Garden Soon provides garden consulting in Highland Park, Allegheny County — $85–$130 for an initial site visit that includes sun assessment, a layout sketch, a plant list, and timing guidance for your growing zone. Highland Park occupies a relatively elevated plateau-like position in the East End. Those site conditions are what we assess first when planning any garden in Highland Park.
Most people who call us for garden consulting fall into one of three groups. The first tried a raised bed last year — bought the soil, built the box, planted six tomato plants — and ended up with leggy, yellowed plants that gave them maybe a dozen tomatoes by October. The second is a new homeowner who finally has a yard and wants to grow food but genuinely doesn't know where to start: which direction does the sun move, where should the beds go, what can actually grow here? The third grew up with a huge family garden, helped pick tomatoes every summer as a kid, and now wants to start their own but realizes they were never the one making the decisions. All three situations share the same core problem: a lot of enthusiasm and a real gap in the site-specific, practical knowledge that turns a patch of dirt into something productive. That gap is exactly what we help close — without making anyone feel like they should have already known this.
For Highland Park specifically: urban conditions but historically improved by generations of affluent homeowners who invested in landscaping. Topsoil quality is better than many Pittsburgh neighborhoods. Some properties near the park boundaries have more natural soil profiles. Drainage generally adequate.
A standard consultation includes the full site visit — sun assessment, drainage review, soil evaluation — plus a hand-drawn layout sketch, a plant list matched to your specific conditions and goals, a timing guide for your last frost zone, and soil amendment recommendations. If you're building raised beds, we walk through what to fill them with. The session runs about an hour and a half to two hours on site, and we cover everything you need to actually put a garden in the ground with confidence.
Before: you want to grow your own food. Maybe you've thought about it for years, or tried it once and it didn't go well. You have a yard, some ambition, and a lot of unanswered questions — where exactly to put beds, what soil to use, what will realistically grow in your conditions, and when to plant what. During: we come out, walk the site with you, map the sun, talk through what you want to grow and what your yard can support. We sketch a layout on paper, put together a plant list with varieties suited to this region, and work through the timing so you know what to start in late winter, what goes in the ground in early spring, and what has to wait until after last frost. We talk soil mix if you're doing raised beds — roughly equal parts compost, topsoil, and perlite or vermiculite for drainage and air. After: you have a paper sketch of your garden, a written plant list, timing notes, and soil recommendations. You have a plan you can hand to someone at the garden center and actually execute. And if questions come up six weeks in, a follow-up visit is available.
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 Highland Park. 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. Highland Park occupies a relatively elevated plateau-like position in the East End. 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 Highland Park.
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.
The consulting itself is advice and planning — we don't sell seeds, but we do connect customers with our community plant pickup program, which offers vegetable transplants ready to go in the ground at the right time for this region. If you're getting a consultation in late winter or early spring, we'll often talk through what plant starts make sense for your plan and whether the pickup is a good fit for getting those plants.
Customers who do a garden consultation in Highland Park often connect with these other services:
Garden Soon
Licensed & insured in PA · Rated 4.8★ on Google
Providing Vegetable Garden Design in Highland Park, PA and surrounding areas.