New Moon News - AUGUST 2026
- Jennifer Jewell
- 2 days ago
- 6 min read
California Native Buttonwillow in full bloom along summer creeks. Butte County, July 2026.
Happy New Moon of August 12, 2026–because the new moon is a perfect time to start fresh, to grow up, and to grow out...
Happy New Moon, Gardeners,
Over the past three months, I've had a few big life transitions, including moving from my house and garden of 12 years, and losing a beloved elder. A house and garden I measured the last chapter of my life alongside, and an elder who served as a second mother, a surrogate grandmother to my girls, and a model against whom I measured my growth as an adult and a human.
As a result of these transitions, I've spent a lot of time on the phone with customer service numbers: phone companies, electric companies, insurance agents–the whole lot of customer service lines who are now part of our lives. One evening recently I was on a long hold on one of these many calls, which I had on speaker while I puttered in the kitchen before dinner, when finally a voice came on, identified themselves, and asked about the nature of my call.
Very standard script, very (now) standard, possibly AI computer-based voice. And then they sneezed.
Reflexively, I said, God bless you. Reflexively, they said, thank you. And then I paused–struck by the now-relative-oddness of what had just happened-and I started laughing and said: it's so good to know you're human! And they laughed, too.
It felt good.
In our conversation on Cultivating Place this week, Erika Rumbley of The New Garden Society shares the outsized impact of garden programs on incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people. In the course of the interview, she reads a quote from one of their garden program graduates: "Being in the garden, smelling the scent of raking autumn leaves for the first time in years, filled me with the strongest grounding sense of being I have had in decades."
The strongest sense of being.
Now, maybe he actually wrote or meant: well-being, but Erika says: "...sense of being." And this exact wording captures one of the greatest gifts of this human impulse to garden: it reminds us that we are alive and here and human. We are out there with the plants, soil, seasons, bugs and beauty, and we are returned to our humanity. Together with and connected to all beings and to being-ness.
With that, I can't wait to be with all of you who can make it in person for the Inaugural Cultivating Place: The Power of Gardeners Symposium, this year in South Bend, Indiana. Two days of being together and considering from all sides what it means to be a Gardener, what it means to Cultivate Place well, and how we grow that as deeply and widely as humanly possible.
Jennifer & The Cultivating Place Team
PS: Keep reading for updates on all things Cultivating Place: Radio Program & Podcast, Film, Gatherings, and Connections...
PSS: Another thing the new moon is GREAT for? Viewing meteor showers! The Perseid showers peak right at the New Moon this month. Very little reminds us of our human-ness, tiny in the greater construct of the universe, than a good night sky event. Check it out and send us notes on your views! info@cultivatingplace.org. We'd love to share your images and experiences forward with the community. ✨✨✨
Summer natural lawn labyrinth games.
PUBLIC RADIO PROGRAM & PODCAST:
We're All History in the Making.... Summer spring-fed-creek lined with native torrent sedge and willows, burnishing up in late summer. 
High-Elevation Balancing Act
The humanity of Gardeners is a deep-seated theme for the Cultivating Place radio program and podcast animating guests, hosts, and radio stations alike.
This month we're pleased to welcome two new stations to the family: KTXK in Texarkana, Texas, and KHNS in Haines, Alaska. So glad they are here, and we are there.
Since the New Moon of July, this humanity in the world has come to us from the Gardeners at Reeves-Reed Arboretum and Gardens in Summit, New Jersey, whose "Path for All" project ensures that more humans are able to access their natural and gardened areas than ever before; from the long career of plantsman, Allen Bush, whose greatest legacy may not be the gardens and plants he has tended, but the relationships he has; from the high-elevation balancing act labored-over and fully enjoyed by Dr. Jennifer Bousselot at Colorado State University, and finally from the profound humanity of our very own hosts, Ben Futa and Abra Lee, who sit down to share notes on the many lessons Garden History has to share with us for showing up and growing in these exact times.
Enjoy catching up on your listening to the episodes from the last month (click each name or image for its audio link).....
