CP NEW MOON NEWSLETTER - JULY 2025
- Jennifer Jewell
- Jul 24
- 7 min read
Native bumble bee nectaring on native milkweed - along the Round Pond lane, Little Compton, RI
New Moon of July - Thursday the 24th
(because the new moon is a great time to plant seeds whose energy grows up and out....)
"Love the program, it has encouraged me to connect to dirt, all the plants and insects, birds and other beings........saves me daily! "
Gardener, CP listener & supporter, Anne Anderson July 2025
Oh Big-G Gardeners - it has been a month, hasn't it? I mean that literally and metaphysically. What a month–on local, state, and national levels.
As you have all no doubt heard, our federal government has voted to defund their investment in public media. That includes PBS and NPR, which for generations and decades of families, children, communities, and voters has maintained excellence in open access, informative, educational, entertaining, and expansive news, social, and cultural reporting.
For 10 Years Cultivating Place has been airing on public radio stations in cities and towns large and small, urban and rural across this country. Thank you to our home station 91.7 NSPR in Chico, CA, and syndicating stations such as 91.7 WVXU in Cincinnati, OH and 90.5 KWMR in Point Reyes Station, CA).
We have been able to support the public radio stations that support us by offering incredibly informative and engaging stories and conversations about plants and plants-people growing the world better–and serving as blueprints and role models for so many.
In July's interview with Rebecca Schwarz and Paige Manges of The Nature Place in La Crosse, WI, which for many years has been an AmeriCorps work-training site, Rebecca articulated her thoughts on the government's rescinding support for AmeriCorps, in a way that perfecting matches how we feel about the divestment in NPR and PBS:
"There’s a phrase that has been used, I think in justifying the cuts that have happened to us and to others, of being in line with the administration’s values. And service, job training for young people, I just don’t know how those can’t be in line with the values of our government. And, the work that we do here, and our sibling organization, Wiscorps, and the conservation work that they do, when you invest in environmental education, when you invest in young people being in nature, and understanding nature and the environment–you are literally investing in the future. And that’s all we want to do. We are here because we are invested in the future, our communities ,and the future of our nation.”
As a small, flexible, and responsive project and team, we produce and distribute Cultivating Place at very little cost to the stations on which we air as a result of support from listeners just like you. Currently, more than 75% of the CPF budget for Cultivating Place and the Cultivating Place Live in-person events is comprised of earned income and support from Gardeners, gardening organizations, and other cultivating place-humans across the globe.
We as a CP collective are honored and proud to be contributing members of public radio in part because of you all supporting CP. It is a collaborative partnership between plants, plants-people, and the open access communication and education platforms we love in the forms of NPR and PBS.
In the end of May, I had a great honor of giving the graduation address to the esteemed Longwood Gardens Fellows program. The theme of my address to the five profoundly accomplished women who were headed out into the world to be leaders at Gardens and plant organizations around the world seems relevant now and was this:
"You and I know that when we navigate by and with plants we are never lost, when we navigate by plants we are always at home, and when we navigate by plants
we can always grow in the right direction....
Thank you for being here, for ensuring that CP as Garden-life program encouraging the inner Gardener in us all continues just as the plants teach us to: abundantly, generously, generatively.
Jennifer & The CP Team
PS: Our next CP LIVE event takes place at the Civic Garden Center of Greater Cincinnati on Sept 12th. Our next CP Communing will be Sept 16th. Make sure you're subscribed to our email list to get event announcements; and if you are a current supporter/investor of CP, look for your invites to both events coming by email soon....:)
CP PODCAST:
High July - heading to August, and soon enough it will be the dog days.....if there is a theme for me in this past month's conversations with big-G Gardeners around the country (and globe - hello Lucie Willan in Greece!) it is AGENCY. Agency in the face of challenge, of dilemma, of confusion, of emotional and national and environmental turmoil. We always have the agency to grow better. I feel sure that Gardeners know this truth better than most.
