Cultivating Place

Art In The Garden, Art From The Garden With Melody Overstreet

10 May 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Art in the garden, art from the Garden – these are concepts familiar to most gardeners and yet for many of us also perhaps still largely unplumbed. ...

More To Life Than Meets The Eye - Eugenia Bone, Author Of "Microbia"

04 May 2018

Contributed by Lukas

They are in your garden by the billions, they are in your food, in your house, and all over your skin. They partner us in all we do and they make all ...

Cultivating Place: Gardening While Young—National Children & Youth Garden Symposium 2018

26 Apr 2018

Contributed by Lukas

The second best time to become a gardener and nature lover is right now. The first best time, is as a child. This week on Cultivating Place, we’re ...

Cultivating Place: CA Native Plant Week & Dispatches From The Home Garden With Vincent Bellino

19 Apr 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Happy California Native Plant Week! The California Floristic Province is home to on the order of 6,500 native plant species and there are those among ...

Cultivating Place: Monticello - The Gardens And Gardening Legacy Of Thomas Jefferson

12 Apr 2018

Contributed by Lukas

On April 13th, Statesman and third president of the United States, Thomas Jefferson, would be 275 years old. He was also an avid and curious and acqui...

GROW WHAT YOU LOVE: Emily Murphy

05 Apr 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Grow what you love, it’s advice we’re given early in our gardening adventures as to how to choose what to plant, to tend and to pray over. Grow th...

Cultivating Place: What A Mountain Tastes Like With Pascal Baudar

29 Mar 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Have you ever thought: that is just what the mountains taste like? That is just what the forest or the ocean must taste like? For wildcrafter Pascal B...

Best Of Cultivating Place: The Nurturing Plant Power Of Mama Maiz

22 Mar 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Nurturing – that’s what comes to mind when I think of the work of Blanca Diaz also known as Mama Maiz. Blanca is a practicing doula and herbalist ...

Cultivating Place: Maria Failla - Bloom & Grow Radio

15 Mar 2018

Contributed by Lukas

This week on Cultivating Place, a conversation with Maria Failla, the host of Bloom & Grow Radio – a unique podcast from New York City designed spec...

Cultivating Place: Benjamin Vogt - A New Garden Ethic

08 Mar 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Benjamin Vogt is a next generation student of the beloved conservationist and writer Aldo Leopold and a passionate nature and garden advocate himself....

Cultivating Place: Designing With Palms, A Conversation With Jason Dewees

01 Mar 2018

Contributed by Lukas

This week on Cultivating Place, Designing with Palms – in the heart of Spring Break season where those of us in colder climes might be longing for a...

Cultivating Place: A Pot Spot Classic (Handcrafted) Stone Vessels

22 Feb 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Most gardeners - of the indoor or outdoor variety - love (and covet) a good pot. For house plants, for focal points, for cut arrangements, for … wel...

Best Of Cultivating Place: The Healing Power Of Gardens With Author And Gardener Clare Cooper Marcus

15 Feb 2018

Contributed by Lukas

The healing power of gardens and nature is well known to almost anyone who gardens and has been recorded by gardeners, landscape designers and medical...

Land And Water - A Conversation And Upcoming Conference With Hunter Ten Broeck

08 Feb 2018

Contributed by Lukas

This week on Cultivating Place, we talk land and water with Hunter Ten Broeck of WaterWise Landscapes Inc. in Albuquerque, NM. No matter where we live...

The Danger Garden - Dispatches From The Home Garden With Loree Bohl Of Portland, OR

01 Feb 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Danger! Home gardener, garden communicator and blogger Loree Bohl, loves a garden with stand-out foliage and bold form. But pay attention to where yo...

Cultivating Place: North America's Largest Ecosystem - The Prairies and Plains With Brad Guhr

26 Jan 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Last week we talked "Little House on the Prairie" and this week we visit the grassland prairies and plains of Kansas. According to the Tallgrass Prair...

Cultivating Place: Happy Birthday Laura Ingalls Wilder

18 Jan 2018

Contributed by Lukas

This week on Cultivating Place, we’re celebrating the February 7th birthday of Laura Ingalls Wilder with Author and historian Marta McDowell. Her ne...

Cultivating Place: Dispatches From The Home Garden – Laura Christman And Planet Pomegranate

11 Jan 2018

Contributed by Lukas

This week on Cultivating Place our next in the occasional series of Dispatches from the Home Garden - this time through the lens of a regional newspap...

