Love is already a theme in the work of Cultivating Place, to be sure, but with last week’s loving work around the restoration of historic apple orchards in southwestern Colorado, and this week’s episode, which I think of as the Love Letters of Abra Lee, love letters, love stories, and loving gardeners is an explicit theme here this month!
In celebration of Black History Month in progress and Valentine’s Day coming up – this week we’re rejoined in conversation by Abra Lee, gardener, garden scholar under the name of Conquer the Soil, horticulturist, and graduate of the Longwood Gardens Fellows program, a 13-month leadership in public horticulture fellowship.
In addition to co-creating a public garden exhibition called Music x Flowers, Abra has recently accepted a position as Director of Horticulture at the Oakland Cemetery, a historic Victorian garden cemetery in downtown Atlanta.
This week’s conversation is a valentine to gardeners and garden lovers everywhere. Enjoy!
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First image of Abra courtesy of Abra Lee; all other photos by Jennifer Jewell, All Rights Reserved.
Abra and members of the Oakland Cemetery horticulture and administrative teams in Atlanta, January 2023; Images from the Auburn University’s Black Garden History graduate class’ award-winning show garden, "Mixed Shades, Much Joy” at the 2022 Philadelphia Flower Show; Images from Abra Lee’s presentation at the June 2021 Slow Flowers Summit at Filoli Garden; Graphic from Music x Flowers exhibition and event at Southcoast Botanical Garden in San Diego, CA, summer 2022.