Gay in The Garden

Gratitude & Grounding

Join us for a free hour on caring for yourself as autumn turns to winter. You’ll start with an introduction to how this cell-signaling network helps the body hold its internal balance.

Next, you’ll smell dried flowers and herbs like lavender, calendula, and rosemary. You’ll learn their traditional uses and how carrier bases such as jojoba work. Then you’ll choose one or two botanicals and blend a personal body oil to take home. We’ll close with a reflection on rest, gratitude, and grounding for the colder months.

This event is part of Gay in the Garden. Gay in the Garden invites queer community members to gather for creative, healing, and joyful exploration. In this series, participants will engage in collective tending, harvesting, garden care, and art-making. This space is for queer folks and allies to show up authentically in the garden. Together, we’ll explore how queerness and ecology intersect through resilience and beauty. From learning queer plant histories to honoring our desires and wisdom, this is a space to grow and root into belonging.

FACILITATOR

Sharron Cannon is a horticultural wellness educator, curriculum developer, and former film and television executive whose work bridges plant wisdom, cultural storytelling, and community healing. She created the Food as Medicine curriculum to help people reconnect with the relationship between food, herbs, and well-being through accessible, hands-on learning experiences. Rooted in generations of traditional knowledge and a deep commitment to collective care, she believes gardens are spaces where health, creativity, and community can flourish.

ACCESSIBILITY

The kitchen/classroom is wheelchair accessible; with advance notice we can add a mat path across the greenhouse’s pebbled ground (garden entrance has a small raised threshold; garden paths are grass).
Tables adjust height; backless benches/stools available.
Kitchen is shared—we avoid peanuts but can’t guarantee a nut-free space; water provided in refillable pitchers.
First aid on-site; nearest AED is one building away.
Nearest restrooms are ~1 min walk; a gender-neutral restroom is available by key from staff.
Not a scent-free space (essential oils used in class), though we ventilate and welcome masking/distancing.
Other access needs? Contact programs@thehort.org.
All Greenhouse Education Center events happen rain or shine