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

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

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

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

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

You know the hundreds of thousands of flowers, floral bouquets, candles, and other bits of personal importance that people are called to leave at the physical locations of traumatic events? These flowers and other ephemera, and the human impulse behind them, are what catalyze Tanja Hollander. This week on Cultivating Place, host Ben Futa is in conversation with Tanja, an artist & activist Gardener based in the US Northeast. Tanja works with gardens, social practice, photograp

For our final episode of January, we honor gardening and Cultivating Place often in spite of the odds. It’s been a full year since the devastating fires of Los Angeles, California in January of 2025. Many lives were lost, many acres and homes were burned. And many gardens, cultivated spaces, and gardeners were profoundly impacted. This week, we check-in with two humans who are cultivating their place with care in the wake of this catastrophe. Leigh Adams and Shawn Maestretti

As we continue our new year, we’re once again gaining elevation and new growing thinking. We’re in conversation with Jim Tolstrup, Executive Director of the High Plains Environmental Center in Loveland, Colorado, where, by development design, they caringly cultivate Suburbitat. Suburbitat is a land ethic, a mind-set, and a book that all hold a vision of a built environment where suburbia and native ecosystems exist side by side and intertwined. It is magical in all seasons!

“Ecological restoration is no longer a nicety, it’s a necessity,” proclaims the Blackland Collaborative , a group working to help make cities more biodiverse and inclusive, and to help heal human communities while restoring vulnerable species. Bridging science and design, the Collaborative "brings people and nature home"; and they believe in"humans’ capacity to improve and protect". John Hart Asher is a co-founder and senior environmental designer with the Blackland Collabor

This week on Cultivating Place , host Ben Futa is in conversation with Rebecca McMackin, a dedicated public servant working in the context of ecological horticulture. Rebecca is on a mission to empower more people to grow more plants in more places while cultivating empathy, compassion, and advocacy for the natural world. We last heard from Rebecca here on CP in 2021, and a lot has happened in her growing life since then! Rebecca is an ecologically obsessed horticulturist and

This week, we finish up Artober on CP, in conversation with artist Mary Jackson, a renowned sweetgrass basket weaver known for combining traditional methods with contemporary designs. Based in the Low Country of South Carolina, Mary is the descendant of generations of Gullah basket weavers. Born in 1945, in 2008, Mary was awarded a MacArthur Foundation fellowship ("Genius Grant") for "pushing the centuries-old tradition in stunning new directions" . From the 1970s throug

Welcome to our next airing of a CP LIVE* , this time in celebration of Artober in conversation with Sofia Laçin and Hennessy Christophel, of LA-based Studio Tutto . On highway underpasses, school walls, public park welcome centers, and city water towers, the epic hand-crafted murals of Studio Tutto are telling visual stories of invisible nature to help people connect and become familiar with what is surrounding us, but we often do not notice. Their “ thoughtful site-specific

This week on CP we kick off ARTOBER. Host Ben Futa is talking all things Wild By Design, the Art of Planting, in conversation with Ben...

In 2008, Cincinnati, Ohio, AKA the Queen City, developed the program that has earned them their secondary nickname: Green City. The Green...

As autumn and harvest begins to color the edges of our awareness, this week on Cultivating Place we’re joined by two people whose work...

Hot August nights turn to bright August nights at the Olbrich Botanical Gardens in Madison, WI. The Garden's annual GLEAM light show is...

Cultivating Plac e and Cultivating Place Live are made possible in part through the generosity of the Catto Shaw Foundation. Are you...

THIS WEEK on CP - OUR NEXT CP LIVE podcast! And we head to Indiana with our very own Ben Futa! Botany & Co. in South Bend, Indiana is...