Daily Archives: July 5, 2021

The 12th Annual Nantucket Garden Festival highlights the unique and beautiful garden ecosystems on Nantucket and focuses on the importance of sustainability, conservation and gardening ethics for the long-term health of the island. Scheduled for July 13th-15th, the festival celebrates gardening through creative in-person and virtual lectures and workshops, exquisite garden tours, and children’s activities.

NGF21 Presenters include Keynote Presenter Stephen Orr. Stephen Orr is the Editor-In-Chief of Better Homes and Gardens and Author of The New American Herbal and Tomorrow’s Garden. Orr will be joining us to explore the versatility of herbs in all their beauty and variety.

Orr has been a regularly featured gardening expert on “The CBS Early Show,” “The Martha Stewart Show,” and “The Today Show.” In addition he was a segment producer for the PBS television series “Cultivating Life” and edited two cookbooks by British author Sarah Raven for Rizzoli.

Orr is a featured speaker across the country for organizations such as The Garden Conservancy, The Garden Club of America, the Garden Writers Association, and a variety of national programs.

Also presenting will by Craig LeHoullier. Craig lives and gardens in Raleigh, North Carolina. A Rhode Island native, he caught the gardening passion from his grandfather, Walter, and dad, Wilfred. Craig achieved his PhD in chemistry at Dartmouth College, which resulted in a 25 year career in pharmaceuticals that ended in 2008.

Craig’s gardening obsession, which started the year he and Susan were married (and their first garden, in 1981), is passing through several stages. His love of heirloom tomatoes began with his joining the Seed Savers Exchange, an organization for which he continues to serve as adviser for tomatoes, in 1986. He is responsible for naming and popularizing many well known tomatoes, such as Cherokee Purple.

In 2005 he added amateur tomato breeding to his garden resume, and continues to co-lead the Dwarf Tomato Breeding project, responsible for creating 90 (and counting) new compact growing varieties for space-challenged gardeners. His writing career kicked off with a 2012 request from Storey Publishing to write a book on tomatoes, resulting in Epic Tomatoes (2015). His second book, Growing Vegetables in Straw Bales, soon followed (2016).

Craig is a popular lecturer across the country at major gardening events, as well as a frequent guest on podcasts and radio shows. His upcoming projects include a third book, which will focus upon the story of the Dwarf Tomato Breeding Project, and a webinar series & online courses in which he will share his gardening knowledge.

The star quality continues with Peggy Cornett. Peggy is the Historic Gardener and Curator of Plants at Monticello and received the SGHS Flora Ann Bynum Medal for exemplary service in the garden history field and the Garden Club of America’s Zone VII Horticultural Commendation for Horticultural Expertise.

In addition to managing the historic plant collection, Cornett oversees educational programs at Monticello including the Garden and Grounds tour and the Garden Tasting Tours as well as natural history walks, lectures, and horticultural workshops throughout the year. She is the co-director of the Historic Landscape Institute, a unique one-week educational experience in the theory and practice of historic landscape hosted at Monticello.

Cornett also shares her knowledge in horticulture as a frequent guest on NPR and PBS. She also writes articles and lectures nationwide on vegetable gardens and historic plants.

Another Keynote Presenter, Christin Geall, is a Canadian floral designer, writer, gardener, photographer, and author of the book Cultivated: Elements of Floral Style (Princeton Architectural Press, 2020). Trained in horticultural at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, she completed a BA in Environmental Studies & Anthropology and a MFA in nonfiction before becoming a gardening columnist for Gardenista, a professor, and designer. Through her company, Cultivated, she teaches floral design in the UK, US, and Canada. Her writing and floral work focuses on the intersections of nature, culture, and horticulture.

Lastly, Jennifer Jewell, the creator/host of Cultivating Place, an award-winning public radio program & podcast on natural history and the human impulse to garden, will round out the speakers list. Her first book, The Earth In Her Hands, 75 Extraordinary Women Working in the World of Plants, centering on women transforming horticulture around the world, is published by Timber Press.

Jewell’s writing and photography have been featured in publications including Gardens Illustrated, House & Garden, and Pacific Horticulture. From 2008 – 2016 Jewell created, wrote and hosted the weekly, regionally-focused In a North State Garden on North State Public Radio. From 2010 -2017 she 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. 

Registration is now open at https://www.ackgardenfestival.org/ You may also sign up for garden tours, fairy garden workshops, tea parties, and book signings. The Nantucket Lighthouse School is the beneficiary of all NGF events.