BLOGSKI

March or April is the best time to sign up if you want a produce subscription via a community supported agriculture program (CSA), but some farms might still have subscriptions available.  Carnegie Library produced a couple of articles which highlight CSAs in the Pittburgh area: How to pick a CSA plan that will suit you and  Find a CSA Farm. For more information, here’s a list of local farms that offer CSAs, and here’s an article from the Post-Gazette explaining about how they work.

For those who don’t sign up with a CSA — the farmer’s markets are now open for the season.  Today the Post-Gazette published an interactive map of all the farmer’s markets in and around the city.  Closest to Polish Hill, the Bloomfield (Citiparks) Farmers Market is held in the parking lot of St. Maria Goretti (former Immaculate Conception) school, just off of Liberty Avenue near West Penn Hospital.  The market is open on Thursdays from 3:30 to 7:30 p.m.

And in the Strip, Farmers@Firehouse, at 2216 Penn Ave, is open Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and sells mostly organic and naturally grown produce, local meat and poultry, with chef demos weekly.  Also in the Strip is the Pittsburgh Public Market, open year round with produce, meats, cheese, East End Brewing, and many wonderful food stalls.

(Above:  Farmers @Firehouse, from Taste of Pittsburgh)

Want to learn how to harvest rainwater from your roof and divert it for on-site usage in the landscape?  Learn about it at a Rain Barrel Workshop at Construction Junction this Saturday, May 18 from 11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.  The cost for the workshop is $50/person or $55/couple and includes hardware needed (but not the 55-gal. drum) to assemble and install a rain barrel.  The workshop is presented by the Pennsylvania Resources Council.  To register click here or call at 412-488-7490 ext. 247.  Construction Junction is located at 214 North Lexington Street.

For more information about gardening in the city, check out Grow Pittsburgh.  They have workshops and other learning opportunities, publicize resources for gardeners.  They have a great email newsletter as well — sign up on the Grow Pittsburgh website.

City Environmental Services crews will hold a special yard debris collection on Sat., May 18.  Bagged leaves, tree branches and bushes will be picked up and recycled for compost.  The following items will only be accepted if properly packaged:

Bagged leaves: Residents must bag leaves in paper bags only and place them out at your normal refuse collection site.  Bags should not exceed 35 pounds. Leaves in plastic bags will not be accepted.

Tree branches and bushes: Cut, bundle and tie branches and bushes in lengths not exceeding five feet.  Tree branch diameter should not exceed four inches.

City residents must place materials out for residential collection by City refuse/recycling crews on Friday, May 17.  Please note that City crews will not collect dirt, rocks, stones or cement.  Yard debris left at the curb by contracted lawn care workers or independent contractors will not be collected by City crews.

Here’s more information about the yard debris pickup from the Post-Gazette.

Many Polish Hill residents have very old paint, solvents, and other chemicals in their basements.  If these items are put out in the trash, they end up in a landfill, where they leach into the soil and water.  A better disposal option is to take items to a special collection event.

A PHCA volunteer will be taking a truckload to the Zero Waste Pittsburgh household chemical collection event on Saturday, May 4, and we’re offering to take items from other neighborhood residents as well.  Polish Hill residents can can drop items (anything from the list below) at the PHCA office on Friday, May 3 (not before).  You’ll need to give us cash for the collection fee (these events charge $2 per gallon), and we also ask for a small donation for the service that we’re providing.  In return, you get the peace of mind that these toxic items are no longer in your home!

Items accepted for collection:
Aerosol cans; automotive fluids; batteries; chemistry sets; compact fluorescent light bulbs; gasoline; kerosene; household cleaners; mercury; paint products; pesticides; herbicides; photo chemicals; and pool chemicals. Zero Waste Pittsburgh charges a fee of $2 per gallon, cash only, and you’ll need to pay that when items are dropped off.

We won’t be accepting items until May 3, and then  it’s household items only — no large quantities such as from a business.  To protect our office, staff, and volunteers, please pack your items carefully.  Bulbs should be in closed plastic bags.  Any leaking, or bulging containers should be placed in another container, tightly sealed and clearly marked (not a plastic bag).  If you have any questions, call the PHCA at 412.681.1950 or email us.

Other items not accepted at this collection event include ammunition; appliances, bulk waste; commercial and industrial waste; compressed gas cylinders; drugs; explosives; flares; fluorescent tubes; leaking containers; medical waste; PCBs and dioxin; tires; and radioactive materials (including smoke detectors).  For more information about this and other collection events, visit www.zerowastepgh.org or call 412-488-7452.

Join the PHCA’s Polish Hill Green Team as we tackle familiar territory with city steps, open spaces and along the streets.  Join us at the PHCA office at 3060 Brereton Street at 10 a.m. this Saturday, April 20. Wear sturdy shoes and clothes that you don’t mind getting dirty.  We’ll provide gloves as well as recycling and trash bags.  There’s a chance of rain that day, but that hasn’t stopped us in the past (see above photo).

We may also take this opportunity to cut some of the vines that are choking and killing trees in so many green spaces.  Since there isn’t much new vegetation yet,  it’s easy to see where the vines are and to get at them.

There will be Earth Day cleanups all over Pittsburgh on Saturday.  Just outside of Polish Hill, in Schenley Heights, they will also be picking up trash, particularly around the City steps up there.  Email here for more information.

Can’t make it this Saturday?  Keep an eye out for these future volunteer opportunities with the Polish Hill Green Team:

May 4  Flower planting at West Penn
This is an annual display sponsored by the Western PA Conservancy. We’ll be meeting at the corner of Brereton and 30th at 9 a.m.

