Garden Soon's garden consulting service is available in Cecil, Washington County at $85–$130 for an initial site visit. Rolling to moderately hilly Washington County terrain. That's exactly the kind of site-specific detail that shapes what we recommend for bed placement, crop selection, and planting timing in Cecil.
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 Cecil specifically: clay loam to silt clay loam typical of Washington County. Agricultural background on converted farmland gives some areas reasonable soil structure. Newer subdivisions often have heavily compacted and disturbed subsoil from construction.
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 Cecil. 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. Rolling to moderately hilly Washington County terrain. 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 Cecil.
An initial consultation — the site visit, sun assessment, layout sketch, plant list, and timing guide — runs $85 to $130. A full garden plan with a follow-up visit is $225 to $375. Stand-alone follow-up visits are $65 to $95 per hour, and remote consultations by phone or video are $50 to $75 per hour. We go over the right option for your situation on the initial call before anything is scheduled.
You don't need to prepare much — just have the space accessible so we can walk it together. It helps to think ahead of time about what you'd most like to grow and roughly how much time per week you want to put into the garden. If you know where your water source is and whether you've had any drainage issues in that area, mention it when we talk. Everything else we figure out when we get there.
Yes, and honestly a first-time grower is one of the best candidates for a consultation, because we can help you avoid the mistakes that cause a lot of first gardens to fail. Starting with a plan that fits your actual site — right sun, right crops, right timing — gives you a much better first season than winging it with general advice. We're not here to quiz you on what you already know; we're here to fill in the gaps.
Customers who do a garden consultation in Cecil often connect with these other services:
Garden Soon
Licensed & insured in PA · Rated 4.8★ on Google
Providing Vegetable Garden Design in Cecil, PA and surrounding areas.