Garden Soon's garden consulting service is available in McKees Rocks, Allegheny County at $85–$130 for an initial site visit. Dramatic hillside topography above the Ohio River. That's exactly the kind of site-specific detail that shapes what we recommend for bed placement, crop selection, and planting timing in McKees Rocks.
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 McKees Rocks specifically: highly variable urban conditions. Industrial history near the Ohio River has left disturbed soil profiles in some areas. Hillside residential lots have eroded clay subsoil on steeper grades. Some properties have rubble fill from demolition. Organic matter is limited on disturbed urban sites.
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 McKees Rocks. 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. Dramatic hillside topography above the Ohio River. 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 McKees Rocks.
Yes, and a site visit is especially useful in a heavily shaded yard because the actual usable light is almost always different from what it looks like to the eye. We map sun through the day across different spots in the yard — sometimes there's a window of direct light that opens up the possibility of a small productive bed that isn't obvious at first. Where true deep shade exists, we're honest about what it can and can't support, and we can talk through alternatives like containers moved to a brighter location or crops that genuinely perform on four hours of light.
Yes — hillside gardens are common in Pittsburgh and they're very solvable with the right approach. Terraced raised beds built into a slope can turn a site that seems impossible into productive growing space, and the elevated construction often means excellent drainage and sun exposure. We'd look at the grade, the sun angle, how water moves across the slope, and what structural approach makes sense — whether that's stacked stone, timber framing, or another method — and build a layout around what will actually work on that specific hillside.
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.
Customers who do a garden consultation in McKees Rocks often connect with these other services:
Garden Soon
Licensed & insured in PA · Rated 4.8★ on Google
Providing Vegetable Garden Design in McKees Rocks, PA and surrounding areas.