June 15 Love Your Block Event
Tentatively scheduled for a 10 a.m. start, meet at the top of the Dobson – Herron Steps.

Monthly Tree Care
Site maintenance days to keep knotweed away from the roots of the newly planted trees at the end of Melwood.  Tentatively scheduled to start on April 26 around 5 p.m.

For more information on the Polish Hill Green Team, email Green Team leader Valerie Testa.

On Thursday evening, the PHCA Green team was presented with the  Clean Pittsburgh Commission’s Bob Award for Best Neighborhood.  Present to accept were PHCA President Alexis Miller, Vice President Myra Falisz, Secretary and Green Team leader Valerie Testa, and board member Josiah Parkinson.

The CPC’s mission is to work to improve the environmental quality of life of Pittsburgh residents through litter and illegal dumping prevention, clean-up and enforcement.

The CPC is comprised of 15 representatives from various City departments, local non-profits, individuals and community groups. The activities of the CPC are focused in three primary areas: 1) monitoring/awareness/prevention, 2) clean-up, and 3) enforcement. The primary function of the CPC is to provide oversight, direction, leadership, resources and assistance to community groups and individuals while serving as the liaison between these groups and the appropriate City departments.

The Bob Awards honored the 150 Clean Pittsburgh Stewards who represent the city’s 90 neighborhoods.  The Bob Awards are named for the late Mayor Bob O’Connor, who put achieving a less-littered city high on his administration’s priorities. His wife, Judy, and son, Councilman Corey O’Connor, were on hand to present the awards.

Congratulations to the PHCA Green Team, and to all the many volunteers whose hard work helped make this award possible.

It’s still winter at the moment, but the first official day of Spring is just over a week away, on March 20.  Some avid gardeners are already starting their seedlings indoors and considering new ways to protect their produce from groundhogs and other poachers.

If you’re planning on gardening or growing some of your food this year, a great source of information for urban gardeners is Grow Pittsburgh, an urban agriculture nonprofit.  They are a great resource for information — here’s their Growers Resources guide, with information on soil and compost; seeds and seedlings; watering; pest and disease management.

Grow Pittsburgh also offers classes, workshops, and events for new and veteran gardeners.  Upcoming events include A Garden Primer, which covers all the basics, including which tools beginner gardeners will need, what and where to plant, and when to harvest. The course is held over three evenings; the first session is already past, but the next two are March 18 and March 25.

There’s also a free workshop, Container Veggie Gardening on a Budget, coming up on March 23 from 10:00 – 11:30 a.m. at the Grow Pittsburgh office in Larimer.  Click here for more information or to sign up.

Did you know that the City of Pittsburgh has an urban agricultural zoning code?  If you have 2,000 square feet of more of land (including the footprint of your home), you can keep up to three chickens, and two beehives.  Click here for more information from Grow Pittsburgh

For even more information about keeping chickens in the city, check out Pittsburgh Pro Poultry People, or P4, who feel the current laws are too restrictive and are working for Pittsburgh Urban Farming Code reform.  Their site has a lot of great information, including a collection of old photos showing how livestock was an everyday part of city live in past decades.

Top photo:  a corner of the Wiggins garden — with groundhog trap.  PHCA photo.  Bottom:  some Polish Hill chickens, from the Everything Better Pittsburgh blog.

Are you yearning for Spring to come?  Would it help to see growing things, flowers, and smell warm, damp earth?  Or just looking for something fun to do next week?

Thanks to a grant from the Jack Buncher Foundation, Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens is pleased to announce that it will open its doors free of charge on Monday, Feb. 25, 2013 from 9:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.  Guests who attend this year’s free admission day will enjoy the warmth and incomparable beauty of the public garden’s historic glasshouse gardens filled with a variety of tropical plants, orchids, cacti, ferns, palm trees, and many other gorgeous specimens that will lift winter-weary spirits and carry visitors away to more pleasant climates.

Don’t know the first thing about organic vegetable gardening, but want to learn? Know a thing or two but need a refresher?  Grow Pittsburgh’s A Garden Primer will cover all the basics, including which tools beginner gardeners will need, what and where to plant, and when to harvest.

Classes will take place on Tuesdays: February 12, 19 & 26   or Mondays: March 11, 18 & 25.

Classes will be from 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.  in the McKelvy Room at the East Liberty Presbyterian Church, 116 S. Highland Avenue in East Liberty.  The cost is $50 for Grow Pittsburgh members, $60 for the general public.  (Not a member? Join here.)

Tickets can be purchased at growpittsburgh.showclix.com.  Select February or March.  A limited number of scholarships and childcare are available, please email info@growpittsburgh.org or call 412-362-4769 for details.  City Growers says: please select the month you wish to participate in carefully as they are not able to accommodate transfers to different classes or refunds due to complicated logistics.  Classes sell out fast so purchase your tickets early!

The deadline is coming up for Grow Pittsburgh apprenticeships and internship opportunities for 2013.  This year’s opportunities include apprenticeship positions at both Braddock Farms and the Frick Greenhouse and Shiloh Farm, as well as internships at the Grow Pittsburgh main office in education, marketing and in data assessments.  Links to job descriptions for all of these opportunities can be found on the Join Our Team page.  Read each description carefully as varying skill levels are required based on the role.  Applications are due January 21, 2013.

As interest in food, farming and urban agriculture grows across the United States, it is increasingly important that the next generation of growers and advocates gain more exposure to working in the fields, with communities and also behind the desk, to support local food access.

As a nonprofit organization, Grow Pittsburgh is able to support potential new growers with a seasonal experience on their production sites.  They are also able to offer opportunities on the organizational side, so individuals can get a better sense of what they do behind the scenes.