Gardening

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.

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.

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.

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 about his work with Jelitto Perennial Seeds and his decades of sharing rich garden stories.

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.

Amanda Hannah is the Director of Botanical Garden Horticulture at Holden Forests & Gardens in Cleveland, Ohio.

SummerHome Garden in Denver, CO, is a playful and powerful twist on the idea that our gardens can be our summer homes.

Krystle Hickman is an award-winning conservation photographer, author, artist, and National Geographic Explorer. Her passion is for native bees wherever she finds them, starting in her home place of California.

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.

Exploring public gardens as living classrooms, the quiet power of trees in city life, and how tending landscapes can cultivate resilience, curiosity, and belonging.