate May, looking toward the most floral of celebrations, Mother’s Day in the US. We discuss not us as gardeners growing flowers, but rather, how flowers shape our world, our cultures, our economies, our thinking and outlooks. We're in conversation with Christin Geall, author of Cultivated: Elements of Floral Style. Her newest title is Flora Culture: How Flowers Shape our World. It’s a revealing and thought-provoking cultural compendium. Listen in! Cultivating Place now has a donate button! We thank you for…
30 Apr 2026 · 52 min
REALLY ROSES, with Robin Jennings of Oregon-based Heirloom (Roses)
Roses are one of those topics in the garden world: they can be polarizing or energizing. And yet, given that there are roses native to most environments of North America, Europe, Asia, and Africa, and humans have revered this family and genus and the hundreds of rose species for millennia, they can also be connective tissue for so much–generationally, culturally, environmentally, medicinally, and certainly, aesthetically. So do you love 'em, do you hate ‘em? Do you think they’re fussy, or old-school? Maybe. But in so many ways, they are a real deal OG garden staple. From beautiful flowers,…
23 Apr 2026 · 54 min
Between Soil and Self - A conversation with John Sonnier
This week, Cultivating Place host Abra Lee explores diplomacy and gardens. She’s in conversation with John Sonnier, Head Gardener at the British Ambassador's residence in Washington, D.C. There since 2009, John focuses on organic and sustainable methods of care AND he has created one of the United State’s most significant historic orchid collections. Orchids are known for their extraordinary forms, relationships, and resilience and John, a distinguished horticulturalist, artist, and self-taught orchidist, brings us into that world – sharing what it means to grow them, care for them, and stay…
16 Apr 2026 · 54 min
Mid-Atlantic Regional Seed Bank (MARSB) with Ed Toth and John Price
This week, when we think about Cultivating Place well, we get to the seed of the matter in conversation with the team at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Seed Bank, also known as MARSB. We’re in conversation with Ed Toth the Executive Director, and John Price, MARSB’s Associate Director and Native Seed Collection Coordinator. As a collective, MARSB is wisely managing and conserving its region’s wild seed resources, and encouraging the development of the sustainable and ethical Native Plant Material supply chain throughout the region – a gift to private and public landscapes and economies. Listen…
9 Apr 2026 · 56 min
Gardens as Social Infrastructure, Gardeners as Public Servants, with Chris Felhaber
Chris Felhaber is a gardener, a husband, and a father. Now based in the Chicago area, Chris has worked in public horticulture in a variety of capacities and with well-known organizations, including with plantsman Roy Diblik in Wisconsin, at Chanticleer Garden outside of Philadelphia, with the Perennial Plant Association, and as the host of the Native Plant Podcast. After nearly 2 decades working with people and places of great privilege and with people and places who would like more gardens and more garden opportunities, Chris now understands that gardens are critical social infrastructure…
2 Apr 2026 · 55 min
Pansies! It's What's for Spring! with Brenna Estrada
Brenna Estrada is the owner and founder of Three Brothers Blooms, a flower farm located on 2.5 acres of Camano Island in the Pacific Northwest. Brenna is also the author of Pansies, How to Grow, Reimagine, and Create Beauty with Pansies and Violas, published by Timber Press just over a year ago. Brenna makes a compelling case for revisiting our relationship to pansies, and her book was CP Host Ben Futa's own gateway to growing nearly 1,000 plants from seed in 2026. Their conversation this week spans many topics, with pansies as a worthy and common thread. As happens often in this work, we're…
26 Mar 2026 · 1 hr 3 min
Spring's Wild Dreams, with Jen Williams
Spring is, of course, perfect for some wild dreams about what we can and will sow in the seasons to come. With plants, and with ourselves. Jen Williams’ vision for her work as the founder of Wild Dreams Farm and Seed on Washington’s Vashon Island is to ensure abundance and biodiversity in our culture, and in our gardens, by growing and breeding open-pollinated vegetable, flower, and herb seeds that nourish our human and more-than-human communities. We revisit this best of conversation this week, just in time for some of our own wild dreaming. Cultivating Place now has a donate button! We…
19 Mar 2026 · 1 hr
Vernal Equinox Special: The Glorians, with Terry Tempest Williams
In honor of the Vernal Equinox, and the balance we long for, we are joined this week by humanist, conservationist, Professor, and writer in residence at the Harvard Divinity School, Terry Tempest Williams. From her 1991 classic, Refuge, An Unnatural History of Family & Place, published in 1991, to her newest title out now from Grove Atlantic, The Glorians, Visitations from the Holy Ordinary, and the more than 100 publications in between, Terry’s writing is grounded in her love of the landscapes of the U.S. West. Her love and her writings profoundly expand our love for and understanding of…

About Cultivating Place

Cultivating Place is a English society & culture podcast from Jennifer Jewell / Cultivating Place. Melo plays each episode straight from the publisher's own feed — no ads added, no account needed — and remembers where you stopped, in this browser only.

Publisher: Jennifer Jewell / Cultivating Place
Language: English
Category: Society & Culture
New episodes: Weekly
Typical length: 59 min
Latest episode: 8 Oct 2026
Feed: RSS — paste into any podcast app
Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1116782774
Rights: 2016 - Cultivating Place

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