Happy first day of Spring! Read on for a recap of the 2026 All Gardener’s Meeting held March 21st.
Gratitude and Intros
- Thanks to Sweet Time General Store for letting us use their space to host this meeting
- Huge thanks to Dennis Ginther and Sarah Bailey for all they have done in building the garden and growing a thriving community
- Leadership intros, name, role, most interesting plant you’ve grown or would like to
- Gardener intros, name, new / years at the garden, most interesting plant you’ve grown or would like to
2025 Recap and 2026 Goals
| 2025 Recap | 2026 Goals |
| – Welcomed 11 new gardeners – Added 5 new beds and replaced the majority of existing garden posts – Harvested 264 lbs of produce (2024 550+ lbs) – Produced 4 new hives and collected 80 gallons of honey – Added an orchard with 4 new trees and a cherry bush, free from Tree Pittsburgh – Compost bin upgrade, 2x capacity – Introduction of a sink – Refinished picnic tables – Rat problem & bee aggression | – Onboard 7 new gardeners, and 2 returning gardeners – Operate more effectively – Maintain garden bed quality – Engage more with the community – Manage bee aggression and rats – Accurately track produce harvests – Increase garden involvement – Empower leads and volunteers |
Mission and Vision
“Growing together for a healthier, greener, and more connected community”
We are an inclusive, vibrant, and sustainable community garden that provides accessible growing opportunities for residents, businesses, and organizations across the Northside, Northshore and the greater Pittsburgh area. We aim to provide access to fresh food, education, environmental stewardship, and social connection— empowering people of all backgrounds to grow together and nourish both land and community
The Allegheny Commons Community Garden committee seeks to develop a best in class, accessible, inclusive and sustainable raised bed garden and as such it will:
- Manage and maintain our 54 raised gardening beds to promote use by gardeners with varied abilities and mobility
- Engage gardeners, volunteers and governance members from the diverse surrounding communities
- Strengthen community relationships across physical and social barriers
- Promote the health and well‐being of participants
- Encourage reciprocal economic connections with nearby businesses.
- Improve the gateway to Allegheny Commons Park, Deutschtown and the Northside
- Provide space to host appropriate social, educational, and cultural events in an area facing systemic barriers
Administrative Updates
- These notes will be emailed out later today
- Lock combination
- Finalized plot assignments: 2026 Community Garden Plot Assignments Map.pdf
- New gardener orientation will be on spring planting day
- Google Groups are setup for all future communications to gardeners, available for gardeners to contact leads
- Volunteering emphasis
- Volunteer led organization, without volunteers there is no community garden
- Too often it is the same folks volunteering
- Challenge folks to step up but not yet required
- It is not a job! Volunteering can take many forms, big and small
- There will be a large variety of opportunities for all different skills and abilities
Community Outreach – Carol Schiller
- Promote education through visuals, art installations, events, and demonstrations
- Increase engagement with local groups
- Blend social media and education together.
- Promote education with visuals, art installations, events, demonstrations.
- Children, Churches, Park Rangers, etc: hoping to partner on events
- Communication and Media: increase collaboration, signage
- No Arbour Day in the Allegheny Commons Park this year but there will be a tree planting on April 11
- (looking for volunteers once event details are finalized)
- Asphalt mural: no update on grant funding yet, more to come
- Social media: more involvement
Gardening – Dennis Farren
- Expected last frost April 30th (last year was actually the 16th)
- Expected first frost October 21st
- Spring planting day is April 18th
- New gardener walk through at spring planting
- Summer planting day is May 16th
- Seedlings from Jan, signup up will be sent out
- Harvest Tally emphasis
- Important for grants and reporting to the city
- Water usage emphasis
- Important for being ecologically responsible, ensuring the city continues to allow us to use the water free, and prevent excess deterioration of raised garden bed frames
- Compost will be available, first come first served
- Please follow guidelines! Cut down to 6 inches, no yard waste, no dog waste. Kitchen scraps in black bin. No cooked food, no meat or dairy products.
- Reminders
- We are an organic garden. No inorganic pesticides are allowed
- No raw manure is allowed in the garden, composted manures must be approved by the compost master
Maintenance – Phil Hake
- Garden Bed Repairs – 9 am Saturday/Sunday Mornings in March & April until complete
- Garden Cleanups – 9 am March 28th, Aug 22nd, and as needed throughout the season
- Garden Locks – Do not leave on code when open, make sure lock is secure when leaving, contact maintenance if locks are sticking
Programs
- Can recycling – Mike Cottle
- Soil lead testing – Rosemary Fehlner
- Drop off May 1-10
- Not legally binding
- Composting – Rosemary Fehlner
- Orchard – Cindy Pomorski
- Bees – Bryan Mathie
- Bees are thriving, last year a little too much
- Hives will be more proactively split and sold to avoid aggressiveness that we experienced last year from overcrowding. Limit to at most 3 hives maintained on premise.
