Episode 785: “Cultivating Place’s” Jennifer Jewell on the Power of Gardeners

https://youtu.be/Gq3hs8tc8Wo?si=64jB7EX2_EMdo-a8

Jennifer Jewell’s long-running public radio show "Cultivating Place" asks: “Is cultivating place well the ability to feed your family better? Is it the ability to have a say in how our climate and our environment is cared for, starting right in our own backyards? Is it, in part, the tending to your household or community economy in a healthy and sane manner? Is it carrying the culture of your ancestors forward into the future or perhaps even rewriting the culture as you found it into the one you would like to tend and grow?”She continues, “Cultivating your place might even just be a matter of putting beautiful flowers on your bedside table every week you can, or having the gift of a public park or greenspace near enough that you can walk there, sit in the sun, or greet the trees and other neighbors there...”Jennifer is a Slow Flowers member who has joined us in advocating and supporting for domestic floral agriculture, local and seasonal flower growing and sourcing, and sustainable floral design practices that honor the land, the people connected to that land, and their communities. Today, she joins me to share news of the first, live, Cultivating Place symposium, taking place in South Bend, Indiana, later this month. It is called “The Power of Gardeners,” which is also the title of the new, 10-part Cultivating Place documentary series set to debut on PBS nationwide next spring. I’m delighted to catch up with Jennifer and you’re invited to listen in!

I’m thrilled to welcome Jennifer Jewell as a return guest to the Slow Flowers Podcast, as she updates us about all that’s happening in the Cultivating Place community.

Jennifer is the founder and host of Cultivating Place, a national award-winning weekly public radio program and podcast that debuted in 2016. The show evolved from Jennifer’s first public radio program, “In A North State Garden,” which aired on North State Public Radio in Northern California from 2008 to 2015. Her current one-hour, interview-based program, “Cultivating Place: Conversations on Natural History and the Human Impulse to Garden,” is co-produced by North State Public Radio and focuses on the culture of gardening around the world. Cultivating Place is syndicated on NPR affiliate radio stations across California and in Ohio and available as individual episodes to public radio stations on Public Radio Exchange (PRX).

The Power of Gardeners speaker lineup:

Top row: Abra Lee (left) and