Category: Uncategorized

Why soil health is important to you

If you own a home you likely own soil, lots of it. We don’t often think about the volume of soil we own. It always surprises me when we excavate for a project just how much earth there is in seemingly small urban lots. Most home properties in Pittsburgh have over a thousand square feet…
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Stewardship Starts With You

Around the globe, an overwhelming majority of people in developed areas live in urban areas. Every year, a massive amount of land in the United States is converted from green space, to alternative land uses like new homes or buildings and impervious surfaces such as roads or parking lots. These land use changes are especially…
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3 Plant Families That Attract Beneficial Insects

As with your own family, plants in the same family share similar needs, challenges and physical characteristics. In this case, we are going to look at a few plant families that attract beneficial insects (and spiders). Insects are attracted to pollen and nectar provided by flowers and stick around to eat up harmful garden pests.…
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Top 10 Perennials Less Palatable to Deer

As anyone in the Pittsburgh region knows, there is a wildlife presence within our city. One of the largest and most numerous species around is the white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus). White-tailed deer prefer to occupy hardwood forests, because they o􀃠er cover and browse for them throughout the year. Deer are classified as browsers because they…
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Fall Gardening

Starting Fall Garden I spent a lot of time moving into new apartments or renting homes, so I was almost always moving during the spring/ early summer and only able to start planting a garden in late summer/ early fall. I was delighted to learn that there were still many vegetables to be planted at…
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Beneficial Insects and Spiders

Beneficial insects are those that feed on garden pests. They are important to all gardens as they require minimum effort to attract, they maintain a balanced garden ecosystem and keep pace with pest populations. Having beneficial insects in your garden makes it less likely that you will have a pest outbreak. The first rule in…
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