- Honey spinning and free raw honey for participants
- Looking for individuals eager to learn how to be an apiarist and to help care for the bees
- Education – Art Perkins
- Beekeeping – Bryan Mathie
- Starting seeds – Bryan Mathie
- Planning your garden – Rosemary Fehlner
- Maximizing growth and harvest – Cindy Pomorski
- External resources: Grow Pittsburgh
- Other topics you’d like to learn about?
- Produce Donation Program?
Projects
If you have ideas for projects or would like to take the lead on a project let the committee know
- Garden bed rebuild and new large shared bed at the entrance
- Mural
- Gate accessibility improvements
- Signage
- Water lines
- Implement measures to reduce rat
- Seed library
- Projects Tracker
- Welcome new ideas!
Finances – Leslie Hake & Art Perkins
- Grants
- Donations – website, mailed check, cash in person, card reader in person
Special Events – Melissa Kus
- Easter Egg Hunt – April 4th
- Deutschtown Pride – June 7th
- Possibly an early summer low key fundraiser
- Friends to Garden Dinner Fundraiser – August 29th
- Halloween Kids Party – TBD
- Lots of opportunity for volunteering to help with planning, clean up, day of
Community Nights – Jenn Paliani
- April 30th kickoff catered by Jen Saffron’s Spezzatura
- Starts around 6-6:30, show up any time
- Main dish signup
- Potluck, BYOB
- Consider making a donation if you are not bringing something – funds available to help with main course costs
- Local establishments until the 30th or during poor weather
- Putting together a community garden cookbook
- Community Nights Tracker
Media Presence – Mary Yepez
- Instagram @acommonsgarden – More posts about upcoming events and after photos, educational posts
- Website – Greater source of information resources, blog
- Look for us in the Northside Chronicle
Closing
- Roles looking for activity leads
- Q & A
- Volunteer interest signups
Discussion Notes
**Mayfly Grand Opening is TODAY! 12-7, 4-7 for more special celebration
Gardening (Dennis Farren)
- Some ideas for updating the Harvest Talley/scale
- Bushells of flowers
- Food donation
- Honey may count
- Move weigh station to the exit
- Can weigh at home and log online
- Little Library – food donations on the outside?
Maintenance
- Locks are sticking. Need to be lubricated.
- Accessibility, Security Improvements-Proposal Review Form
Programs/Projects
- Can recycling: Mike Cottle collects and recycles cans used at the garden (not ready for bringing from home yet) and donates the proceeds to the garden
- Soil Lead Testing: Rosemary will send out an email, drop off May 1-10, bin will be provided
- Composting: Rosemary – see emails
- Orchard: Cindy
- Bees: Bryan – Split early & often, Honey spinning events
- Education: Art – many opportunities to get together, learn and get involved!
- Interest in Grant Writing – contact Nat/Art
You can 
We’ll be gearing up our education programming for 2026 shortly. Art Perkins and Carol Shilling will now be taking over on leading this effort, with Cindy Pomorski, Rosemary Felhner, and Bryan Mathie supporting. We’re running a little behind on this with all the leadership changes so in the meantime here is 
If you haven’t done so already, just a reminder that it is recommended to make a $20 
Something we want to emphasize this year is that it is expected that all gardeners volunteer to help out on at least one project, event, program, or administrative tasks this year. The community garden is a 100% volunteer organization, and without volunteers there would be no garden. In recent years too much has been falling on a select few. Beyond volunteering for these, consider becoming an activity lead under the garden committee.
As you hopefully have seen, we’ll be leveraging google groups for email lists this year. These should help our leads more easily communicate and avoid issues with email limits. You’ll also have more control over how you receive emails from these groups and have the ability to unsubscribe at a later time if you like (hopefully not!). Additionally, this will help us maintain access to certain gardening files without making them fully public as well as help keep your contact information private. Lastly, the various leadership teams have group emails that you can message (also on the website):
Speaking of leads, we have a new lineup for 
We’ll be kicking off our Thursday community night potlucks on April 30th, with Jen Saffron’s Spezzaturra catering the dinner. Hope to see you there! If you’re interested in signing up for a future potluck main dish, reach out to 
Phwew! That’s a lot of information. Thanks for sticking with it! Again, all of the references can be found on the