Cultivating Place: Natural History & the Human Impulse to Garden

Cultivating Place: Natural History & the Human Impulse to Garden Public radio Garden & Natural History Podcast produced by cultivatingplace.org and mynspr.org

Kate Brown is an MIT Distinguished Professor in the History of Science. Across her career, her research has sometimes in...
05/14/2026

Kate Brown is an MIT Distinguished Professor in the History of Science. Across her career, her research has sometimes inadvertently documented the impact of urban, often small and under resourced gardens and gardeners, in our world. Her new book, Tiny Gardens Everywhere: The Past, Present, and Future of the Self-Provisioning City, compiles this research and her own lived experience of its truth and potentially beneficial consequences. Join us this week to learn more!

All photos courtesy of Kate Brown, all rights reserved. 

CP is made possible in part by generous support from the Catto Shaw Foundation, funding endeavors supporting women, creativity, and the planet.

CP is also a LISTENERSUPPORTED publicradioprogram and podcast, created from a physical base on unceded, traditional and present lands of the Mechoopda Maidu Indian Tribe of the Chico Rancheria. cultivatingplace

05/14/2026

Last week on Cultivating Place, Jennifer Jewell welcomed writer and floral thinker Christin Geall for a conversation about the many ways flowers shape our lives far beyond the garden. Inspired by her newest book, Flora Culture, How Flowers Shape Our World, the episode explores how flowers influence the world around us.

In this clip, Christin reflects on writing, ecology, and the complexity of seeking truth in living systems. She reminds us that plants, people, and environments are always changing, and that easy answers rarely exist when we begin looking closely at the natural world.

Listen in to hear more about the cultural power of flowers. Link in bio to hear the full conversation. 

       

This week on Cultivating Place, we continue with our flower theme as we celebrate May, looking toward the most floral of...
05/07/2026

This week on Cultivating Place, we continue with our flower theme as we celebrate May, looking toward the most floral of celebrations, Mother’s Day in the US. We discuss not us as gardeners growing flowers, but rather, how flowers shape our world, our cultures, our economies, our thinking and outlooks. We’re in conversation with Christin Geall, author of Cultivated: Elements of Floral Style. Her newest title is Flora Culture: How Flowers Shape our World. It’s a revealing and thought-provoking cultural compendium.

All photos courtesy of Christin Geall and Flora Culture, all rights reserved. 

CP is made possible in part by generous support from the Catto Shaw Foundation, funding endeavors supporting women, creativity, and the planet.

CP is also a LISTENERSUPPORTED publicradioprogram and podcast, created from a physical base on unceded, traditional and present lands of the Mechoopda Maidu Indian Tribe of the Chico Rancheria. cultivatingplace

Roses are one of those topics in the garden world: They can be polarizing, they can be energizing, and yet given that th...
04/30/2026

Roses are one of those topics in the garden world: They can be polarizing, they can be energizing, and yet given that there are roses native to most environments of North America, Europe, Asia, and Africa, and humans have revered them for millennia, they can also be connective tissue for so much–generationally, culturally, environmentally, medicinally, and certainly, aesthetically. 

So do you love ‘em, do you hate ‘em? Do you think they’re fussy, or old-school? Maybe. But in so many ways, they are the real deal OG garden staple. From beautiful flowers, medicinal natures, habitat value galore, Robin Jennings of Heirloom – formerly known as Heirloom Roses – joins us this week to share her belief that roses really are the way… Listen in!

All photos courtesy of Heirloom; all rights reserved.

CP is made possible in part by generous support from the Catto Shaw Foundation, funding endeavors supporting women, creativity, and the planet.

CP is also a LISTENERSUPPORTED publicradioprogram and podcast, created from a physical base on unceded, traditional and present lands of the Mechoopda Maidu Indian Tribe of the Chico Rancheria. cultivatingplace

Finally catching up on my reading ( ) and was so surprised and grateful for the shout-out As the 10-episode film ser...
04/28/2026

Finally catching up on my reading ( ) and was so surprised and grateful for the shout-out

As the 10-episode film series makes its way to stations across the country in Spring of 2027, we invite everyone to follow along cultivatingplace.org/film ✨🌱✨ as crafts the final forms, we are getting more and more excited to share more…🥳

See you in June at AHS! Here’s to Gardeners growing our world better and together 🙏🌿

Romance with Romneya… ‘tis their season here in my place. I think they are - those holy ordinary visitations that sp...
04/25/2026

Romance with Romneya… ‘tis their season here in my place. I think they are - those holy ordinary visitations that speaks of in her newest book. Reminding us of what is important and teaching us to re-center that. As Gardeners, I think we are called to this daily across our lives.

