This week on Cultivating Place, Host Ben Futa is in conversation with Rebecca McMackin, a dedicated public servant working in the context of ecological horticulture.

Rebecca is on a mission to empower more people to grow more plants in more places while cultivating empathy, compassion, and advocacy for the natural world. We last heard from Rebecca here on CP in 2021, and a lot has happened in her growing life since then!

Rebecca is an ecologically obsessed horticulturist and garden designer. She lives in the woods of Connecticut, writing, lecturing, and designing gardens. She is a public servant, dedicated to bringing beauty and biodiversity to all corners of our cities. Her TED Talk has been viewed more than a million times.

She has a widely read monthly Full Moon Newsletter, "Grow Like Wild," sharing forward ecological horticulture research around the world, general horticultural dismay, and growing “gossip,” as she likes to say, all of which you can subscribe to on Substack as writing and, now, a podcast version as well. 

Prior to all this, Rebecca spent a decade as Director of Horticulture of Brooklyn Bridge Park, where she managed 85 acres of diverse parkland organically and with an eye towards habitat creation for birds, butterflies, and soil microorganisms. Their research into cultivating urban biodiversity and ethical management strategies has influenced thousands of people and entire urban park systems to adopt similar approaches. Enjoy!

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The show is available as a podcast on SoundCloud and iTunes. To read more and for many more photos, please visit www.cultivatingplace.com.