This week guest host Ben Futa is joined by John Kish, owner of Somewhere That’s Green, an indoor plant shop, and The Greenhouse Cabaret, the plant shop's performance and community space, all in the desert town of Bend, Oregon.
John is not only the founder and owner of the shop and cabaret, but also its beloved resident drag queen going by the name of "Fertile Liza."
In Ben and John's conversation, we learn how John's life-long love for plants, art, and expression has combined to create a space and a community like no other.
John is not only a lifelong plant lover, business owner, drag artist, and theatre director, but also a dynamic and compassionate community leader and business owner who is actively working to both cultivate a community he’s proud to live while also creating opportunities for others to thrive, embodying a new business mindset that perhaps has more in common with ecology than capitalism.
Note from Ben:
"I have a confession to make – anytime I hear someone describe a business like Somewhere that’s Green as a “small business” I often feel compelled to offer a gentle redirection.
A few years ago, a fellow business owner in our own neighborhood referred to her corner bookshop as “local and independent” rather than “small.” In that moment, something clicked in my brain, and I was reminded yet again how important and impactful it is to choose our words with care.
Nothing about what John and Somewhere That’s Green does is small, and while I’m sure there are some listening who may feel that identifying as a “small business” is a badge of honor and pride, in my own experience, I more often hear it used as an excuse.
I really, really wish we could turn this around and begin to own our collective potential. I don’t know about you, but I get far more excited about identifying as local and independent than I do as “small.”
What John and so many other local and independent business owners I know have done and are doing, is to build the spaces they wished existed in their own communities. These businesses give their neighbors one more reason to be proud to call their place, home, and for us business owners, it is our greatest joy to share these spaces with you.
I doubt the same can be said for a big box store or mega online retailer. On the cusp of the holiday shopping season, I implore you and encourage you to intentionally choose to support the local and independent businesses in your communities, now and always.
Here’s the thing – shops like ours will likely never be able to compete when it
comes to convenience and cost – but we can offer you something a big box store never will. Community.
The choice is ultimately yours, and I my sincere hope is that as fellow plant lovers – you’ll also recognize, as we do, the power and importance and necessity of cultivating the ecosystems of our human communities, just as we do the plant communities in our own gardens. - Ben Futa, Botany
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And on Instagram:
All photos courtesy of John Kish, Somewhere That’s Green.
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JOIN US again next week, When Jennifer will be back and in conversation with
The New Perennialist, Tony Spencer, a Canadian writer, digital creator and planting designer recognized and published internationally in the world of naturalistic garden design. Known for his award-winning blog, he also hosts The New Perennialist Talks, a webinar series featuring influential design innovators in the genre. That's right here, next week.
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Thinking out loud this week...
Hey it’s Ben –
As we continue our conversation with John, I hope you’ll notice how he continues to describe the many, many hats he wears as a business owner, community leader, drag artist, and theater director.
I also find that I similarly identify with his love of doing many things, but also cultivating and nurturing new ideas. In my own experience, I’ve found this to be both a source of joy and fulfillment, but also a necessity because owning a business will throw you any number of curve balls and surprises on a daily basis. Learning to dance is critical, as is editing and refining the ideas and possibilities that lay before us. As a dear friend once shared me: we can do anything, just not everything.
This same pattern is reflected in my own approach to gardening, too, and I think I’m most excited at the very start of a garden-making process. There’s so much hope and potential in a bare patch of soil. As I choose plants and consider their placement, I’m most excited by envisioning what could or will be based on the choices I make today. How will this tiny herbaceous perennial plug that I’m planting now, become a substantial, anchored perennial two years from now? How will it grow? How will it change? How will it adapt?
I find the best moments in my garden making to be the happy accidents – the relationships and combinations I never expected and definitely didn’t plan for. They remind me that surprises don’t always have to be just about anxiety and worry – they can also be joyful and fun, too.
As our conversation goes on, John and I continue talking about surprises adaptations, growth, and life in the retail plant world before and after the pandemic, and how plants have been and always will be, purposeful.
As we near the end of our conversation, we really dive in to talking about the community he’s working so hard to cultivate in and around the plant shop and theater.
He’ll make a comment about the ironic loneliness and exhaustion and apparent imbalance of building and creating community spaces, and this really hit home for me, too. In my own life, lately, it’s felt like I’ve been pouring in way more than is sustainable, and I’ve been going through a period of “letting go to make way for what’s next” – which is a little on the nose given the autumn season.
As I continue to interpret the experience of owning a business through the lessons learned while gardening, it’s always those first few years where a new garden needs the most attention.
The plants are still rooting in and finding their spaces, maybe something didn’t work quite the way you thought it would and you had to make a change.
I also know that once a new garden becomes established, it’s far more resilient, balanced, and diverse.
As I compare this process of garden-making with that of local, independent businesses, I wonder how we feel about the idea of gardening extending to more than just plants – what about becoming a gardener of community?
Is our definition and application of the term “gardener” overdue for an expansion as well?
Folks like John and places like Somewhere That’s Green, or Amanda Thomsen and Aster Gardens from last month’s episode, appear to be doing just that.
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Cultivating Place is a co-production of North State Public Radio, a service of Cap Radio, licensed to Chico State Enterprises. Cultivating place is made possible in part listeners just like you through the support button at the top right-hand corner of every page at Cultivating Place.com.
The CP team includes producer and engineer Matt Fidler, with weekly tech and web support from Angel Huracha, weekly communications support by Sheila Stern and Carley Bruckner, transcripts by Doulos Transcription, and regular guest hosting by Abra Lee and Ben Futa. We’re based on the traditional and present homelands of the Mechoopda Indian Tribe of the Chico Rancheria. Original theme music is by Ma Muse, accompanied by Joe Craven and Sam Bevan.
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