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, for the better. Take a listen.
Original Theme Music by Ma Muse, Engineer and Producer Matt Fidler, Executive Producer Sarah Bohannon.
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Any gardener and their muscles, bones, joints, and ligaments know that gardening is a full-contact sport (or religion), this week we’re joined by Madeline de Vries Hooper and Jeff Hughes, the founders of GardenFit. -
David Rawle is the founder and force (with contribution and support from his wife, Carol Perkins, and a wide variety of community members in Charleston, SC), behind Theodora Park.
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In preparation for May and Mother’s Day here in the US, we’re in conversation with Lorene Edwards Forkner, a gardener, a writer, and the garden columnist for the Seattle Times, known as gardener cook online.
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In honor of Earth Day on April 22nd, this week, Cultivating Place is in conversation about a person who committed their career to the idea, design, and championing of Parks for the Nature of Everyone.
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Nitasha Manchanda is a genetic scientist, a mother, a wife, a gardener and the creator and host of a podcast series entitled The Indian Edit – exploring the inspiring lives of women of the Indian diaspora – living everywhere from Boston, where Nitasha now makes her home, to Germany, Canada, and even returned to India.
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In preparation for California Native Plant Week 2022 (April 16 - 23), celebrating the botanical biodiversity of the California Floristic Region, Rose and Deborah join Cultivating Place to share more about their new educational and advocacy initiative, Saging the World, on behalf of California’s iconic native white sage, Saliva apiana, sacred to the Indigenous cultures of what is now Southern California and Baja California, Mexico.
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John Forti is a garden historian, historic garden horticulturist, and slow food advocate. He has put his years of experience and knowledge into The Heirloom Gardener, Traditional Plants, and Skills for the Modern World.
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Cultivating Place is joined by medical ethnobotanist and Emory professor, Dr. Cassandra Quave who shares with us the very personal story of her quest to develop new ways to fight illness and disease through the healing powers of plants.
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Emily Murphy is an ecological gardener, an educator, and an author whose two books focus on gardens of personal and communal purpose. Her 2018 book Grow What You Love, is joined this year by Grow Now: How We Can Save our Health, Communities, and Planet One Garden at a Time.
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This week is a timely and rich with agency conversation on gardens by and for refugee populations.
