I'm Jennifer - the creator, writer and host of Cultivating Place: Conversations on Natural History and the Human Impulse to Garden, airing on North State Public Radio (KCHO/KFPR, mynspr.org) every Thursday at 10 am. The podcast goes live at the same time each week and is distributed nationally by PRX, Public Radio Exchange, as well as syndicated on stations around California, and on Cincinnati Public Radio, in Cincinnati, Ohio.

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Cultivating Place and I were winners of the 2017 Gold Award for Best Overall Broadcast Media, and Best On-Air Talent from the Garden Writers of America (now GardenComm), and the 2018 Best On-Air Talent from the same. The podcast is downloaded around the world more than 1 million times annually.

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I am the author of The Earth in Her Hands, 75 Extraordinary Women Working in the World of Plants (Timber Press in 2020), winner of The Council on Botanical & Horticultural Libraries 2021 Award of Excellence in Biography, and co-creator with photographer Caitlin Atkinson of Under Western Skies, Visionary Gardens from the Rockies to the Pacific Coast (Timber Press, May 2021), an Amazon best-seller, and winner of a 2021 Golden Poppy winner for the Glenn Goldman award from the California Alliance of Independent Booksellers. The members of CALIBA present The Golden Poppy Book Awards to recognize the most distinguished books written by writers and artists who make California their home.

In September of  2023, my third book, What We Sow: On the Personal, Ecological, and Cultural Significance of Seeds, will also be published by Timber Press. 

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In 2023,  the American Horticultural Society honored me with one of their annual  "Great American Gardener Awards"—the B. Y Morrison Award for outstanding “effective and inspirational” horticultural communication. I’m humbled to join the ranks of the likes of J.C. Raulston, Kathleen Brenzel, Rosalind Creasy, Tom Fischer, Doug Tallamy, and Perla Sofia Curbelo-Santiago in receiving this award. 

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As an interviewer, a writer, and a regular keynote speaker at national gardening conferences and events, my greatest passion is elevating the way we think and talk about the culture of gardening, the empowerment of gardeners, and the possibility inherent in the intersection between places, environments, cultures, individuals, and the gardens that bring them together beautifully – for the better of all the lives on this generous planet.

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I learned to how and why to garden, and the spiritual philosophy of compost from my mother, Sheila Balding Jewell - who died in 1997. I learned to love the great outdoors and the diversity and interconnectedness of all life from my wildlife biologist father, Samuel Rea Jewell. I learned to marry these two critical elements of my formative years through my life thus far - traveling the world, reading, gardening and hiking wherever I was, and reaching out to and being inspired by the generous, smart, plant and garden people in every place I've called home. I learned some good stuff in college, too (I received my bachelor of liberal arts degree from Harvard University). After college, I went to work as an arts and literature editor and writer in Seattle, WA for Microsoft's Encarta encyclopedia. I tried unsuccessfully to convince them to add in-depth articles for every major garden around the world, so, I turned my focus to writing, speaking, and advocating for the importance of gardens/gardening/gardeners in our world. 

My writing and photography have been featured in publications including Gardens Illustrated, House & Garden, and Pacific Horticulture. From 2008 - 2016 I created, wrote and hosted the weekly, regionally-focused In a North State Garden on North State Public Radio. From 2010 -2017 I worked as the curatorial assistant to the director and the curator of the native plant garden at Gateway Science Museum on the campus of CSU, Chico in Chico, CA, which was a delight. 

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I believe in the power of mission-driven, non-profits, and I have happily served on the board of the Pacific Horticulture Society and am a long-time member of other national and regional gardening organizations, in the California Native Plant Society, American Horticultural Society, and Garden Communicators International.

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I enjoy the dry summers, cool (with luck) damp winters and enormous diversity of native plants in interior Northern California with my partner, plantsman John Whittlesey. I have two smart, funny, lovely and lively daughters who remind me that it's time to come in from the garden for dinner and bed. They've been cutting flowers, helping with compost, and tending to creatures in gardens since before they could walk and they still seem to love the power of mother nature, the garden, and me. So that's good.

I consider myself supremely lucky to do what I do, in the company of the plants, their animals, and their people.