Cross Quarter Club: July Garden Walk

This summer, we’ve started something new for Cross Quarter Club: Garden Walks at Little Farm Flowers East. This event series was dreamed up in collaboration with Sharon deBeaumont, who has taken her ordinary 1/3 acre lot in New Freedom, PA, and transformed it into a bountiful urban micro flower farm.

Garden Walks are self-guided and meditative; an invitation to engage with the gardens in a way that’s more immersive than a typical garden tour. A sensory scavenger hunt encourages you to look, touch, smell, taste and listen as you meander through the circular paths of the gardens. Afterwords, enjoy light refreshments and a casual gardening Q&A session with co-hosts, Sharon and Stevie.

Our first one was held this past Friday and, despite some unexpected severe weather just before our start time, it turned out to be such a lovely, relaxing evening! Read on the for full event recap.

A sudden summer thunderstorm took us by surprise as we were setting up, but thankfully we were able to quickly move the food and flowers into Sharon’s lovely greenhouse and by the time everyone arrived the sky had cleared. We started off in circled chairs in the backyard with a brief welcome and introductions then took turns exploring the meandering circular path of the gardens. It was sprinkling rain on and off, but we decided to embrace it and I’m so glad we did.

Sharon had placed little signs all around the garden encouraging us to pause and look, touch, smell, taste, and listen to certain plants around the garden. (They were a bit worse for wear after the rain, but thankfully still legible!) We staggered our individual walks about 4-5 minutes apart so we each had the space and time to move through the garden slowly. It was a very grounding and meditative experience!

A few more highlights from my turn walking the gardens:

As the sun set, we finished our self-guided tours we filtered back into the greenhouse where there were twinkling lights, tasty snacks, and a relaxed gardening Q&A session. Sharon answered questions about her flower farm and we all shared our experience, covering topics ranging from plant identification to seed saving, container gardening, and eco-friendly methods for pest control.

For me, it was such a cozy, grounding, and rejuvenating evening - I hope everyone else who attended felt the same! I am so looking forward to returning to Little Farm Flowers East with Cross Quarter Club through the seasons. Learn more about Cross Quarter Club and see our upcoming events, here!