As the vernal equinox is imminent for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, a conversation on balance and our importance as humans in the balance of natural systems. Lorena Gorbet is a Mountain Maidu elder in Northeastern California, a mother, a basket weaver, a land restoration activist, and an educator. 

She joins Cultivating Place this week to share more about the balanced systems thinking of the traditional ecological knowledge of her culture. Listen in!

The Maidu Summit Consortium’s mission is "to preserve, protect, and promote the Mountain Maidu Homeland with a united voice.

The Maidu Summit Consortium envisions re-acquired ancestral lands as a vast and unique park system dedicated to the purposes of education, healing, protection, and ecosystem management based upon the Maidu cultural and philosophic perspectives, as expressed through traditional ecology.”


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.

The show is available as a podcast on SoundCloud, iTunes, Google Podcast, and Stitcher. To read more and for many more photos please visit www.cultivatingplace.com.

Balanced Systems Thinking & TEK, with Lorena Gorbet, Maidu Summit Consortium

We opened up 2023 here on Cultivating Place, focusing on biodiversity, and we close the year similarly, with diverse plant community thinking getting the final say. We’re in conversation with Cornwall-based ecological landscape designer Sid Hill, a land and ecological artisan who creates beautiful, abundant, and thoughtful places. Sid challenges himself, his clients, and the broader horticultural world to keep going and to go even further in rethinking and reimagining how horticulture is practiced and thought of in our world.

A believer in the ability of intentional and well-thought-out design to help our gardens help the world in moderating so many of the challenges ahead, Sid asks us to think like the plant and animal communities, as well as the indigenous human communities that are, and have been, foundational to the uniqueness of our places. He asks us to think like healthy habitats and their dynamic patterns as we look to the future – as we grow the future.

I think this plant-and-ecology-of-place-centric thinking is a perfect way to close out 2023 and herald in 2024.

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.

The show is available as a podcast on SoundCloud, iTunes, and Google Podcasts. To read more and for many more photos, please visit www.cultivatingplace.com.

Thinking like healthy habitats (radically and radially), with Sid Hill Ecological Land Artisan

In our ongoing exploration of who gardeners are, where gardeners are, what they are growing in this world, and why that matters to all of us, we use this midwinter moment for a mid-winter retreat. We head south to the Kenan Research Center at the Atlanta History Center and their remarkable Cherokee Garden Library – named for the historic Cherokee rose, prevalent across the south.

Staci Catron has been the Library’s Director since 2000, and Jennie Oldfield is the collection’s Senior Technical Librarian/Supervisory Archivist. The two join Cultivating Place this week to share so much more about the fertile ground of their work – enriching all of our garden lives.

The three of us discuss the importance of horticultural and garden library collections for preserving the past and enlivening our present and future. As a result of their work in archiving, research, and exhibitions, this conversation continues our celebrations of Black History Month, and it will pair nicely with a warm cup of something on a cold afternoon. Listen in!

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.

The show is available as a podcast on SoundCloud, iTunes, Google Podcast, and Stitcher. To read more and see many more photos, please visit www.cultivatingplace.com.

Library science is (garden) life science, Staci Catron & Jennie Oldfield

The third week of April is California Native Plant week, this year being celebrated by the California Native Plant Society via 8 days of action in honor and protection of our native plant diversity. 

Our celebratory action item here at Cultivating Place is being in conversation this week with Aaron Sims, Director of the Rare Plant Program for CNPS. 2024 year marks the 50th anniversary of the CNPS Rare Plant Inventory, tracking and analyzing rare plants and their status across the floristic province to help fight extinction (and subsequent biodiversity loss), to engage citizen scientists, including gardeners, across the state, and to inform land use decisions statewide. 

Along with the beauty, joy, and life sustaining qualities of our native plant flora whereever we might live and garden, that is all worth celebrating.

Happy Native Plant (rare and common) Gardening to you - listen in!

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.

The show is available as a podcast on SoundCloud, iTunes, and Google Podcasts. To read more and for many more photos please visit www.cultivatingplace.com.

California Native Plant Week: CNPS Rare Plant Program & Inventory with Aaron Sims

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 lives. 

Guest-Host Abra Lee is in conversation with one of North America’s public garden leaders, Paul Redman. 

As President and Chief Executive Officer of Longwood Gardens for the last 16 years, Paul has implemented institutional and strategic reforms that have positioned the Gardens as a premier horticultural, cultural, and educational institution of the 21st Century while respecting the values of its founder, Pierre S. du Pont.

The result has been nothing short of astounding with overall attendance doubling to almost 1.54 million visitors per year; an incredible climb in membership support from 17,000 to 78,000 households; and earned income has almost tripled – all in the last decade. Longwood Gardens is now North America's most visited paid public garden and the most visited paid cultural attraction in Philadelphia. 

In their conversation, Abra and Paul explore ideas of leadership, envisioning public gardens for the future, and fearlessness. Enjoy!

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.

The show is available as a podcast on SoundCloud and iTunes. To read more and for many more photos, please visit www.cultivatingplace.com.

Longwood Reimagined with Horticultural Leader, Paul Redman

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 agency for the green industry. Katie is a lifelong plant lover, storyteller, communicator, and artist. 

An early love for museums and public gardens led Katie to discover what has today become her mission: empowering more plant-based businesses to thrive so that more people can discover the joy of gardening. 

