Cultivating Place

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.

This week on Cultivating Place, the second installment in the Seeds of September four part series – when we’re joined by plantswoman, seed advocate, farmer and author Ira Wallace of the Southern Exposure Seed Exchange and the Heritage Harvest Festival in Charlottesville, VA Sept 20 – 22. Join us! For photos visit cultivatingplace.com. The show is available as a podcast on SoundCloud, iTunes, Google Play and Stitcher.

Welcome to The Seeds of September – this week on Cultivating Place we kick off our four-part series in conversation with Jere Gettle of Baker Creek Seeds, and more from the Organic Seed Alliance and Redwood Seeds. I think you’re going to love it! For photos visit cultivatingplace.com. The show is available as a podcast on SoundCloud, iTunes, Google Play and Stitcher.

They are in your garden by the billions, they are in your food, in your house, and all over your skin. They partner us in all we do and they make all that we do well possible to start with. This week on Cultivating Place we revisit a conversation with science and food writer Eugenia Bone to talk more about her own foray into better understanding the world of the amazing and powerful world of Microbia. It’s a focus that is expanding for us all. For photos visit cultivatingplace.com. The show is available as a podcast on SoundCloud, iTunes, Google Play and Stitcher.

The right tools can make all the difference in our lives and in our work. This is as true in gardening as in all other aspects of life. This week on Cultivating Place we revisit a conversation with Dorian Winslow, president of Womanswork. Almost 33 years ago now, Womanswork introduced the first work and garden gloves designed specifically for women. 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, we spend a little time revisiting our conversation exploring and appreciating the many gifts of darkness with the International Dark-Sky Association. This conversation is from December and the season of Winter Solstice, but I really wanted to revisit it now – in the season not too far past the summer solstice. The nights are short (but lengthening now) and they are warm and we have a tendency to want to stay up and out later than we do in winter. The summer stars, the summer moon, the meteor showers – they beckon us to come outside as much as our morning flowers. Join us to listen to the conversation with Keith Ashley and Amanda Gormley of the International Dark-Sky Association, two passionate people within a global organization working to protect natural darkness as the precious natural resource it is. For photos visit cultivatingplace.com. The show is available as a podcast on SoundCloud, iTunes, Google Play and Stitcher.

This week on Cultivating Place, a best of conversation with a home gardener who has moved not just gardens, but continents and hemispheres. As we just reached the height of sunlight with our summer solstice, she eased into her winter. She shares a gardening story of learning, community and adaptability. Pen Pender is a gardener, mother, wife, voracious reader, community activist, bee keeper, cook and novice potter living near Mt. Macedon in Victoria, Australia. While I might never see kangaroos in my garden, and she may never hear the sound of a congregation of acorn woodpeckers, we are still gardening together in some sense. As she digs in and looks appreciatively up at winter over there, I dig in and look up in anticipation of a long hot summer over here. Pen shares her story of gardening under Australian skies. For photos visit cultivatingplace.com. The show is available as a podcast on SoundCloud, iTunes, Google Play and Stitcher.

Leslie Bennett is a garden designer of both English and Jamaican descent working out of Oakland, CA. With a Jamaican-born husband, a two year old son, and knowledgeable, passionate views about the importance of cultural heritage, on cultivating Place this week, Leslie shares her journey navigating the marriage of beauty, function, cultural property and the radical activism of gardening. Join us! For photos visit cultivatingplace.com. The show is available as a podcast on SoundCloud, iTunes, Google Play and Stitcher.

The garden is a full contact playground engaging us at all levels: We can hear, we can taste, we can see and smell - touch and feel. Tovah Martin is gardener and garden writer who explores the truth and the manifold joys of this truth in her new book “The Garden in Every Sense and Season” out now from Timber Press. Tovah joins us this week on Cultivating Place to share more. Listen in! For photos visit cultivatingplace.com. The show is available as a podcast on SoundCloud, iTunes, Google Play and Stitcher.

The New England Wild Flower Society is one of the oldest native plant conservation organizations in the country and represents the New England states. Their new book Native Plants for the New England Gardens is a perfect reference for their ecological and pollinator garden workshops being held across New England this summer. On Cultivating Place this week, we learn more. Join us! For photos visit cultivatingplace.com. The show is available as a podcast on SoundCloud, iTunes, Google Play and Stitcher.

In May of this year, the gardening world – specifically the ecologically based gardening world – lost one of it’s great leaders, Beth Chatto. This August her gardens and educational trust are hosting a symposium to honor her life and her work. On Cultivating Place this week we hear more about the woman and her legacy – join us! For photos visit cultivatingplace.com. The show is available as a podcast on SoundCloud, iTunes, Google Play and Stitcher.

This week we’re joined by two native plantspeople – Julie Nelson and Michael Kauffmann - to delve into the unsettling case of the poached Dudleya this last year here in California – join us as we explore the interesting, sometimes bothersome issues an incident like this brings up for us gardeners. For photos visit cultivatingplace.com. The show is available as a podcast on SoundCloud, iTunes, Google Play and Stitcher.