What do you think? Join me for the cultivating place communing, this month a book club conversation, on May 19 at 3:00 pm PACIFIC/ 6:00 PM EASTERN to talk more about these ideas, the messages from the book The Glorians, and how we adapt them to our . The monthly cultivating place gathering is always free, but seats are limited to facilitate discussion. Link to register is now open and in our bio. 👍 join us! Every act of cultivating place with care is big G gardening, and an opportunity to take better care of one another, and all of the lives on this generous planet 💚

This week, Cultivating Place host Abra Lee explores diplomacy and gardens. She’s in conversation with John Sonnier, Head...
04/24/2026

This week, Cultivating Place host Abra Lee explores diplomacy and gardens. She’s in conversation with John Sonnier, Head Gardener at the British Ambassador’s residence in Washington, D.C. There since 2009, John focuses on organic and sustainable methods of care AND he has created one of the United State’s most significant historic orchid collections. 

Orchids are known for their extraordinary forms, relationships, and resilience and John, a distinguished horticulturalist, artist, and self-taught orchidist, brings us into that world – sharing what it means to grow them, care for them, and stay curious about them over time. We consider how the environment we cultivate – from gardens to shared community spaces – shape our thoughts and our lives. 

Listen in! 

All photos courtesy of John Sonnier, with various images via the American Horticultural Society’s American Gardener magazine, all rights reserved.

CP is made possible in part by generous support from the Catto Shaw Foundation, funding endeavors supporting women, creativity, and the planet.

CP is also a LISTENERSUPPORTED publicradioprogram and podcast, created from a physical base on unceded, traditional and present lands of the Mechoopda Maidu Indian Tribe of the Chico Rancheria. cultivatingplace

This week, when we think about Cultivating Place well, we get to the seed of the matter in conversation with the team at...
04/17/2026

This week, when we think about Cultivating Place well, we get to the seed of the matter in conversation with the team at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Seed Bank, also known as MARSB. We’re in conversation with Ed Toth the Executive Director, and John Price, MARSB’s Associate Director and Native Seed Collection Coordinator. As a collective, MARSB is wisely managing and conserving their Region’s wild seed resources, and encouraging the development of the sustainable and ethical Native Plant Material supply chain throughout the region – a gift to private and public landscapes and economies. Join us!

All photos courtesy of Ed Toth and John Price, all rights reserved.

CP is made possible in part by generous support from the Catto Shaw Foundation, funding endeavors supporting women, creativity, and the planet.

CP is also a LISTENERSUPPORTED publicradioprogram and podcast, created from a physical base on unceded, traditional and present lands of the Mechoopda Maidu Indian Tribe of the Chico Rancheria. cultivatingplace

04/16/2026

Last week on Cultivating Place, the conversation turned to Quantum Gardening as Chris Fehlhaber joined us to reflect on gardens as essential social infrastructure. With experience spanning public horticulture, education, and community engagement, Chris shares how gardening can help us better understand both our landscapes and one another.

In this clip, Chris speaks about embracing complexity in the garden and how that mindset can shape the way we move through the world. He reminds us that diversity in our plantings builds resilience and flexibility, and that gardeners are uniquely positioned to work with natural dynamics rather than against them.

Listen in to hear more about gardening as a form of public service, the creativity that grows from necessity, and why tending diverse, layered landscapes can help us cultivate stronger and more adaptable communities. Link in bio to hear the full conversation.

Chris Fehlhaber is a Gardener, a husband, and a father. Now based in the Chicago area, Chris has worked in public hortic...
04/09/2026

Chris Fehlhaber is a Gardener, a husband, and a father. Now based in the Chicago area, Chris has worked in public horticulture in a variety of capacities and with well-known organizations including with plantsman Roy Diblik in Wisconsin, at Chanticleer Garden outside of Philadelphia, with the Perennial Plant Association, and as the host of the Native Plant Podcast.

After nearly 2 decades, working with people and places of great privilege, and people and places who would like more gardens and more garden opportunities, Chris now understand gardens are critical social infrastructure, and Gardeners as public servant leaders whose greatest tools are empathy and meeting people and places where they are.
 
This is a fascinating Quantum Gardening conversation - join us!

All photos courtesy of Chris Fehlhaber, all rights reserved.

CP is made possible in part by generous support from the Catto Shaw Foundation, funding endeavors supporting women, creativity, and the planet.

CP is also a LISTENERSUPPORTED publicradioprogram and podcast, created from a physical base on unceded, traditional and present lands of the Mechoopda Maidu Indian Tribe of the Chico Rancheria. cultivatingplace

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