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

In these dark, cold days of February, when too much rain or snow, and WAY TOO MUCH ICE, or not enough rain or snow, might be getting you down, we take this week, just in time for Valentine’s Day, to embrace, lean into, and love the comforts of tea. We're in conversation with Michael Fritts, founder of Golden Feather Tea in Concow, CA, to explore the history, cultivation, the rituals and the rewards (which are many) of tea. After more than 15 years at it, and despite massive

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, photogra

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 Maestr

This week, Cultivating Place welcomes Terry Richardson in conversation with Abra Lee. Terry is known to many as @theblkthumb , an intrepid, enthusiastic, and encouraging orchid rescuer, educator, and storyteller. Terry has helped thousands of people rethink what it means to care for plants, specifically orchids! Terry’s journey began not with expertise, but with curiosity and failure. He is a self-proclaimed “black thumb,” as opposed to the more well-known "green thumb". He

January is prime seed-dreaming and seed-catalogue season. With that in mind we’re revisiting a favorite conversation all about generosity, mutual care, good seeds, and seed people. Who doesn’t need more of all those as we continue to lay the foundation for this new year? Ken Greene – who goes by K - is a seed person. He is the co-founder of the Hudson Valley Seed Library , which in 2004 became the first public library based seed lending library in the US; in 2008 he went on t

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!

In honor of the Winter Solstice happening this coming weekend on December 21st at 10:03 AM Pacific, we celebrate land and place-based cultivation from a foundation of cultural and spiritual care leading the way. We’re joined in this by Dr. Don Hankins, Professor of Geography and Planning at California State University, Chico. Of Miwok ancestry, Don, for decades now, has focused on applied research of indigenous stewardship practices as a “keystone process to aid in conservati

This week on Cultivating Place we celebrate one woman’s long-standing and loving cultivation of place in rural New Jersey. Janet Mavec is the steward and student of Bird Haven Farm, which after many years of learning from and loving, she now celebrates in word and image in her new place-based memoir: "Bird Haven Farm: The Story of An Original American Garden" . Bird Haven Farm is written by Janet and photographed by Ngoc Minh Ngo , out now from Rizzoli Press. This week's is

“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

Dr. Jared Barnes is a big G gardener – and has been since his earliest expressions of self as a toddler. Now a professor of horticulture at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas, Jared is also a writer under the name of Meristem , and the host of The Plantastic podcast . where he exclaims that: "Plants can’t talk, but we can! The Plantastic Podcast is a show for plant killers, green thumbs, and everyone in between." He wants everyone’s expression of self t

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

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...

This week on Cultivating Place , we celebrate late summer and fall on the horizon in conversation about one of fall’s stars in the...

This week on Cultivating Place , host Abra Lee dives into the world of pathways to plant professions with Jazmin Albarran, Executive...

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...

Looking back, even just this year, Cultivating Place has had multiple conversations with plantspeople from around the country about the...

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