Garden Soon's garden consulting service is available in Ben Avon, Allegheny County at $85–$130 for an initial site visit. Sits on bluffs above the Ohio River with significant elevation variation across the borough. That's exactly the kind of site-specific detail that shapes what we recommend for bed placement, crop selection, and planting timing in Ben Avon.
YouTube can teach you how raised beds work in general. What it cannot tell you is that the spot on the south side of your house actually only gets four hours of direct sun because the neighbor's oak canopy cuts it off by early afternoon — which we'll catch in twenty minutes of watching the light move. Generic gardening advice is usually written for zone 7 or 8, or averaged across the whole country, which means the timing information is wrong for western Pennsylvania, wrong for the WV panhandle, wrong for central Ohio. When we come to your site, we're looking at your specific drainage situation, your soil texture, whether you have a frost pocket at the base of that slope, how your water access affects where it makes sense to put beds. We're asking questions no algorithm asks: what's your water source, how far are you willing to carry a hose, do you have dogs? We've also seen the mistakes that get made repeatedly in this region — the biggest one being planting warm-season crops too early, which one late frost can wipe out entirely. Site-specific, in-person assessment gets you answers tuned to your actual conditions.
For Ben Avon specifically: silt loam with good organic matter on established properties. The Ohio River bluff position means some lots have shallow soil over rock or shale. Drainage generally good on sloped lots but can pool in low areas near property lines.
You keep everything we produce during the session. That means the layout sketch — drawn on site, with bed dimensions and plant placement — the written plant list with varieties and quantities, timing notes for your specific region, and our soil recommendations in writing. This isn't advice that evaporates when we leave. What you walk away with is a physical document you can refer back to all season, bring to a nursery, or hand off to someone helping you build the beds.
Step one is a short call before we ever come out — we want to know roughly what you're hoping to grow, whether you have existing beds or are starting from scratch, and what your site looks like. Step two is the site visit itself, which runs about an hour and a half to two hours. We walk the yard together, map the sun across different spots, look at the soil, assess drainage, talk through layout options. Step three is where it comes together: we sketch a garden plan on paper right there on site, including bed dimensions, paths, and what grows where. We build out a plant list specific to your conditions — varieties that perform in zone 6, quantities that fit your space. We go through timing in detail: what to start in March, what to wait on until after last frost, how to succession plant lettuce so you're not drowning in it one week and out of it the next. Step four is optional: a follow-up visit two to three weeks in, when you have questions that didn't exist until you started digging.
The initial consultation ($85–$130) covers a full site visit of one and a half to two hours, sun and drainage assessment, a hand-drawn layout sketch, a written plant list with region-appropriate varieties, timing guidance for your last frost zone, and soil amendment recommendations. You walk away with documents in hand. The full garden plan with follow-up ($225–$375) includes everything in the initial consultation plus a more detailed written design plan and a second site visit two to three weeks later, when questions have had time to develop. If you've already had a consultation and just need us back for a specific issue or a season check-in, a standalone follow-up visit is $65 to $95 for an hour on site. Remote consultations — phone or video, useful for off-season planning or customers outside our regular service area — are $50 to $75 per hour. All pricing is honest and upfront; we discuss scope on the initial call before anything is scheduled.
Yes — Garden Soon provides in-person garden consulting in Ben Avon. We come to your property, walk the site together, and produce a plan specific to your conditions. Call (724) 201-9484 or use the contact form to schedule.
We start by walking the yard together and mapping where direct sun actually falls through the day — that determines where beds can go and what will produce well. Sits on bluffs above the Ohio River with significant elevation variation across the borough. From there we sketch a layout on paper during the visit and put together a written plant list matched to your conditions and what you want to grow in Ben Avon.
Winter is actually a great time to schedule, because planning ahead of the season is more useful than trying to catch up once things are in the ground. We can walk a site in November, December, or January — the sun angle is different but that's actually useful information — and build a full planting plan and soil prep schedule so you're ready to act the moment the ground is workable in March. Remote consultations by phone or video are also available in winter at $50 to $75 per hour for customers who want to plan from wherever they are.
The main difference is that we're looking at your site, not a general situation. A YouTube video can explain what raised beds are and why they work; it cannot tell you that the south-facing wall of your house actually gets cut off by tree shade by 1pm, which changes everything about where your beds should go. Most online gardening content is also written for zone 7 or 8, or averaged across the whole country, which means the frost dates, timing, and crop recommendations are wrong for zone 6 in western Pennsylvania or Ohio. We answer the site-specific questions that general content can't.
Yes — and in zone 6, there's more season to work with than most people assume. Cool-season crops like lettuce, spinach, kale, peas, and radishes can go in the ground four to six weeks before last frost, which in western Pennsylvania means starting in March. With succession planting — putting in a short row of lettuce every two weeks rather than all at once — you can have continuous harvests rather than a single glut. In fall, many of those same crops can go back in after summer heat breaks, and cold frames or row cover can push the harvest window into November and beyond.
Customers who do a garden consultation in Ben Avon often connect with these other services:
Garden Soon
Licensed & insured in PA · Rated 4.8★ on Google
Providing Vegetable Garden Design in Ben Avon, PA and surrounding areas.