Tips from a Master Gardener in Pittsburgh episode 126

Marta On The Move Podcast- Hosted by Marta Napoleone Mazzoni

#126 Gardening in Pittsburgh with Kyle Ethan Fischer

Spring is here! Do you feel it? Are you, like me, pacing around your garden looking for the newest bulbs to blossom, or perennials to possibly return? Do you mutter to yourself the following questions- "Is my lavender coming back? It better be!", "What the hell did I plant here?", "What else can I plant here?", "Are pots on sale yet?", "Why the hell isn't my clematis growing yet!?"

If you have said one of these questions to yourself (or a variation), you are a gardening nerd. CONGRATS! You have entered into a phase of your life that you probably never even considered would happen. You are older, you are wiser, and for some reason flora just gets your gears going.

I realized I had the gardening bug years ago after buying my home. It didn't happen instantly as a homeowner, but over time, I needed to get my hands dirty, and I needed my own vegetable garden. I wanted tomatoes to fill my land, and I have always wanted figs. I dreamt of them since I was little, and now, I could have my own.

Should have been easy, right? Dig a hole, pop some maters and a fig in there and you are good to go. It's not, gardening in Pittsburgh is challenging as all get out. We have four seasons, and thanks to my new friend Kyle Ethan Fischer who is studying to be a master gardener under Phipps Conservatory, I now know that our zone is shifting every year!

Our zone shifting could be the reason you see more and more tropical foliage in Pittsburgh. Still, gardening in this city can be tough, and I for one want the best landscape, and bounty I can get from my small little space I carved out in the world.

Kyle comes on the show to share some tips on how to keep a Pittsburgh garden green year long, how to create a more edible garden, and what key things you can do in order to know your yard.

We could have talked about this stuff forever, in fact, I will probably have him, or another gardener on to cover this subject again, because I LOVE MY GARDEN, and I want to understand how to take better care of it.

Follow Kyle on his Instagram, and check out some pics of my garden below! Have any questions? or have your favorite perennial? Post them in the comments below!

You too can actually see my garden if you stay in our 1 bedroom Airbnb! We also have another Airbnb that sleeps 8-9 and is steps to games and the casino. It contains art from local Pittsburgh talent that we created into an art gallery tour within the house----> Pittsburgh Artist's Gallery You can check out the write up in NEXTPittsburgh about it.