Please note that all March events are canceled or postponed. We will update you about rescheduling and further cancellations as soon as we know more

 

The White Hart Speaker Series is presented in collaboration with The White Hart Inn, Scoville Memorial Library and Oblong Books & Music

The Earth in Her Hands is a beautiful and empowering book by Jennifer Jewell—host of public radio’s award-winning program and podcast Cultivating Place—that introduces us to 75 extraordinary women working in the world of plants, including co-presenters this evening, Margaret Roach & Marta McDowell.

Working in wide-reaching fields that include botany, floral design, landscape architecture, farming, herbalism, and food justice, these influencers are creating change from the ground up. Profiled women include flower farmer Erin Benzakein; co director of Soul Fire Farm Leah Penniman; plantswoman Flora Grubb; edible and cultural landscape designer Leslie Bennett; Caribbean-American writer and gardener Jamaica Kincaid; soil scientist Elaine Ingham; landscape designer Ariella Chezar; floral designer Amy Merrick, and many more. Rich with personal stories and insights, Jewell’s portraits reveal a devotion that transcends age, locale, and background, reminding us of the profound role of green growing things in our world—and our lives.

Jennifer Jewell is a gardener, garden writer, and gardening educator and advocate. Since 2016, she has written and hosted the national award-winning, weekly public radio program and podcast, Cultivating Place. She is particularly interested in the intersections between gardens, the native plant environments around them, and human culture. Jennifer has been writing about gardening professionally since 1998, and her work has appeared in Gardens Illustrated, House & Garden, Natural Home, Old House Journal, Colorado Homes & Lifestyles, and Pacific Horticulture.

Margaret Roach’s approach to gardening is a unique blend of what she calls “horticultural how-to and woo-woo.” In her latest book “A Way to Garden”, she shares decades of knowledge on ornamental plants, vegetable growing, design, organic practices, and much more. She is the author of “And I Shall Have Some Peace There”, and “The Backyard Parables”.

Marta McDowell teaches landscape history and horticulture at the New York Botanical Garden. Her latest book is Emily Dickinson’s “Gardening Life”. She is the 2019 recipient of the Garden Club of America’s Sarah Chapman Francis Medal for outstanding literary achievement. She likes to read, knit, and garden.

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