Cultivating Place: A Seasonal Feast For The Senses, Sarah Statham Of Simply By Arrangement

04 Jan 2018

Contributed by Lukas

This week on Cultivating Place we start off the new year with some thoughts on life and our gardens as feasts for the senses, with an eye toward life-...

Cultivating Place: A New Year Vision: The Abiquiu, NM Garden Of Georgia O'Keeffe

28 Dec 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Georgia O’Keeffe is known as the innovative mother of modernism in the art world. She was also a gardener. O’Keeffe's garden in Abiquiu, NM has al...

Cultivating Place: The Spirit Of Christmas Past In The Garden

21 Dec 2017

Contributed by Lukas

This week on Cultivating Place, a lesson in garden history seen through the lens of holiday decorations and traditions from seasons past when we’re ...

In The Night Garden: A Conversation With The International Dark Sky Association

14 Dec 2017

Contributed by Lukas

This week before the Winter Solstice, Cultivating Place is exploring and appreciating the many benefits and beauty of winter’s bountiful darkness –...

Bringing Nature Home – An Ongoing Entreaty: A Conversation With Doug Tallamy

07 Dec 2017

Contributed by Lukas

This week on Cultivating Place we’re joined by gardener, author, activist and entomologist, Doug Tallamy. Ten years ago, his first book "Bringing Na...

Cultivating Place: Holiday Blooms – A Conversation With Thomas Broom-Hughes Of Thomas Blooms Flowers

30 Nov 2017

Contributed by Lukas

As we knock on the door of December, and the garden and its greenery call out to us in very different ways than they do in other seasons of the year, ...

Cultivating Place: Gratitude In The Garden

23 Nov 2017

Contributed by Lukas

The late autumn into winter months – from the Harvest Moon rising in October to the Winter Solstice on December 21st and through the beginning of th...

Cultivating Place: Tools Make The Man — Or Woman

16 Nov 2017

Contributed by Lukas

The right tools can make all the difference in our lives and in our work. This is as true in gardening as in all other aspects of life. This week on C...

Cultivating Place: Kiss The Ground – The Hundreds Of Ways To Do Just This – With Finian Makepeace

02 Nov 2017

Contributed by Lukas

The 13th century Persian poet Rumi famously wrote: “Let the beauty you love be what you do, there are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground....

Cultivating Place: The Nurturing Plant Power Of Mama Maiz

26 Oct 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Nurturing – that’s what comes to mind when I think of the work of Blanca Diaz also known as Mama Maiz. Blanca is a practicing doula and herbalist ...

Best of Cultivating Place: Jinny Blom – The Thoughtful Gardener

24 Oct 2017

Contributed by Lukas

This week on Cultivating Place we’re joined by Uk based garden designer Jinny Blom, whose new book is entitled “The Thoughtful Gardener: an intell...

Cultivating Place: California Native Plant Society Conservation Conference

18 Oct 2017

Contributed by Lukas

No matter where you live, the native plants of that area help define the beauty, history and meaning of all life there – from the soil, to the birds...

Cultivating Place: The Central Texas Gardener

18 Oct 2017

Contributed by Lukas

This week on Cultivating Place, we’re joined by a gardener who lives and works beneath the great, big beautiful Sky of Austin, Texas –one of many ...

Cultivating Place: Elizabeth Lawrence And Her Southern Garden

18 Oct 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth Lawrence was one of the grand dames of American horticulture in the 1900s. She was not only an avid gardener, but the first trained and lic...

Cultivating Place: The Healing Power Of Gardens, With Author And Gardener Clare Cooper Marcus

25 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

The healing power of gardens and nature is well known to almost anyone who gardens and has been recorded by gardeners, landscape designers and medical...

Cultivating Place: Cutting Back With Author Leslie Buck

25 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

In the realm of gardenways and traditional garden design being inextricably interwoven with a culture, for me the garden design and techniques, and ga...

Cultivating Place: Gardens Of The Wild, Wild West – Lessons From Pioneers, With Mary Ann Newcomer

25 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

When you hear the phrase "gardens of the wild, wild west," what comes to mind? For gardener, author and radio host Mary Ann Newcomer of Boise, Idaho, ...

Cultivating Place: Leslie Bennett & Pine House Edible Gardens

25 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Leslie Bennett is a garden designer of both English and Jamaican descent working out of Oakland, CA. With a Jamaican-born husband, a two year old son,...

Cultivating Place: Land On Fire – A Conversation With Ecologist And Author Gary Ferguson

25 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Late summer is fire season in the American West. A part of life. This week Cultivating Place speaks with Gary Ferguson, author of "Land on Fire: The ...

