We offer garden consulting in Heidelberg, Allegheny County — $85–$130 for an in-person visit that produces a hand-drawn layout, written plant list, and regional timing guide for your last frost zone. Small South Hills borough with moderate grade changes typical of the region. Every Heidelberg property has its own set of constraints, and the plan we put together reflects them.
A lot of vegetable gardening content is written for climates that are nothing like ours. Here in western Pennsylvania, our last frost date is typically May 1 to 10 around Pittsburgh — that's later than most of the country, and it compresses the warm-season growing window considerably. Tomatoes and peppers go in after that date. Raised beds help because they warm up two to three weeks faster than in-ground soil in spring, which can genuinely extend your season at this latitude. Across the service territory, conditions vary meaningfully: the WV panhandle runs similar to Pittsburgh — zone 6a to 6b — while central Ohio typically sees its last frost around April 25 to May 5. Move into central Indiana and you're looking at April 15 to 25; southern Indiana can be as early as April 5 to 15, which opens the door to warmer-season crops with a longer run. What thrives in zone 6 with minimal struggle: tomatoes (with the right variety timing), winter squash, beans, kale, garlic. What you'll fight every year: melons unless conditions cooperate. We also connect customers who want to grow their own food with our community plant pickup program, where you can source transplants ready to go in the ground at exactly the right time for this region.
For Heidelberg specifically: clay loam to silt loam; modest lot sizes mean most lawns are well within the shade envelope of surrounding mature trees. Organic matter has accumulated over decades of turf history. Some erosion on steeper hillside portions of lots.
After the initial consultation, a follow-up visit is available — typically scheduled two to three weeks into the season, when the real questions start showing up. We also stay available for shorter questions through the growing season. For customers who want ongoing support, the full garden plan package includes a revisit built in. Our community plant pickup program is another touchpoint: many consulting customers source their transplants through us, which means we can make sure the plant list we built together is exactly what shows up ready to go in the ground.
When we walk onto a new site, we're reading a lot at once. Where is the sun coming from and what's blocking it — a fence, a roofline, a tree on the neighbor's property that didn't leaf out yet when you checked in April? We look at the ground: does it drain or does it pool after rain? Is the soil clay-heavy, sandy, or somewhere in between? We're also asking a lot of questions, because the physical conditions only tell half the story. We want to know what you actually cook, whether you have deer pressure in the neighborhood, how much time per week you can realistically put into this. Those answers change the plant list and the layout. We've seen too many first gardens fail not because of bad soil or bad luck but because someone planted twelve zucchini plants for two people, or put tomatoes in a spot that looks sunny in the morning but gets shade by noon. The sketch we put together on-site reflects everything we find — not a template, but a plan drawn around what's actually there.
An initial garden consultation — site visit, sun assessment, layout sketch, plant list, and timing guide — runs $85 to $130. If you want a full garden plan with a follow-up visit included, that package is $225 to $375 depending on site complexity and plan scope. Remote consultations by phone or video are available at $50 to $75 per hour.
Yes — Garden Soon provides in-person garden consulting in Heidelberg. 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. Small South Hills borough with moderate grade changes typical of the region. 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 Heidelberg.
Yes, soil is a core part of what we cover in a consultation. For raised beds, we recommend a mix of roughly one-third compost, one-third topsoil, and one-third coarse perlite or vermiculite — that combination drains well, holds moisture without getting waterlogged, and gives roots the air they need. For in-ground gardens, we look at what's there, test the texture, and talk through what amendments make sense for your specific soil before you plant.
Yes — stand-alone follow-up visits are available at $65 to $95 for an hour on site, and we schedule them when something specific comes up rather than on a fixed calendar. If you're seeing blossom end rot on your tomatoes, something is eating your plants, or you're trying to figure out what to do with beds once your spring crops finish, those are exactly the situations a mid-season visit is useful for. The full garden plan package also includes a follow-up visit built in.
The most common causes in this region are not enough sun, planting warm-season crops before the last frost date, and inconsistent watering — each of those will tank a garden on its own, and they often show up together. In western Pennsylvania, one late frost after tomatoes go in the ground can wipe the whole planting. Walking the site with us lets us identify which of those factors applied to your specific situation and build a plan around avoiding them this time.
Customers who do a garden consultation in Heidelberg often connect with these other services:
Garden Soon
Licensed & insured in PA · Rated 4.8★ on Google
Providing Vegetable Garden Design in Heidelberg, PA and surrounding areas.