EASTHAMPTON – The second annual Easthampton Garden Tour will be happening on June 27 from 1 to 4 p.m.

According to the Easthampton Garden Tour Facebook page, the tour is an opportunity for gardeners throughout the city to showcase their “fun, function or fancy of [the] garden with other gardeners and garden appreciators.”

Bex Zumbruski, an organizer of the event, told Reminder Publishing that there is a group in Easthampton called “Feasthampton” that decided to put together a garden tour that was different from a typical garden tour in 2019. According to their website, Feasthampton is an organization dedicated to encouraging community-wide projects directed toward local food security and resiliency.

“It wasn’t going to be showcase gardens – it could be vegetable gardens, it could be an orchard, it could be whatever people are doing,” said Zumbruski, when describing how the organization wanted to approach this tour.

According to Zumbruski, the gardens being showcased can be in different stages of their growing process. “The garden doesn’t have to be at its end stage, it’s more about building community,” she said. “We are looking for a way to reach out and connect with other people who are interested in gardening in Easthampton.”

For the 2021 event, Zumbruski said that there will be at least four gardens on the tour, and the organizers may up the number to five or six.

The tour, which was also organized by Charlotte Briggs and Ben Lesko, will have a timed structure. Participants will be able to see each garden in 30-minute intervals. After visiting one host, the participants will have some time to travel to the next garden.

“We actually have a schedule,” said Zumbruski. “Everyone moves together, and that way the people who are hosting the gardens can also go to the other people’s gardens, as well.”

So far, there are 20 people listed as going to this event with 116 still interested in attending. Fifteen to 20 people attended the 2019 tour, according to Zumbruski.

One type of garden featured in this year’s tour is a hydroponic garden, while another garden is focused on native plants. A third garden is more like a homesteading farm that features ducks.

Due to COVID-19, the organizers have done most of their planning for this event in a virtual manner. In the description of the Easthampton Garden Tour Facebook page, there is a Google doc link attached where people can sign up for the tour. Participants are encouraged to contact a host directly with any inquiries, as well.

“We’ve had a couple people fill out the Google form,” said Zumbruski. “A few of them were not able to do the June 27 event, but will be interested in hosting for a future event.”

According to Zumbruski, if there are enough people interesting in hosting and being on the tour, then the organizers are thinking of having a second version of the garden tour later in the year.

Zumbruski said that she was a garden host during the 2019 tour and described her experience as “amazing” since she was able to meet up with other likeminded individuals. “It was really great to meet up with folks in Easthampton…and it really just built this community,” said Zumbruski. “It was a way of sharing resources, which I think is very powerful, especially in your own community.”

To sign up for the tour, residents can visit the Easthampton Garden Tour Facebook page at www.facebook.com/events/983946429077094/. Each host will give a brief introduction about their garden when each group arrives at their garden.