GROWING IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION: HUMBLE ROOTS NURSERY & THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST NATIVE PLANT PRIMER (BEST OF)
- Jennifer Jewell
- May 1
- 5 min read
Happy May Day! This week on Cultivating Place, we welcome May, with all of her floral and plant profusion, revisiting a conversation we loved with Kristin Currin and Andrew Merritt of Humble Roots Nursery in Oregon’s Columbia River Gorge.
Acclaimed for their native plant passions, knowledge, and integrity, Kristin and Drew are the authors of "The Pacific Northwest Native Plant Primer" - one of a series of such primers from around the country, steering us as gardeners toward beautiful ecological gardens and place-based relationships. Others in the series include: "The Midwest Native Plant Primer", "The Southeast Native Plant Primer", "The Texas Native Plant Primer", and more on the Timber Press Website
Cheers to May and our gardens' weaving us back into the wonder of the world!
Humble Roots is a native plant nursery acclaimed for its efforts in sustainability and promoting native plant passion, knowledge, and ethics across the wider eco-regions of the Pacific Northwest.
"The Pacific Northwest Native Plant Primer, 225 plants for an Earth-Friendly Garden" (Timber Press, 2023), or one of its relations, might be just the inspiration we all need to get us planting in the right direction this spring and summer!
ENJOY!
Original Post:
As we turn the calendar to November, and the season to decidedly late fall and wintery in many places across the US, we look toward our fall & winter planting windows – especially good for native plants in most of our areas as long as the ground is workable.
This week we’re joined by two native plant enthusiasts and nursery people – Kristin Currin and Andrew Merritt of Humble Roots Nursery in Oregon’s Columbia River Gorge.
Humble Roots is a native plant nursery acclaimed for its efforts in sustainability and promoting native plant passion, knowledge, and ethics across the wider ecoregions of the Pacific Northwest.
After years at this work, Kristin and Drew, as he is known, have recently shared a great deal of their knowledge even more widely with the recently published The Pacific Northwest Native Plant Primer, 225 plants for an Earth Friendly Garden, out now from Timber Press.
It might be just the inspiration we need to get us all planting!
Andrew and Kristen ethically propagate many important native plants and have worked on many restoration and pollinator enhancement projects, including rare plant monitoring and propagation. Drew works with homeowners landscapers, farmers, orchardist organizations and agencies, developing native plant gardens and habitats. Their labor of love has likewise involves them with innumerable native plant endeavors, including pollinator and conservation plantings of all shapes and sizes, school gardens, backyard, habitats, restoration projects, and rare plant conservation.
Enjoy!
You can follow Humble Roots work online at: humblerootsnursery.com/
and Instagram:
All images courtesy of Humble Roots. all rights reserved.
HERE IS THIS WEEK'S TRANSCRIPT by Doulos Transcription Service:
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JOIN US again next week, when we’re in conversation with plantswoman and public garden leader, Holly Shimizu. The executive director of the US Botanic Garden in DC from 2000 to 2014, she led their overhaul and rejuvenation - renovating their signature Conservatory, completing the National Garden, and helping to establish the Sustainable Sites Initiative, She currently serves with the American Horticultural Society - that’s next week right here. – listen in!
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Thinking out loud this week....
Hey, it's Jennifer-
Given the current situations dominating most conversations in our world today, I am daily reminded how proud I am to be a part of public radio.
Public radio in my mind is like all the beautiful things in the commons – at its best it is truly local, and by and for the people in these localities - like public libraries, like public schools, like seed libraries, and seed itself. it is often small, but capable of so much.
With that in mind, if any of you are members or better yet supporters of your local public radio station, and that station does not carry Cultivating Place in their weekly lineup and you think it would be a good fit, please reach out to me and we can chat more about reaching out your station together.
Send me an email: CultivatingPlace@gmail.com.
From the California Coast to Downtown Cincinnati Ohio – public radio stations and listeners love what this program adds to their lives.
And I really do believe that the more we listen to the great diversity of gardeners and gardening out in the world, the more we learn; the more we learn the more we know the more we know the more we love the more we love the better we grow. Looking forward to hearing from some of you, looking forward to working with some of you on increasing this reach of how we cultivate our places more carefully and compassionately, more creatively and for the commons.
I look forward to hearing from you and connecting with you public radio station!
Likewise, It has been so fun recently to be invited to call in and take part in local book groups around the country who have taken on the careful reading of what we sow! This is a particular pleasure, to be in conversation with people who are reading the book and experiencing some of the thoughts, revelations, emotions, and awareness is that I experienced in researching and writing the book. To talk about some of these aspects in our world, and what we as individuals can do with them and about them and even for them.
If you are part of a Book group which is interested in reading What We Sow or has it on your queue, please reach out if you would like me to call in for the discussion part of your book group.
If I have time and availability, I will absolutely be happy to join you.
You know how to reach me cultivatingplace@gmail.com!
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