FROG MEADOW FARM: A VT PLACE FOR HEALING, SAFETY, COMFORT, JOY, AND, BELONGING, with DAVID JACQUES
- Jennifer Jewell
- 12 hours ago
- 7 min read
As the season begins to show signs of turning its next page, Cultivating Place host Ben Futa heads to Vermont! This week he's in conversation with David Jacques, also known by the internet persona "Davey Wavey". David is the owner of Frog Meadow Bed & Breakfast, a retreat for men in southern Vermont. For nearly 20 years, David has been pursuing his passion for gardening while serving an audience (online and in place) of primarily gay men.
In their conversation this week, they explore childhoods spent in the soil, and how David’s career led to an East Coast homecoming, and new-found connection with wild, beautiful spaces intended for healing, safety, comfort, joy, and belonging when David became the new owner and steward of Frog Meadow.
From Ben: In our conversation today, we cover fond memories of a childhood spent in the soil, and how a career in content creation in California ended up leading to an East coast homecoming and new-found connection with wild, beautiful spaces intended for healing, safety, comfort, joy, and belonging as David became the new owner and steward of Frog Meadow.
The phrase, “we contain multitudes” has been floating in my brain while editing this episode, a testament to the power of putting down roots as a means of making a space a place, and ultimately, feeling like home.
Listen in!
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Photos Courtesy of Frog Meadow Farm and David Jacques. All rights reserved.
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JOIN US again next week: Flowers, who doesn’t love them! And in the seedy season, who doesn’t love saving their seeds? This week, Cultivating Place Host Jennifer Jewell revisits a favorite conversation with crowd-favorite, Erin Benzakein of Floret, in celebration of Floret’s new book: Bloom to Seed! Join us! That's right here, next week. Listen in!
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Thinking out loud this week...
Hey, it's Ben—
By now, I hope you see how Frog Meadow is more than a “simple” Bed & Breakfast.
It is, as most great places are, amplified by the sum of its many parts. From the designed plantings and natural spaces to a year-round operation with community at the core – from the breakfast table to work camp – I can see why David took the leap and became Frog Meadow’s new steward. All in all, it’s a pretty great gig – especially with a place so worthy of protecting, preserving, and stewarding forward.
In fact, this conversation was inspired and initiated thanks to a newsletter David sent a few months ago where he shared more about the gardens and grounds, and that’s when I realized – from way over here in northern Indiana – how special Frog Meadow is, even without ever having stepped foot on the property myself. Something I hope to change, eventually. At Frog Meadow, the plants aren’t just window dressing: here, they’re part of the story, central and integral to the healing and connective power of this place.
In that same spirit, I sincerely hope you’ll jump right over to this LINK and get your tickets for the first Power of Gardeners Symposium coming up right here in South Bend on September 25-26. Early bird tickets are available through September 15, so you still have a little time to secure your spot and join Jennifer, Abra, myself, and so many other Gardeners with a capital G for an empowering, inspiring, and transformative two days of learning, discovery, connection, and – of course – community. If you’ve ever felt a deep connection with one of our guests following an episode, this event is for you.
While there’s SO much I’m excited to share with you about this place we call home, more than anything, I’m excited to see what we generate as a group and what YOU take home, back to your place. In some ways, you might consider this event one giant seed exchange: neatly packaged nuggets of genetic memory, identity, knowledge and experience, accumulated over years of learning, adaptation, ingenuity and honesty, sent out into the world to put down roots in YOUR places.
Because you, the Gardener with a capital G that you are, showed up, engaged, participated, and then went forth to make real a world where Gardeners are a keystone species – indispensable, irreplicable, and no two the same. Infinite diversity in infinite combinations.
I hope David’s story inspires you to take the leap, to listen in to your intuition, and to show up as a steward and cultivator, in however you choose to apply the many lessons our gardens so generously share with us.
As I was listening to David describe his early childhood and formative gardening years – and how it connects with his garden today, I can’t help but recognize a pattern: Gardening at its best is almost always about coming back home to ourselves, and this can manifest in so many beautiful, simple, transformative ways.
I’ll be candid – it’s been a rough year for me here in northern Indiana. I’ve noticed lately that the burnout and fatigue had run *so* deep that I wasn’t motivated to garden anymore – and my personal garden had lost all interest because all I could see when I looked at it were business projects with open tabs.
The realization that gardening in my own place had lost its appeal was a big red flag – somethings need to change. I needed to make time – and more importantly, not feel guilty for it – to spend just gardening. Just for myself and our family. Not as a product. A simple purpose: delight.
A few days later, and my brain is already breathing easier. The to do lists are still un-ending – they always will be. There’s always an unread text or email waiting for a response. But when I’m in the garden, all of that hits pause, and my brain is able to open up and get clear again. I mention all of this, just in case you’ve been feeling blue, heavy, or melancholy lately - check in with yourself. Have you been doing the things that you know are helpful for you in these moments? Are you spending time in your own garden?
As we head back to our conversation with David, a new phrase comes to mind: rest is not a reward, and just surviving is insufficient. I’m so excited for you to learn more about how Frog Meadow cultivates a restful retreat grounded in place.
I hope by now, dear listener/reader, you’ve noticed a pattern in my episodes this year: community in some capacity is nearly always a through line. It’s something I think we continue to need more of, to be reminded of, and to be encouraged to participate in – actively and, especially, locally.
Continuing the thread from my last break, I’m working on de-coupling my relationship with social media, and my phone in general. The convenience has grown a little too convenient, and notifications tend to trigger fight or flight rather than rest and digest. We’re more accessible and visible now than we’ve ever been – and I don’t necessarily think that’s a good thing.
Our nervous systems were never meant to operate this way, at this pace, for this long. Boundaries help, certainly – but I’m *also* interested in more intentional, permanent untetherings – things like buying a wristwatch and breaking out my DSLR camera, two less things I need to rely on my phone to do for me (and I use both of those functions A LOT).
I believe we desperately need spaces and invitations to gather and connect with people who are not like us. I believe plants can and do create those spaces, which is why places like Frog Meadow and Botany & Co. here in South Bend are so vital, now more than ever. Each is a different kind of public garden: a secluded retreat, away from the world and surrounded by nature, the second, an urban garden brought to life on formerly vacant city lots – an attempt to answer the question, “What would happen if a public garden attempted to grow and behave more like a developer than an institution?”
Unpacking that question lies at the heart of our work here, which is why I sincerely hope you’ve snagged your tickets for the first Power of Gardeners Symposium, happening right here in South Bend, on September 25-26. This two-day experience celebrates, among other things, the people and places that are transforming our city in the image of plants, creating those safe and inviting spaces for folks from different backgrounds to come together and connect. In real-time. In real, place.
All of them, Gardeners with a capital G.
I’m so excited to share this place we call home with you, so very soon. If you don’t yet have your tickets, just a reminder the early bird rate is available through September 15. Jennifer, Abra, and I would love to see welcome you.
And yes, South Bend has our own airport. Just sayin’.
See you soon, plant lovers.
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