As they write, the team at The Garden of Words used to grow only plants. Now, they still grow plants, but they also grow businesses.

The conversation centers around reclaiming joy, finding balance, and changing direction. On the cusp of this winter season of rest, rejuvenation, and unpacking, this feels like a timely moment to consider what we want to bring forward, and what we want to leave behind, as we head in to a new season of abundance and growth and learning in the next few months. Enjoy!

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.

The show is available as a podcast on SoundCloud and iTunes. To read more and for many more photos, please visit www.cultivatingplace.com.

The Garden of Words with Katie Elzer-Peters

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, located in rural Maine. Dandy Ram is an LGBTQ+ flower farm and floral design studio that sustainably grows and designs florals for weddings and ships evergreen and floral products nationally. Dandy Ram is committed to bringing joy to the world, without ever losing sight of what a just and sustainable relationship with the land and its people looks and feels like, as well as prioritizes.

With the concept of new year and fresh starts in mind, the conversation explores prioritizing rest, balance, and joy, especially given a career that is so deeply tied to the seasons. Ben and Bo talk favorite plants, community building, and living authentically.

Listen in - and From all of us at Cultivating Place: Happy 2025! May it be beautiful, biodiverse, and BRAVE!

From my seat, the act of being still and the art of noticing are perfect intentions for any season. Enjoy!

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.

The show is available as a podcast on SoundCloud and iTunes. To read more and for many more photos, please visit www.cultivatingplace.com.

All images courtesy of Bo Dennis, Dandy Ram Farm. All rights reserved.



HAPPY NEW YEAR 2025: Prioritizing Rest, Balance, and JOY, with Dandy Ram Farm

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, science, and psychology gives her designs a whole new depth, focusing on wellbeing and connection.

You might recognize her name from that time in 2016 when she made history as the first Black Woman garden designer to display at the Chelsea Flower Show, and her design - Modern Slavery Garden, won a Gold Medal and the People’s Choice Prize. 

This Earth Day week, we’re celebrating Juliet's design background and digging in to her new book “Start With Soil: Simple Steps for a Thriving Garden” which publishes on May 1st from Frances Lincoln. Enjoy!

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.

The show is available as a podcast on SoundCloud and iTunes. To read more and for many more photos, please visit www.cultivatingplace.com.



For the Love of Soil, Start with Soil: Juliet Sargeant

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 week, we revisit a BEST OF conversation that embraces this sublime sensuality from a variety of perspectives, in conversation with master naturalist Nancy Lawson. 

Nancy is perhaps best known as "The Humane Gardener", the title of her first book, and her online signature. And a humane gardener she is. Nancy is a habitat consultant and founder of The Humane Gardener, LLC. 

She observes, researches, and pioneers creative wildlife-friendly landscaping methods in her own home habitat and for others. 

In other words – and in all senses of the phrase – Nancy puts her gardening where her words are, and words and action come together beautifully in her newest book, Wildscape, Trilling Chipmunks, Beckoning Blooms, Salty Butterflies, and other Sensory wonders of Nature. 

Together this week, we delve into her newest research and reporting on the complexity and richness of the sensory life of other than human lives: from the botanical to the birds, bugs, mammals, amphibians other wildlife all around us. Wildscape is eye, ear, nose and heart opening! 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 enough for making it possible for this young program to grow and engage in even more conversations like these.

The show is available as a podcast on SoundCloud and iTunes. To read more and for many more photos, please visit www.cultivatingplace.com.

Coming to our Senses: Wildscape, with Master Naturalist Nancy Lawson (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 cultivation of it, revisiting ecological-plantsman Benjamin Vogt’s great work Prairie Up!

To inspire your planting and designs for the season ahead, a fierce advocate on behalf of our gardens being critically important links in our world’s broken and fragmented ecological chains.

You may remember my 2018 conversation with Benjamin about his first book –A New Garden Ethic: Cultivating Defiant Compassion for an Uncertain Future?

Well, that ethical manifesto now has an instruction manual in Benjamin’s second book - Prairie Up: An Introduction to Natural Garden Design – it might be just the reference you need to get your fall planting and planning season off to a great start.  Join us this week for more with Benjamin Vogt!

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 even more conversations like these.

The show is available as a podcast on SoundCloud and iTunes. To read more and for many more photos, please visit www.cultivatingplace.com.



Prairie Up! With Plantsperson Benjamin Vogt (BEST OF)

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 future.

CP host Ben Futa is in conversation with Jessica Hall of Harmony Harvest Flower Farm, based in Weyers Cave, Virginia, to explore their "Mum Project," which aims to revive chrysanthemum production in the US by preserving, sharing, and evaluating heirloom/heritage mums.

On On November 13th, 2025 Harmony Harvest's annual Virtual Mum Summit returns, bringing together growers, designers, and flower lovers for a full day of inspiration, learning, and fun. 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 enough for making it possible for this young program to grow and engage in even more conversations like these.

The show is available as a podcast on SoundCloud and iTunes. To read more and for many more photos, please visit www.cultivatingplace.com.

Mum's the Flower of Fall, with Jessica Hall of Harmony Harvest Flower Farm

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 and cultural literacy. These conversations celebrate how these interconnections support the places we cultivate, how they nourish our bodies, and feed our spirits. They change the world. Take a listen.

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2025: Prioritizing Rest, Balance, and JOY, with Dandy Ram Farm

Cultivating Place: Natural History & Our Gardens

Related tracks