Six Ways to Celebrate Earth Day in Buckhead

1. Join your neighbors for the Mountain Way Park Conservation and Clean-Up Day.

The long-neglected 8 acres of green-space below the Georgia 400 overpass has become a magnet for illegal dumping and has become overgrown with invasive plants.   

Help make things better and turn this eyesore into a park that the community can enjoy. Organizers are looking for people to help pick up trash, pull weeks and mulch, among other tasks. (Volunteers will gather at 9 a.m. Wear long pants and bring your own gloves and pruners if you have them.)

And if you can’t be there, consider buying a to support the effort.

2. Attend the official opening ceremony of the playground at 9 a.m.

The 5-acre North Buckhead park at Peachtree-Dunwoody Road near Peachtree Road, sits on land once planned for eight McMansions. Neighbors pulled together with the help of Park Pride, District 7 Councilman Howard Shook and North Buckhead Civic Association President Gordon Certain to turn the idea of a public park and playground into reality.

Volunteers from Bank of America spent April 14 getting things spruced up.

3. Contemplate the exhibit Trees at the.

The free exhibition presents the work of nine Southern artists who interpret trees though the mediums of painting, photography, and printmaking.

4. Support local farmers and other vendors at the Peachtree Road Farmers Market, which is open for the second Saturday of the 2012 season.

The market is at , 2744 Peachtree Rd NW.

Now in its sixth year, the market bills itself as the largest producer-only farmers market in the state (which means everything there was grown, raised, or made by the person selling it.)

The offerings vary each week, so there’s always something new. Hours are 8:30am to noon.

5. Head to the , 269 Buckhead Ave NE and help your kids create an Earth Day craft.

Parents and kids ages 5-12 can drop in any time between noon and 3:00 p.m. to make a craft.

6. Visit the Dogwood Festival.

OK, so the Dogwood Festival is actually in Midtown’s Piedmont Park. But that’s darned close to Buckhead. And tucked in among the arts and crafts booths and food vendors, you’ll find a booth that sells dogwood tree seedlings.

And there’s something that just feels right about buying and planting a new tree to celebrate Earth Day weekend.

Did we miss an Earth Day event? Feel free to add it to the comments area below.