Jennifer Jewell. (Photo courtesy Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens)
This year, Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens will present the thirteenth annual Ina and Lewis Heafitz Endowed Lecture Series, from 4-5:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 31.
The free lecture, “Invitations from and to the Garden: Cultivating a Garden Culture of Care,” will feature Jennifer Jewell, creator, author, speaker, podcast host, and gardener.
In her presentation, Jewell will discuss the philosophy of “Cultivating Place,” her National Public Radio program and international podcast. Her podcast is a voice for gardeners and nature-lovers and operates from the belief that gardens and gardeners are potentially powerful agents and spaces for positive change in the world, helping to address challenges as wide-ranging as climate change, habitat loss, cultural polarization, and individual and communal health and well-being.
Jewell is the author of “The Earth in Her Hands: 75 Extraordinary Women Working in the World of Plants,” “Under Western Skies: Visionary Gardens from the Rockies to the Pacific Coast,” and, forthcoming from Timber Press in September 2023, “What We Sow: On the Personal, Ecological, and Cultural Significance of Seeds.”
Jewell’s greatest passion is elevating the way individuals think and talk about gardening, the empowerment of gardeners, and the possibility inherent in the intersection between places, environments, cultures, individuals, and the gardens that bring people together for the better of all lives on this planet. This year, the American Horticultural Society honored her with the B.Y. Morrison Award for outstanding effective and inspirational horticultural communication.
At this year’s Heafitz lecture, Jewell will explore how the power of gardens and gardeners can be viewed through a lens of invitation—both the invitations people recognize and accept from their gardens in their roles as gardeners and those extended to the greater world through gardening practices.
Jewell will walk attendees through examples of these very invitations using interviews from “Cultivating Place” and selections from her books. Together, these resources, inspirations, and invitations are blueprints for creating a better and more beautiful world.
Free to the public, the event is scheduled in person at the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens, 105 Botanical Gardens Drive, Boothbay. Following the event, registration will open for access to an online recording of the program. Those interested in attending can register online at shop.mainegardens.org or by calling 633-8000.
At nearly 325 acres, Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens is the largest public garden in New England. The nationally recognized public garden features two miles of hiking trails, 19 acres of ornamental and themed gardens, a children’s garden, a sensory garden, and so much more. The mission of the gardens is to inspire meaningful connections among people, plants, and nature through horticulture, education, and research. To learn more, go to mainegardens.org.