Cultivating Place: Big Dreams, Small Garden – A Conversation With Marianne Willburn

25 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

In my experience, no home and garden are just perfect. And yet, they are just right if we bring the right perspective. Author and gardener Marianne Wi...

Cultivating Place: Dispatches From The Home Garden – Emily Wilkins, Seattle, WA

25 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

This week on Cultivating Place we hear the next in our series of Dispatches from the Home Garden, this time from a north Seattle neighborhood where ar...

Cultivating Place: Jinny Blom – The Thoughtful Gardener

25 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

This week on Cultivating Place we’re joined by Uk based garden designer Jinny Blom, whose new book is entitled “The Thoughtful Gardener: an intell...

Cultivating Place: A Wide-Angle Garden Design Education with Katharine Webster

25 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

There's something to be said for having deep and historic roots to one region – one gardening and natural history home. I have an admiration for gar...

Cultivating Place: The Wild Ornamental Buckwheats!

25 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

In life, there are generalists and there are specialists. This week on Cultivating Place, we’re speaking with botanist Dr. Ben Grady about his work ...

Cultivating Place: 'Natural Selection' - A Conversation With Dan Pearson

25 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

It is full on summer. Perhaps you are in the very middle of summer holidays here at mid-July. If you are like me, there is a special anticipation to t...

Cultivating Place: Cultivating America's Gardens - Smithsonian Gardens

25 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Over the past year of Cultivating Place interviews, we’ve heard references to the importance of the Smithsonian Gardens archives for the research of...

Cultivating Place: Gardening Under Australian Skies, A Conversation With Home Gardener Pen Pender

25 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

This week on Cultivating Place, a conversation with a home gardener who has moved not just gardens, but continents and hemispheres. As we just reached...

Cultivating Place: Revisiting The Cut Flower Garden Ahead Of American Flowers Week

25 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Next week – June 28 to July 4 – our country is celebrating American Flowers Week, celebrating American-grown flowers in 50 states. In celebration,...

Cultivating Place: Dispatches From the Home Garden – A Father-Daughter Garden Heritage Story

25 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

In our last Cultivating Place "Dispatches from the Home Garden," we heard from a young gardener experiencing her first garden dislocation/relocation i...

Cultivating Place: An Edible Feast – Edible Communities Publications Turns 15

25 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

This week on Cultivating Place we hear the story of the first 15 years of the Edible Communities – the umbrella name of the many publishers who brin...

Cultivating Place: Dispatches From The Home Garden – Urban Homesteading And A Garden Journey

25 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Gardening is a specifically human endeavor. It is a characterizing feature of our species, fairly well documented throughout our evolution. Which fasc...

Elevated – Gardens Of The High Line, With Landscape Designer Rick Darke

25 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

What do we mean when we use the word “wild” and why does it matter? In 2017, the New York City urban landscape commonly known as The High Line cel...

Cultivating Place: Paying Love’s Celebrations Forward, With Floral Designer Melinda Benson-Valavanis

25 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Melinda Benson-Valavanis is a floral designer and owner of MCreations in Chico, CA. She recently committed her business to participating in a project ...

Cultivating Place: 'Heaven Is A Garden' And 'The Spirit Of Stone' With Author Jan Johnsen

25 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

This week on Cultivating Place, we’re joined by Jan Johnsen – a gardener, landscape designer and author of the books "Heaven is a Garden" and "The...

Earth Wisdom – John Muir, The Accidental Taoist – With Author Raymond Barnett

25 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Spring is a time of awakening and full sensory immersion in the world around us - even if we aren’t gardeners or nature lovers. It is hard to avoid,...

Cultivating Place: Energetic – The Dynamics Of Biodynamics At Fern Verrow Farm

25 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Close to 21 years ago, a Cordon Bleu trained chef and business woman named Jane Scotter left a busy city life in London and bought a farm. She was joi...

Cultivating Place: California Native Plant Week – A Conversation With Dennis Mudd, Calscape

25 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

It is California Native Plant Week this week. Officially designated by the California Native Plant Society in 2010, this year the festivities and educ...

Cultivating Place: 'Useful, With A Pleasant Degree Of Humor" – The Old Farmer's Almanac Turns 225

25 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

“Useful, with a pleasant degree of humor” — that is the tag line for the Old Farmer’s Almanac, an annual handbook for American growers, farmer...

Cultivating Place: The Garden Conservancy’s 2017 Open Days Directory, With Laura Wilson

25 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

If you’re like me, you love getting out into your own garden, but visiting someone else’s garden is almost as good — there’s just less weeding...

