JULY 4TH SPECIAL—GREAT EXPECTATIONS: CP LIVE with BEN FUTA OF BOTANY & CO SOUTH BEND, IN
- Jennifer Jewell
- Jul 3
- 7 min read
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 dedicated to “empowering more people to plant more plants in more places!” In a town that has seen more than its share of social, economic, and environmental challenges in the past few decades, Botany & Co., Ben’s dream come true, is stimulating community, biodiversity, economic growth….and joy.
The full cohort of the ten 2024/2025 transformative CP LIVE experiences are right now being crafted by the CP LIVE team into a powerful documentary film experience, sharing the many–often surprising and unseen–ways that (big G) Gardeners cultivating their places with care grow us ALL better. And, when we SEE this full power of Gardeners, we value them more appropriately, and when we value and support them, the more intentionally, more effectively, and more easily they can grow our world better - even more beautifully.
This July 4th week here in the U.S., as we think about the privileges, opportunities and responsibilities of being citizens of our places, we’re so pleased to share forward this conversation with Ben, a remarkable plantsperson, ecosystem and community steward, and regular host here on Cultivating Place.
For much more about the CP LIVE documentary film in-process: ➡️ cultivatingplace.org/film to see, share, and support for yourself 💚.
In celebration of Independence Day and what it means to be an independent
thinker and grower here in the U.S. – I am truly thrilled to this CP LIVE conversation, recorded with Ben Futa - live in front of an audience. It was bitter cold in South Bend last march but Ben’s shop was warm with sharing, with growing, and with community – all of which you can hear in the conversation in place.
Ben Futa, founder and owner of Botany & CO and its associated endeavors: the Botany Shop, The Lot Next Door outdoor nursery, and Field & Floral, an urban flower farm. Ben’s work at Botany & Co. caringly cultivates his hometown of South Bend in so many needed ways. As Ben Says:
“People who care for plants are the heroes we need right now, because plants have superpowers. They remind us we’re connected, and they help us to connect. That’s why it’s our mission to empower more people to grow more plants in more places.”
The mandate for me in these Cp Live experiences and interviews is to not only give voice to (as the podcast always does), but actually make visible the many diverse connections animated by the gardening impulse everywhere. What I hope to make visible in this conversation with Ben is that in his not only tending to a plant shop that educates and nurtures and incubates good plant people, in not only in teaching people how to replace their lawns and re-introduce habitat plants, native and climate-appropriate, but in also holding this vision for a horizontal distributed set of gardens across the city - that green store fronts and present beauty and biodiversity in all of these planted areas.
IN this, Ben envisions this gorgeous ideal a botanical garden should not only be a centralized, isolated location cared for by one set of people that we go to visit on a special occasions, but that a botanical garden could also be a place where we all live - every day - in all of these ways as all of the different kinds of people we are. He believes fervently that are a botanical garden is something we all
deserve to live in and be responsible for – we deserve to Derive the beauty and
meaning from all of that. I want to make that vision and all of its reconnections
visible. Ben is most definitely a BIG G Gardener and the more we see and support these Gardeners and Gardens, the better we also help grow our world.
As we think about what it means to be a citizen, the privileges, and the incredible opportunities and responsibilities of that word, I’m so pleased to share this conversation with Ben, a remarkable plantsperson and community builder, and regular host here on Cultivating Place. Enjoy!
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All photos courtesy of Ben Futa, Botany & Co, Myriam Nicodemus, and Jennifer Jewell. All rights Reserved.
If you enjoyed this program, you might also enjoy these
Best of CP programs in our archive:
JOIN US again next week, when we venture a little further afield with a quick trip to Greece in conversation with Lucie Willan, emeritus Director of Horticulture at the Mediterranean garden society’s flagship garden Sparoza, an experimental garden on the outskirts of Athens created by Mary Jaqueline Tyrwhitt, who was an early advocate for choosing plants to suit the conditions. Lucie was a featured speaker at the Hardy Plant Society of Oregon’s renowned Summer Garden Study weekend June 27 – 30th .That's right here, next week. Listen in!
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Thinking out loud this week...
Hey, it's Jennifer—
Between 2024 and 2025, we will have conducted a total of 10 CP Lives – from Northern California to Charleston, SC, from Massachusetts to Indiana. And in time each audio podcast will joined by a video podcast, as well as be curated into a feature length documentary film. That’s right – a documentary film journey exploring this idea and the impacts of Big G Gardeners. It’s a big growing deal.
And we really need you - to help us bring this legacy project full circle
celebrating 10 full years of beautiful lessons learned on ALL that we as Gardeners grow best. We need your support and we need to your input in pre-screening events coming soon. Anyone who is a recurring monthly donor at any amount to the Cultivating Place Foundation by September 1st of 2025 will automatically be invited to take part in our first pre-screening event this fall. For those of you who are already monthly donors, or have donated in the last year, we got you!
For those of you who are not yet, can we count on you? Go to the SUPPORT button at the top of any page at Cultivating Place.org and sign up now. We can’t wait to share our film in progress– so you can see what we see in the power of Gardeners. Join us! We want you, we need you! And everything is better when we grow together….
If there is one thing that I have learned from every single interview I have conducted with gardeners in my lifetime – it is that gardeners can grow anything they set their mind, hearts, and hands to. From carrots, to chrysanthemums, regenerated cultural paradigms, values, and economies.
Each of us can grow a great deal in our gardens individually but we grow so much more as a collective and community. I think that’s one power of the CP Live episodes– it takes CP conversations and offers them into the embrace and action of each big G Gardener’s community. And from there – they can grow anywhere we want them to. How great is that?
For this week’s Public growing announcements–
The CP hosts are taking a little well-deserved summer break the last two weeks of the month to spend time in places and with people they love! We hope you get to to do the same - so I’ll lean into the Cultivating Place universe for upcoming events!
On July 11th I will be joining Tim Johnson, CEO of the Native Plant
Trust, in an evening conversation about this growing life and cultivating
more and more access points to it for more people in more places – something both Tim and I, the Native Plant Trust and Cultivating Place are always striving for. The event is taking place at The Foundry in Cambridge at 4 pm. Hope to meet some of you there!
On July 19th, Ben and the crew at Botany & Co are holding their annual
Plant Pride Community Block Party celebrating all the ways they grow together there in South Bend – he sends all of us an open invitation!
And over in Atlanta at the Oakland Historic Cemetery & Garden have
their summer camps for kids the week of July 7th focused on eco-explorers, and again July 14th, and 21st focused on garden to table…. Ben and Abra and I would all love to meet you in the garden this summer!
More next week – until then – keep growing.
WAYS TO SUPPORT CULTIVATING PLACE
Cultivating Place is a co-production of North State Public Radio, a service of Cap Radio, licensed to Chico State Enterprises. Cultivating Place is made possible in part listeners just like you through the support button at the top right-hand corner of every page at Cultivating Place.com.
The CP team includes producer and engineer Matt Fidler, with weekly tech and web support from Angel Huracha, weekly communications support by Sheila Stern and Carley Bruckner, transcripts by Doulos Transcription, and regular guest hosting by Abra Lee and Ben Futa. We’re based on the traditional and present homelands of the Mechoopda Indian Tribe of the Chico Rancheria. Original theme music is by Ma Muse, accompanied by Joe Craven and Sam Bevan.
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