Cultivating Place: The Power of Gardeners-South Bend, IN

What does Cultivating Place well mean to you? As a gardener, as a human?

We ask this question of our guests nearly every week on the Cultivating Place public radio program and podcast, and now we’re ready to explore it with you in person.

Please join us for our first Cultivating Place: The Power of Gardeners Symposium, this year in South Bend, Indiana, Friday and Saturday, September 25th & 26th.

Together we will explore all that we mean when we say the phrase “cultivating place,” and when we embody the word “Gardener, with a capital G”.

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 culture you would like to tend and grow?

It 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...

🌱 Cultivating Place: The Power of Gardeners Symposium includes a full day of lectures and panels on Friday, September 25, featuring speakers from around the country exploring these exact topics. Abra Lee, Ben Futa, Wambui Ippolito, Chris Fehlhaber, and Jennifer Jewell will grapple with all of these questions and more throughout the day, each from their own experiences and perspectives.

We will round out the day with a panel on the creation of The Power of Gardeners documentary series, with filmmaker and director Myriam Nicodemus, joining our speakers to share more.

Finally, we invite all attendees to join us for a celebratory reception to toast all that being a Gardener can and does mean in our world, as a Cultivating Place community and growing ecosystem.

Morning pastries and beverages, plus a healthy box lunch included in the day.

🌱 Saturday, September 26, we will reconvene first thing in the morning at Ben Futa‘s Botany & Co. shop & Lot Next Door Nursery for a morning of Garden and Green space touring, visiting and hearing more about the background and future of gardens and green spaces contributing to the reconnection of people, plants, pollinators, and purpose of place in South Bend, Indiana. This network of green space grows and improves the ecology, the economy, and the quality of life for South Bend residents and visitors. This green and growing network is intentionally exemplary in modeling the power of gardens and well-designed green spaces to grow our world better in ways seen and unseen, even in the most challenging of conditions. Morning pastries and beverages included.

We will culminate our time together back at the Botany Shop to say farewell until next year! With plenty of seeds for thought on how we return to our own lives and cultivate our own places with ever-increasing care and intention.

SEE YOU THERE! 🌱

Co-Produced by The Cultivating Place Foundation & Botany & Co. LLC, with support from Visit South Bend Mishawaka

September 25 - 26, 2026

Seating limited; Early Bird Registration opens for Cultivating Place Foundation Sustaining supporters on Aug 1st; Open to the Public August 15th.

DATES TO NOTE: 🌱

AUG 1 - SEPT 15:

EARLY BIRD SUSTAINER OPEN: $110

AUG 15 - SEPT 15:

EARLY BIRD NON-SUSTAINER OPEN: $140

SEPT 15 - SEPT 24:

REGULAR PRICE SUSTAINERS $140

REGULAR PRICE NON-SUSTAINERS: $160

VIRTUAL SUSTAINER Fri ONLY $45

VIRTUAL NON-SUSTAINER Fri ONLY $60

FOR MORE INFORMATION ON SPEAKERS AND LOCATION RESOURCES, PLEASE VISIT EVENT WEBSITE