What does accessibility mean in the garden? In a public garden? 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. One result of their thoughtful deliberations is their Path For All, which opened in May of 2026. Three members of their team join Jennifer Jewell this week to share more about their 13

Planting design is an essential skill in garden design writ large, for the health and beauty of a site–functionally, environmentally, and psychologically. Andrew Fisher Tomlin is widely acknowledged as leading the development of a distinct professional career path in planting design through his own work and as a Director of Environmental Design at the London College of Garden Design in London and Melbourne. There, he has mentored some of the most exciting new designers coming

Cultivating Place well so often comes down to sharing the abundance of growing from a place of love, from a strong sense of community, and an equally grounded sense of home. Susan Greutman is the founder and owner of Sunchoke Farms, an urban homestead-turned-family farm in South Bend, Indiana, growing chemical-free produce on formerly vacant city lots. Susan has been farming since 2018 and also happens to be growing right in Ben Futa and Botany's neighborhood. Their conversat

Amanda Hannah is the Director of Botanical Garden Horticulture at Holden Forests & Gardens in Cleveland, Ohio. Amanda’s path into horticulture has taken her from the agricultural landscapes of Idaho and Utah to studying in Argentina, living in Seattle, and moving through the Longwood Fellows Program. This week, Amanda and Cultivating Place Host, Abra Lee, dive into plants, the role of public gardens, conservation, and how following an unexpected passion can transform the cour

We are finally at peak daylight and the Summer Solstice–which officially takes place June 21st this year. Summer speaks of garden parties and holidays at the beach, or lake, by rivers, or in the mountains. Summer speaks directly to our connection to the wild places we love and perhaps long for– and which, through our gardens, can be right here at home…SummerHome Garden in Denver, CO, is a playful and powerful twist on how our gardens can be our summer homes. Do you have a sum

The conservation of biodiversity writ large is directly tied to the conservation of native bees: crucial pollinators in our cultivated and wildland ecosystems across most regions of the world. This week, we look forward to International Pollinator Week, which always falls in the third week of June (tied to the Summer solstice), in conversation with Krystle Hickman, an award-winning conservation photographer, author, artist and National Geographic Explorer. Her passion is nat

What makes a place a place, versus just any space? Tyler Kanczuzewski 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. Tyler brings business leadership, logistics, resiliency, and community experience to his work alongside neighbors to transform space into place, in order to cultivate people and their places well. Tyler joins Cu

This week on Cultivating Place, we discuss public gardens as living classrooms, the quiet power of trees in city life, and how tending landscapes can cultivate resilience, curiosity, and belonging. Host Abra Lee is in conversation with Brent “Fig” Figlestahler, horticulturist, landscape architect, educator, and devoted steward of public green spaces from the cultivated collections and urban woodlands of Cylburn Arboretum based in Baltimore, Maryland. Fig shows what it means t

This week we continue plumbing the potential of gardens and gardeners for growing a future we want to cultivate- for the benefit of all. In order to look forward, we look back to the radical plan of a 50-year-old intentionally-designed community-and sustainability-oriented housing development, Village Homes, in Davis, California. Central to the intelligent design? You got it, Gardens and Greenspaces at every turn, and accessible to all. With the community now celebrating its

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. She makes a case for the importance of

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"'. We last spoke with Christin about her first book and she joins us again today to

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. This week I am joined by Robin Jennings, rosarian and manager at Heirloom formerly known as Hei

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, arti

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 Na

Chris, tongue in cheek....see below for the true nature of his gardener hands, which he has had since childhood. 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 one of the co-hosts of the Native

Brenna Estrada is owner and founder of Three Brothers Blooms, a flower farm located on 2.5 acres of Camano Island in the Pacific Northwest. Brenna is also the author of "Pansies, How to Grow, Reimagine, and Create Beauty with Pansies and Violas", published by Timber Press just over a year ago. Ben Futa's conversation with Brenna today spans many topics, with pansies as a worthy and common thread. As Ben notes: "Brenna makes a compelling case for revisiting our relationship to

Spring is of course perfect for some wild dreams about what we can and will sow in the seasons to come. With plants, and with ourselves. Jen William’s vision for her work as Wild Dreams Farm and Seed on Washington’s Vashon Island is to ensure abundance and biodiversity in our culture and in our gardens by growing and breeding open pollinated vegetable, flower, and herb seeds which nourish our human and more than human communities. I had the great joy of visiting Wild Dreams

In honor of the Vernal Equinox, and the balance we are all longing for, we're joined this week by humanist, conservationist, professor and writer in residence at the Harvard Divinity School, Terry Tempest Williams . From her 1991 classic, "Refuge, An Unnatural History of Family & Place", to to her newest title out now from Grove Atlantic, "The Glorians, Visitations from the Holy Ordinary" , and the more than 100 publications in between, Terry’s writing is grounded in her lo

Spring is stirring, buds are swelling, and soil is warming. This week we celebrate the joys of healthy, living soil in conversation with Omar Al Shafie, co-founder of Northern California-based Teregen Ag , a purpose-driven, innovative, soil and plant nutrient producer and researcher dedicated to furthering our collective transition toward sustainable, regenerative farming. Having witnessed firsthand how healthy soil can transform not just crops, but entire ecosystems and comm

This week on Cultivating Place , host Ben Futa is in conversation with John Little, an ecological designer and public horticulture advocate living and working in the UK. His firm, the Grass Roof Company , launched in 1998. Ever since, they have been expanding and broadening ideas around public plantings, habitat, and those who care for them. John's not-for-profit, Care, Not Capital , is training the next generation of public gardeners with the skills they need to fully serv