A path for all... Low growing Eriogonum species fading to pink, with burnt orange lichen for contrast. 
Plantsman Allen Bush, tending relationships
THE POWER OF GARDENERS FILM SERIES:
Some really good news since last month's first review screenings of the rough cut of Season One Episode One of The Power of Gardeners series: we recieved our Letter of Intent to Carry from American Public Television. See below!
Myriam has deepened her editing team to include Rachel In London and Charlie in Nairobi. More on them soon! The team is lazer-focused over the coming months finalizing the next 9 episodes, the title art, the credit sequence screens, and getting us to "picture-lock" on each story line, all of which add up to The Power of Gardeners.
Thank you all for your participation and contribution. Like any healthy ecosystem, every organism contributes at their specific level, and we need them ALL.
When you are a Cultivating Place sustaining supporter, making a recurring monthly gift of $10 or more, or an annual gift of $120 or more, investing in this important work coming to fruition–you get early notice, discounted ticket prices, extra offerings, and value adds all along the way. To say nothing of the satisfaction of knowing you, too, are growing our world better.
You can connect with us about film underwriting, pre-screening events in 2026/2027, gift licenses for school or garden groups, etc.: info@cultivatingplace.org.
AND FINALLY...Praise to the Garden spirits, you made it to the end...
Your bonus?
I am so pleased to share that for our August Communing, a book club version for which we are reading David George Haskell's Sounds Wild & Broken, the author himself will be joining us for the final Q & A and to share more about his most recent book: How Flowers Made the World, another scientific and profound inquiry into our deeply rooted reliance on and relationship to the natural world–specifically the flowering plants. Hope to see you there even if you haven't finished the book (don't worry–there's no quiz ;)
August Communing Registration is still open through Monday the 17th.
And, one more time:
Please Join us for the inaugural biennial
Cultivating Place Symposium September 25th & 26th, 2026:
THE POWER OF GARDENERS: SOUTH BEND
co-sponsored by Botany & Co in South Bend, IN
Cultivating Place sustaining supporters, who make a recurring monthly gift of $10 or more, or an annual gift of $120 or more, look for your Cultivating Place-supporter-only invitations to register starting on August 1st for this catalyzing two-day gathering featuring me, Ben Futa, Abra Lee, Wambui Ippolito, Myriam Nicodemus, Chris Fehlhaber, AND a sneak peak film-screening and panel, followed by a community reception on Friday, and inspiring guided Garden and Green Space tours on Saturday morning.
REGISTRATION OPENS TO ALL for EARLY BIRD REGISTRATION August 15th!
THE POWER OF GARDENERS: SOUTH BEND.... we'd love to see your there ! Join us!
Cultivating Place GATHERS:
Other UPCOMING events:
(all underlined headings are live links to registration pages)
August 18, 2026
COMMUNING - BOOK CLUB
"Sounds Wild & Broken" + "How Flowers Made Our World", both by David George Haskell
Led by Jennifer Jewell
via Zoom 3 pm Pacific/ 6 pm eastern
SEPTEMBER 25 - 27
Cultivating Place Foundation & Botany & CO present:
INAUGURAL CULTIVATING PLACE SYMPOSIUM: SOUTH BEND, IN
FRIDAY: Full day of Lectures on People, Plants, & Places + evening reception w/ CP TEAM
SATURDAY: Place Based Garden tours and Experience
MORE INFO AND REGISTRATION OPEN to public August 1, 2026
OCTOBER 15 - 17, 2026
AMERICAN HORTICULTURAL THERAPY ASSOCIATION CONFERENCE
Jennifer Jewell Keynote speaker + Panel Moderator
PLUS SNEAK PEEK Pre-screening of The Power of Gardeners Film Series on PBS stations (April 2027)
More 2026 events here: GATHER
Night Sky from my smart phone while on a two-day bumble bee survey filed trip with John early this week. Scorpius rising over central horizon.
CULTIVATING PLACE FOUNDATION
Email not displaying correctly?
Comments