If you have not had a chance to listen in - I think you'll be catalyzed and surprised by these four new and two best-of conversations. Starting off with with Richard M. Smith, Director, New York Botanical Garden's School of Professional Horticulture, mentoring the next bright lights in professional horticulture. We enjoyed the next of our ongoing CP LIVE series in conversation with CP host Ben Futa, independent businessman, floral farmer, and community hub re-seeding biodiversity into all facets of South Bend, IN. Next we traveled to Greece to hear about gardening around the glob and against both climate and pandemic odds with craft, science, and artistry in conversation with the indomitable Lucie Willan, and then we were back in the US in La Crosse, WI hearing from The Nature Place, whose moving quote we noted above.
Indeed, "we are all here because we are invested in the future our communities and
the future of our nation.”
Enjoy this good growing listening....
In the CP LIVE outtake clip above, a quick peak into the heartfelt conversation from our visit to South Bend, IN, with someone truly remarkable—Ben Futa, co-host of Cultivating Place, and founder of Botany & Co.—a place where the goal is always more people, more plants, in more places. 🌱✨
Ben’s dedication to what his city deserves—despite its past hardships—is nothing short of inspiring. His unwavering belief in the potential of South Bend, along with his tireless efforts to nurture community, resilience, and renewal, showcases the remarkable strength that comes when people genuinely care for their city and each other.
Inside Botany & Co., you can feel the spirit of support and hope—an example of how collective kindness and passion can help a community heal and thrive. And tomorrow, you’ll hear Ben’s powerful story on our podcast, a reminder of what’s possible when love for a place drives meaningful action. 🎧
Ben’s story reminds us of the importance of community, compassion, and hope.
Each CP LIVE experience is testament to the paradigm shifting belief that when we see the full reach of Gardeners, we value and support them more; when we value and support the best of Gardeners and Gardens more, the whole world is grown stronger, smarter, healthier, kinder, more abundant: environmentally, socially, culturally, communally, individually, economically, and spiritually.
Cultivating Place LIVE: Dialogues to Grow By (CP LIVE) is a special project of theCultivating Place Foundation, with major support from the Catto Shaw Foundation. CP LIVE is a curated series of Gardener-supporting CP interviews recorded and filmed live in front of an audience in select locations around the country in 2024 and 2025, exploring some of the most compelling & important lessons learned in the first 10 years of CP about who big G-Gardeners are and what they are growing in our world.
When we value these growing people and spaces more appropriately, they can more intentionally, effectively, and beautifully grow us all.
Join us to listen, see, and grow, yourself. Cultivating Place LIVE
Join us in completing this important film project! Invest in this Garden-based world view:
I
AN FINALLY......
In support of the CP LIVE Cultivating Place: The Power of Gardeners documentary film project underway, and raising the funds needed to get it across the finish line to its final form, this past month we OPENED wide the new CP SHOP.
The CP SHOP features many objects (hats, shirts, sweatshirts, and more) you might need, and love, all of which allow you to profess your belief in the power of Gardeners as heard and seen on Cultivating Place....all profits from the purchase of these items goes directly to the support of CP as a result of our partnership with Bonfire, a company specializing in on-demand items for non-profits. This means we can offer items you want with no overhead cost. It's a win-win. (and YES - different CP donor/supporter/investor thank you items are rolling out soon....Tahnk you to everyone who has supported so far!
We've been truly ENJOYING the fabulous photos of people in their CP logo items! Send us yours, and with your permission, we will share it forward with the community!
CP EVENTS:
RECENT:
May 30 - Commencement Speaker for Longwood Fellows Program 2024-2025 Cohort
June 17 - CP Communing Pre-Summer Solstice
July 11 - Summer Fireside Chat with Tim Johnson of the Native Plant Trust, Cambridge, MA
UPCOMING:
Sept 12-14 - CP LIVE Cincinnati, OH with Civic Garden Center of Greater Cincinnati
Sept 16 - CP COMMUNING pre-Autumnal Equinox
Sept 22 - 25 - CP LIVE Second Generation Seeds/Gohyang Fields, Sebastapol, CA
Oct 23 - 27 - THE ART OF CP - online art auction to benefit the Cultivating Place Foundation (registration info coming soon.....)
More events here: CP EVENTS
Interested in attending a CP LIVE?
We're inviting CP Donors to our CP Live in Cincinnati, OH September 12th, 2025. Invest in our work today through the support buttons here or at the top of cultivatingplace.org & look for your invitation to register for the 10 donor spots - coming soon!
CULTIVATING PLACE FOUNDATION
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