Spring is in the Air at Friends Home and Village
The days are getting warmer, the sun is shining longer, and Friends Home & Village gardeners are excited because they are enlarging their vegetable garden! It will provide 500 square feet of growing space in raised beds, allowing easy access to all residents. The renovated garden will be protected by a deer and critter fence and will provide fresh, organic vegetables and herbs to the FHV kitchen. The old garden will become a cutting garden to provide flowers to the dining tables and resident rooms throughout the summer.
The Friends Village campus on Lower Dolington Road in Newtown has always had a garden. In the 1980s, the garden was more than 2000 square feet and in the early 2000s, Bucks Beautiful gave their Vegetable Garden Award to Friends Village three years in a row!
The size of the garden changes with the number of gardeners among the residents, but the whole community benefits from the fresh organic vegetables and herbs with their meals. Individuals may claim a portion of a raised bed for their personal use, and garden volunteers get first dibs on the harvests. Not every red, ripe tomato makes it to the kitchen!
The gardens on this 7-acre campus are varied and beautiful. There is a small meadow, which provides a wonderful habitat for pollinators and other beneficial insects. Residents are free to garden in the spaces adjacent to their apartments and are responsible for their upkeep. Some of these spaces are planted with native wildflowers, too. Those apartments with residents who don’t garden are landscaped and maintained by the management.
Friends Home & Village was founded in 1897 by Bucks Quarterly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). The Quarterly Meeting is the regional umbrella organization for the 14 local Quaker congregations (known as “Meetings”) in the Bucks County area. Friends Home & Village provides comfortable retirement living on two campuses, one in the heart of Newtown Borough and the other on Lower Dolington Road in Newtown Township. Friends believe that with a safe and comfortable base, aging opens us to new possibilities to live fully and with purpose. For a tour or more information, please contact Barb Heverly at 215-968-3346 or visit our website at: www.fhvpa.org.