Garden Soon provides garden consulting in Pittsburgh, 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. Pittsburgh's famous 90 hills and three rivers define the city's geography. Those site conditions are what we assess first when planning any garden in Pittsburgh.
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 Pittsburgh specifically: highly variable across the city — from alluvial river soils in the valleys to eroded clay on the steepest hillsides to engineered fill in post-industrial areas. Urban soil quality ranges from excellent (in historically affluent East End neighborhoods) to nearly unusable (in areas with demolition rubble and industrial fill). Each property requires individual assessment.
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 Pittsburgh. 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. Pittsburgh's famous 90 hills and three rivers define the city's geography. 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 Pittsburgh.
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 Pittsburgh often connect with these other services:
Garden Soon
Licensed & insured in PA · Rated 4.8★ on Google
Providing Vegetable Garden Design in Pittsburgh, PA and surrounding areas.