FLEA MARKET APRIL 29, 8AM TO 2PM AT HOLICONG PARK 

The BTCA will be holding a flea market on Sunday, April 29, 2012, with a rain date of May 6th.  Come join your neighbors and search for treasures. The fee is $25 for a generous sized space and we have room for dozens of vendors. Net proceeds will go toward the new Buckingham Community Garden at Holicong Park, which will grow food for local food banks as well as allow residents of Buckingham to lease a garden plot for their own use. 

VENDOR APPLICATION

Non-profit groups are welcome to join us for free. 

 For more information or to volunteer, please contact Leah at 215-345-5355 or by e-mail  to info@buckinghamcivicpa.org. 

At all of these events, we collect non-perishable goods for local food drives.  Hunger knows no season and your generosity is truly appreciated.    

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A Community Garden Will Be Sprouting

in Buckingham in 2012         

          The Buckingham Township Civic Association is pleased to announce that we are in the early stages of establishing a Community Garden. The garden, which will be located in Holicong Park on York Road/Route 263, will provide not only fresh, organic produce but also opportunities to get to know your neighbors and to teach your kids about food and farming. Buckingham residents will be able to rent their own plots, while students from local schools will be given space to raise produce for area food pantries. 

          The idea for a community garden started forming in BTCA President Jan Tompkins’s mind sometime last spring but really took root over the summer. Since then, many people have volunteered their time and knowledge to support this project, including two master gardeners. The Penn State Extension Service helped us analyze the soil.   

          The township is fully supportive of a Buckingham community garden in Holicong Park. The supervisors are generously allowing us use of the land. Township officials have met with us to plan and address concerns, and have expressed excitement about working with us in the future.   

          Our Community Garden subcommittee met with Sandy Shaw of the Sandy Ridge Community Garden at the Doylestown Mennonite Church and Danielle Odhner of the Academy of the New Church (ANC) garden in Bryn Athyn. Both gardens were established within the last year and the coordinators advised us on what works … and what doesn’t. We were particularly inspired by the beautiful fence and the raised beds done without wood frames at ANC and by the Sandy Ridge Community Garden’s donation of over 700 pounds of produce this summer. We will integrate their suggestions for volunteer coordination, scheduling, and planning as we move forward.

          The rectangular plot of our garden is edged by trees and lies between York Road and the Holicong Park Pavilion. Right now, the land slopes and will have to be graded. Scraggly grass mixed with weeds has started growing in where a house once stood. But that is not what we see. As we draft and edit blueprints, we can hardly contain our excitement because we are visualizing the land covered with crops.  

          We expect our garden to be several thousand square feet, with space for dozens of plots in the first year of operation. The beds themselves will be raised, but without wooden frames. The ANC garden had wonderful raised beds that were stationary but still more flexible than traditional raised beds. We hope to build similar beds using thick mulch. 

          Other items incorporated into our plan include birdhouses, houses for Mason Bees (which don’t sting), a deer fence, native plants around the perimeter to attract pollinators, water access from the Holicong Park pavilion, solar-powered lighting, and a tool shed. A lovely pear tree will hopefully shelter picnic tables in the future. 

          As you can see, we have done a lot of dreaming, followed by a lot of coordination and planning, but there is still much to be done. The soil needs improvement—soil in this area is notoriously poor for gardening. Most of all, however, we will need YOUR help. (If only volunteers sprouted like weeds!) We will need your assistance in fundraising, constructing, planting, watering, and harvesting. 

          We are currently seeking people who would like to become part of committees that will organize participants, maintain the garden, coordinate donations, manage events, etc.  If you would like to help, please e-mail us at info@buckinghampacivic.org or leave a message at (215) 345-5355. Also, keep an eye open for news about renting plots come growing season—they are first come, first served.  

          The BTCA board members are proud of this undertaking.  Our organization’s bylaws state that we exist in part to preserve and improve Buckingham Township as an agricultural community and to educate the citizens in both old and advanced methods of horticulture and agriculture. Our garden will surely do all that—and more. This project will help make Buckingham an even better place to live and raise your family. We will work to involve the whole community, including our youth. And, what could be more satisfying than to grow fresh produce with our own hands for hungry neighbors who cannot afford to buy their own? 

          We look forward to working with the Buckingham community as we make this garden a reality.

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THE TRUTH ABOUT NATURAL GAS DRILLING IN PENNSYLVANIA

• Does area wide natural gas drilling (fracking) affect you as a citizen and residence of Buckingham Township? Read  "Debunking the Myth-The Truth About Natural Gas Drilling."  and learn the facts.

 FIRST  BTCA  SCHOLARSHIP AWARD

• On June 2, 2011, the Buckingham Township Civic Association was very proud to award our first annual scholarship to Lee Sandquist, a graduating senior at Central Bucks East. More about Lee and a photo at scholarship.