About the Documentary Series

Jennifer Jewell is the creator and host of Cultivating Place, an award-winning public radio program and podcast. Her work began with a clear observation: the word gardener has too often been misunderstood. Society has narrowed its meaning, treating gardeners as hobbyists, laborers, or people working at the margins of society rather than at its center.

After 20 years of being in conversation with gardeners around the world, Jennifer came to a profound realization: Gardeners are a keystone species. In architecture, the keystone is the central stone at the top of an arch, the element that gives the structure its stability; remove it, and the arch loses integrity and collapses.

Time and time again, Jennifer saw how Gardeners, in much the same way, play a structural role in our communities. When they are absent, the integrity of neighborhoods and ecosystems begins to falter; when they are supported, the systems around them hold, strengthen, and endure. Her life’s work has been to make this often-unseen reality visible: to show that the well-being of people and places depends deeply on those who tend them.

Gardening, the act of caring for plants, is simultaneously a powerful act of growing, nourishing, and sustaining communities, relationships, cultures, histories, and our natural world. When practiced with intention and humility, this tending becomes an incredible force of restoration.

Bringing viewers directly into Gardeners' cultivated places, this documentary series makes this force visible. Through this immersion, we come to understand the value and potential of Gardeners and Gardening more completely.

Seeds of the Series

Leslie Bennett - Pine House Edible Gardens

Ben Futa - Botany & Co.

Sandy Fisher & Durl Van Alstyne - Golden State Linen

Filming with Kristyn Leach: Gohyang Fields – Sebastopol

At Gohyang Fields in Sebastopol, California, we gathered to film with Kristyn Leach and were lucky to meet Lani Chan and Scott Chang-Fleeman along the way. An unexpected, meaningful moment in the making of this series.

Field Notes
https://jenniferjewell.substack.com/p/thinking-out-loud-behind-the-lens

Filming with Lorena Gorbet:
Tásmam Koyóm – Mountain Maidu

At Tásmam Koyóm in Northern California, we were honored to spend the day with Lorena Gorbet, elder of the Mountain Maidu. She generously welcomed us onto lands recently returned to Indigenous care, guiding us across the landscape and sharing the work her community is tending there today. We left deeply grateful for her time, wisdom, and the powerful glimpse she offered into the enduring relationship between culture, land, and stewardship.

Filming with Leslie Bennett: Black Sanctuary Gardens – Oakland

In Oakland, California, we sat with Fredrika Newton in her deeply personal garden, part of Leslie Bennett’s Black Sanctuary Gardens Project. She reflected on how this space sustains her with grounding, peace, and courage as she continues a lifetime of social justice work.

Filming with Karen Kahle:
Civic Garden Center – Cincinnati, Ohio

At the Civic Garden Center in Cincinnati, Ohio, we filmed a live conversation with Karen Kahle, Director of the Civic Garden Center. Speaking before an audience, she reflected on how this long-standing community garden cultivates education, access, and shared responsibility. We are grateful for her leadership and for the generous window she offered into gardening as an act of civic care.

Filming with Sandy Fisher: Golden State Linen – Chico

In Chico, California, we met with Sandy Fisher at her farm, Golden State Linen. She spoke about the turning point that inspired her to grow her own flax and reimagine what responsible textile work could be.