Hatboro Residents Association digs into community garden project
By Matt Schickling
Wire Staff Writer
A year has passed since the Hatboro Residents Association (HRA) decided to build a community garden, but the idea has finally blossomed.
“We were given a grant and tried to do it with the HRA last year, but we couldn’t pull it together in season,” said Bob Griffenberg, chairman of the garden committee. “So we thought, why not try to do it on our own?”
At this time, the garden consists of four eight-by-four feet garden beds with gravel bases for drainage laid below topsoil and compost, which community gardeners will plant on. The garden frames and beds were designed and built by volunteers from the HRA.
“We’re going to start with cold-weather plants like peas, lettuces and strawberries,” said HRA board member Jennifer Cox. “We will have to wait until after the last frost, maybe another month, to plant tomatoes.”
From there, they will move on to planting other produce like zucchini, squash, peppers and onions. But for now, the HRA is focused on developing the community garden project as a means of providing a fresh, natural food source for area food banks and residents in need.
“We want to bring stuff by [food banks], and they can take whatever they want. There’s families that the church helps out, and maybe we can assist them, too,” said Griffenberg.
In the coming months, the HRA hopes to build other gardens at locations in Eaton Park and Hatboro Memorial Park with more of a food co-op dynamic, but the current project is all about the well-being of the Hatboro community.
When the time came to choose the first location, there was hardly any debate.
“Hatboro Baptist Church lets us use their property for a lot of different things,” said Cox. “About five weeks ago, we gave a presentation to the board of directors at the church and they immediately approved it.”
The initiative of the HRA spurred the project forward, but it was the generosity of area businesses that allowed the plans to take root. Lowe’s in Willow Grove donated topsoil, which was laid by HRA volunteers so planting could begin last weekend. Hatboro Lumber provided materials like wood, screws and gravel for building the boxes.
Cox predicts that the first crop will be produced about 40 days after planting, which should be just in time for their first farmers market of the year. The farmers markets begin on Friday, May 2, from 6 p.m. to dusk at Hatboro Baptist Church, and continue at the same location and time every Friday until Oct. 24.
“Homemade, handmade or homegrown — that’s the requirements for the farmers market,” said Melinda Goodwin, president of the HRA. “There’s a nice array of things that present the same flare.”
Usually, those things consist of jewelry, baked goods, crafts, home-grown produce and other items, but the HRA is interested in anything community members have to offer.
Griffenberg is also looking into coordinating ways to help elderly residents who may not have the means to leave their homes to shop for groceries.
The HRA has even gotten local schools involved with the community garden. The group already reserved one of the newly built garden beds for the children at Play and Learn Daycare, located just behind the Hatboro Baptist Church. The children will be given the opportunity to learn about gardening and horticulture by assisting with watering and harvesting produce from the garden. Members of Hatboro-Horsham High School’s Students for a Sustainable Future program are getting involved as volunteers.
“We’re interested in helping out, bringing our community together and beautifying the parks,” said Goodwin. “For the children to be part of it, for the residents to be part of it, for us, the HRA, the preservation of our town and our community is a wonderful thing.”
