Blossoming into a Greener Community

Have you ever wanted to start a garden but didn’t know where to begin?

With the temperature on the rise, it is almost that time of year to get outside and break out those gardening tools. On this month’s Pittsburgh Today Live’s (PTL) law segment “Straight to the Point,” Gina Zumpella, recently named Partner at Edgar Snyder & Associates, took a trip outside of the studio and over to the Garden Dreams greenhouse to showcase the firm's recent partnership with Grow Pittsburgh.

“Grow Pittsburgh is an amazing opportunity for Edgar Snyder & Associates to grow our footprint in our community,” Gina says. “This partnership made so much sense. We help our clients on a daily basis, and the ability to not only help with legal problems but also with food insecurity and anything like that is amazing.”

Grow Pittsburgh, an urban agricultural nonprofit organization, is a great way to teach people how to grow food as well as promote the benefits that gardens bring to local neighborhoods. The organization achieves this goal by opening gardens in communities and schools, distributing food through various means like farmstands and seedlings, and through education.

PTL reporter, Daisy Jade, and Gina Zumpella are joined by Grow Pittsburgh’s executive director, Denele Hughson, to give a quick hands-on educational lesson on how they prepare their seedlings.

One of the first steps that Denele demonstrates is preparing the soil with perlite, which is a great way to help retain moisture in seedlings. They all start digging and mixing up the soil with perlite.

“The rings are coming off,” Daisy jokes before getting her hands dirty.

After the soil components are mixed well, they grab a small pot to continue the planting process.

“What we want to do is fill up the pot halfway, make a little hole in the middle, and plug my little friend (sapling) right in,” Denele says. “Then you want to fill up the rest of it and pat it down a little...snug like a bug.”

You might be thinking, “That’s it?”

However, there is one more important step before the plant is tagged for sale.  They add a layer of vermiculite on top of the soil, which is a great way to prevent algae growth while it is stored at the Garden Dreams greenhouse.

Did you learn anything important from this short lesson from Grow Pittsburgh? Do you feel inspired to grow your own garden? Take some of this information with you as you are getting ready to plant some fruits and veggies on your own!

To watch the full segment, click here!