What was the last book reading you went to like? Chances are palm-sized flower blossoms didn’t decorate the locale; querulous roosters and industrious honeybees didn’t accompany the author; a wood-fire pizza oven didn’t waft the sweet smell of roasting heirloom tomatoes and caramelized red onions over picnickers on blankets.

But the unconventionally wild essays from Amy Leach’s new book Things That Are demand an equally unconventional venue. So when she came to Minnesota, Amy read at Two Pony Gardens, a dahlia farm outside of the city limits. For those of you who couldn’t make the event, we took video of the gardens and recorded Amy reading “Love-Lies-Bleeding,” an essay-within-an-essay from Things That Are. Watch the video below.