Cultivating Place: 'The Chinese Kitchen Garden' With Wendy Kiang-Spray

25 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Gardenways and "The Chinese Kitchen Garden" - a conversation with gardener and author, Wendy Kiang-Spray I am fairly accustomed to hearing the phrase...

Cultivating Place: Harvest – Stefani Bittner, Alethea Harampolis

25 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Sometimes when you use the word garden – people immediately conjure up images of the ornamental perennial border, other people however conjure up co...

Cultivating Place: The Irish Garden With Fionnuala Fallon, Correspondent For The Irish Times

25 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

It is the eve of St. Patrick’s Day and it does seem that even if you’re not Irish per se, St. Patrick’s Day brings out a little bit of Irish in ...

Cultivating Place: Dispatches From The Home Garden – Christin Geall, Victoria, BC

25 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Every garden has a story as does every gardener. In our next in the occasional series of Dispatches From the Home Garden, today we travel to the Pacif...

Cultivating Place: 'The Cut Flower Farm' – Erin Benzakein And The Flower Farmer Revolution

25 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

There is a flower farming revolution sweeping across our country and I for one am all for it. A few months back, Cultivating Place was joined by Debra...

Cultivating Place: Presentation Is Everything—The Garden-Based Pottery Of Artist Frances Palmer

25 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

As gardeners or naturalists, we often share an urge to display our love – flowers or fruits of the season arranged in bottles and vases, in bowls an...

Cultivating Place: The Roses Have It - Early Spring Rose Care And Rose Societies With Jolene Adams

25 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Late winter early spring might be kind of quiet in the garden in terms of flowers, but it is very busy in terms of plant care – especially in the ca...

Cultivating Place: Dispatches From The Home Garden #1 - Christl Findling

25 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Have you ever noticed how every garden has a story? No matter how many gardeners might have worked that spot: just 2 - for instance mother nature AND...

Cultivating Place: The Nature Fix - How Nature Makes Us Happier, Healthier And More Creative

25 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

“Anyone who’s gazed at the moon or stood still in a magnificent stand of trees knows what it’s like to experience the Power of Awe – it seems ...

Cultivating Place: Digging Deep - Fran Sorin

25 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Digging deep: this is a phrase that has a wide variety of meanings and uses – both literal and figurative — in the garden, and in the body, mind a...

Cultivating Place: Eliot Coleman And 'The Four-Season Harvest'

25 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

It is mid-January. It is deep mid-winter, even in my relatively mild USDA zone 9, Sunset zone 8. While I am fortunate enough to have a year-round Satu...

Cultivating Place: River Partners

25 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

As a celebration of the many ways that one’s cultivation of place can benefit not only the individual cultivator – gardener or naturalist – this...

Cultivating Place: Sunset Western Garden Test Gardens With Editor Johanna Silver

25 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Happy New Year! For over 100 years Sunset magazine has been inspiring gardens and gardeners in the American West. This year marks the first full year ...

Cultivating Place: Heidrun Sparkling Mead

25 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

There is something inherently satisfying about a full circle – a completion – a beginning brought to its fullness and coming to its natural end, w...

Cultivating Place: Michael Kauffmann, Founder And Editor Of Backcountry Press

25 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

In this season of the winter solstice — marked by the beauty and appreciative contemplation that mark the celebrations of winter holidays the world ...

Cultivating Place: In Bloom: Creating And Living With Flowers – Ngoc Minh Ngo

25 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

The famous British gardener and writer Vita Sackville-West stated that no room is ever complete without flowers. This week on Cultivating Place we exp...

Cultivating Place: Emily Dickinson – Poet Gardener

25 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Emily Dickinson references plants, flowers, nature or her garden in more than one-third of her known poems, with many more references in her extensive...

Stephen Orr - The New American Herbal

25 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

The term “herbal” refers to far more than a soothing tea or tasty spice. An herbal is a book or otherwise codified collection of knowledge about t...

Cultivating Place: Winter Craft

25 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Every year about this time, the light wanes, the temperatures drop and we as people draw in a bit, hunker down and begin whatever we can of a winter d...

Cultivating Place: Qayyum Johnson, Farm Manager Green Gulch Farm Zen Center

25 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

As we enter a traditional two-month period marked by celebrations of giving thanks, this week on Cultivating Place we’re joined by Qayyum Johnson, f...

Cultivating Place: Arlington National Cemetery, Memorial Gardens and Arboretum

25 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

This week on Cultivating Place, we speak with Steve Van Hoven Chief Arborist and Horticulture Supervisor of Arlington National Cemetery, Memorial Gard...

