YES/AND: PRACTICING THE ART OF BECOMING A CULTIVATOR OF PLACE, JOHN HART ASHER
- Jennifer Jewell
- 20 hours ago
- 6 min read
“Ecological restoration is no longer a nicety, it’s a necessity,” proclaims the Blackland Collaborative, a group working to help make cities more biodiverse and inclusive, and to help heal human communities while restoring vulnerable species. Bridging science and design, the Collaborative "brings people and nature home"; and they believe in"humans’ capacity to improve and protect". John Hart Asher is a co-founder and senior environmental designer with the Blackland Collaborative. And he understands cultivating place well as a process of constantly practicing the art of becoming a cultivator.
As we continue this month’s focus on ecological horticulture as it is practiced right now across the country, we welcome John Hart to the program this week. His work is currently featured in two new ecological-minded books: "The Gardens of Texas", by Pam Penick, and Gardenista’s delicious and catalyzing newest title, "The Low Impact Garden", by Kendra Wilson, photographed by Caitlin Atkinson.
John Hart has over 13 years of experience designing and building functional ecosystems within urban conditions. He has conducted basic research in ecological engineering, ecological restoration, and land management. His work includes: tall grass prairie restoration in an urban riparian corridor, the George W. Bush Presidential Center’s Laura W. Bush Native Texas Park, native prairie green roof design, residential pocket prairies, sustainable roadsides, and green infrastructure. Since 2019, John Hart has also served as a host of the PBS program Central Texas Gardener – and yes, he’s got a pocket prairie in his garden!
John Hart, after having the good fortune of meeting you up on a roof as you were installing one of your famous green roofs in Austin a couple of years back while I was in town speaking for Pam Penick’s Garden Spark series, I am stoked to welcome you to Cultivating Place!
Follow John & Blackland Collaborative online:
and on Instagram:
All photos used courtesy of John Hart Asher, Blackland Collaborative, Pam Penick, and Kenny Braun. All rights reserved
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Thinking out loud this week...
Hey, it's Jennifer—
I know you heard it too, but just to confirm this IS the quote going into my 100-day journal today:
“Cultivating Place well is a focus on all the parts, it is species-wide, it largely tries to remove the self. It is practicing the art of becoming. Cultivating Place well is something you grow into…”
Thank you John Hart and Blackland Collaborative for offering me one meaningful directional as both Cultivating Place and I journey into our next decades.
The other thoughts from John Hart that I will hold – and keep replaying for us
all are these: If you do just one thing really really well, so many other
beneficial things will also be germinated.
AND: if you want to practice land or ecosystem restoration, you have to get
involved. Gardening, Cultivating, they are active verbs, they are prayers, they
are commitments. Commit to them with your whole heart, your highest mind,
and both hands, my friends.
IN Public Growing announcements this week: we are having an amazing time
over in the #CP100daysinplace project – there are now about 75 of us taking
part officially and the thoughts, the notes, the sketches, and poetry coming together is such a perfect reminder of why I am here, why I love to garden,
and why I love plantspeople. You can check out some of the participant’s
entries either on Substack, or in the #cp100days highlight reel on Instagram.
Feel free to join us anytime. We will be meeting up for a group check in on
Zoom on Wednesday the 19th of November, Thursday December 4th , and
Thursday December 18th as well.
Something about November – am I right? – the waning of daylight, the
early morning and late day luminosity – and chill that brings on this
seasonal longing. November arrives and my head and hands turn to
holiday greens: little bundles wreaths large and small for doors, for
windows, for tabletops, and garlands! Garlands for mantlepiece and stair
banister garlands.
This ancient and modern tradition is of course yet another opportunity to
care for our places, to deepen our knowledge of and relationship to place
as we prune, plant, plan. Another opportunity to celebrate our native
plants, and their seasonal rhythms, and to re-weave their lives and ours
back together. A celebration of their winter ways from greens to cones,
other seed heads, and stems.
Do you have winter green tradition? Do you use native plants? I’d love
to hear and to share forward winter greening community activities in
your place.
I am helping out in support of Gateway Science Museum and the Ahart
Herbarium, both on the campus of CSU Chico with two wreathing and
green celebrations Dec 6 and 7th .
Ben is definitely holding greenery events over at Botany in Southbend,
their holiday markets start on November 22nd and wreath making events
start Dec 5th and run through December 17th , culminating in their winter
solstice event Luminous in the Lot on Dec 21.
And Abra’s community at the Historic Oakland Cemetery in Atlanta has
multiple holiday markets, wreath sales running from Nov 3 – Dec 1st,
and a wreath making gathering on Tuesday December 4th , with a holiday
spirit tree lighting on Dec 5th & 6th – all of which allow you to see the
cemetery gardens decked out in their winter green finery.
AND speaking of Luminous - as we begin to tend toward that sacred
longest night and the coming shortest days, please join CP in
Community for our next CP COMMUNING on Tuesday December 16th, as we consider our intentions for the coming Winter Solstice on Sunday
the 21st. A great time to reground and center the meaning and manifestation of your cultivation of place in community. Registration is free and now open!
Hope to commune together with you in this season. Bring a recommended book, and maybe some examples of your winter greening?
So grateful to be here with all of you.
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