Cultivating Place: Garden History: Blithewold And The Country Place Era Garden

25 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Gardens can be important repositories for cultural and environmental history. From the plants included to materials used — you can read a great deal...

Cultivating Place: The Garden Conservancy

25 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Gardens and landscapes, gardeners and gardening are integral to our cultural literacy and sense of place and self as a nation. In 1989 Frank Cabot fou...

Cultivating Place: Sustainability In Prisons Project

25 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

I don't know about you, but for me the garden grounds me, at the same time that it liberates me. Being out in nature - in the garden or on the trail -...

Thomas Rainer And 'Planting In A Post-Wild World'

25 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Thomas Rainer is a “horticultural futurist fascinated by the intersection of wild plants and human culture." A landscape architect by profession and...

Ruth Bancroft And Her Epic Dry Garden

25 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Every garden has something to teach me – truly. About plants, about people, about space and light and place. I recently had the pleasure of visiting...

Gardening For Sustainable Cloth And Community

25 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Some people garden for food, some people garden for beauty, and some people garden and farm for cloth. Sandy Fisher is a weaver and fiber artist who s...

Cultivating Place: Heirloom Bulbs With Scott Kunst Of Old House Gardens

25 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Today is the Autumnal Equinox. If gardening at its core is an activity of optimism, then planting fall bulbs is one of its most profound gestures of h...

Cultivating Place: With A Little Help: Fine Gardening And Fine Gardeners, A New Generation

25 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Does simply removing your lawn bring you up to speed as a gardener? Have you noticed how when a lawn is replaced with a garden, some homeowners approa...

Cultivating Place: Removing Lawn, Becoming a Gardener

25 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

In the wake of the ongoing drought in the state of California, the state and many municipalities have offered incentives for homeowners and businesses...

Cultivating Place: Kelly Comras, Landscape Architect, Historian, And Author

25 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Landscape architects create outdoor spaces with intention and thought. While the effects are often unnoticed consciously, they are absorbed and experi...

Dr. Peter Raven – Plant Biology And The Conservation Of Biodiversity

25 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Dr. Peter Raven is one of the leading plant biologists in the world today, having begun his botanical and natural history journey falling in love with...

Cultivating Place: Sasha Duerr — Rich, Healthy Pigments From The Garden

25 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

It's late summer. The light is shifting incrementally each day now — tilting toward a new season. I notice especially in those transitory, crepuscul...

Beth Pratt-Bergstrom, Author Of 'When Mountain Lions are Neighbors'

25 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

This week on Cultivating Place, life in the garden gets a little more wild when we speak with Beth Pratt-Bergstrom, California director of the Nationa...

Cultivating Place: Stefani Bittner And The Beautiful Edible Garden And Its Multilayered Harvest

25 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Sometimes when you use the word garden – people immediately conjure up images of the ornamental perennial border. Other people, however, conjure up ...

Cultivating Place: Humble Roots Nursery

25 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Kristin Currin is owner and founder with her husband Drew Merritt of Humble Roots Native Plant Nursery in Mosier, Oregon. Situated at the interface b...

Debra Prinzing And The Slow Flowers Movement

25 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Cultivating Place this week welcomes Debra Prinzing, the producer of slowflowers.com, the online directory to American flower farms, and florists, sho...

Cultivating Place: Marta McDowell, "All The Presidents' Gardens"

25 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

In this election year, and with the Independence Day holiday just past, we have something of a patriotic garden theme going. This week, we’re joined...

Cultivating Place: Gardens For Heroes

25 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Are you a person who takes refuge in the natural world or your home garden? If so, then you appreciate the many benefits of these for regrouping from ...

Cultivating Place: Genny Arnold And California Native Bulbs

25 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

This week on Cultivating Place, we’re joined by Genny Arnold, Seed Program Manager at the Theodore Payne Foundation who speaks with us about the car...

Cultivating Place: Jessica Lundberg, VP of Administration at Lundberg Family Farms

25 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

The impulse to garden is prismatic, right? It's about connection, about beauty, about plants, about productivity and self-sufficiency, about health an...

The Xerces Society and Gardening For Butterflies (And Other Invertebrates!)

25 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Flower gardens grow flowers, vegetable gardens grow vegetables, and, yes, butterfly gardens grow butterflies. This week on Cultivating Place we’re j...

Cultivating Place: Andrea Wulf

25 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Ever wonder how a plant got its name? Or for whom it was named and why? Those are the sorts of questions that started historian and author Andrea Wulf...