Resources

Eastern prickly pear

Eastern prickly pear

Gardening Websites

  • Bees and Honey: Creating Pollinator Gardens: This great resource was shared with us by Juliana from the Lyndhurst STEM Club for Girls via one of the club’s organizers, Stacey Martin. The page covers the rules of creating a pollinator garden, tips for setting up your own, and a list of resources to learn more. Thanks Juliana!

  • Flowers and Plants to Attract Birds and other Wildlife: An excellent set of resources for those looking to learn more about and support bird populations through gardening. Thanks Ally for the excellent addition to our list!

  • Homegrown National Park: Doug Tallamy’s website, Homegrown National Park, is an effort to get individuals to convert their property into wildlife habitat.  You can sign up to be on the map and commit to devoting part of your yard to native plantings.  The site also has helpful resources and interesting articles. 

  • Margaret Roach’s website:  She has a podcast with lots of interesting gardeners as guests.  Her site is full of good information for beginning gardeners.

  • Rick Darke’s website: He is a botanist, horticulturalist, photographer, and author.  The Living Landscape, coauthored with Doug Tallamy, is one of our favorites.  His site has a list of book recommendations, among other things.

  • Piet Oudolf’s website: Visit here to enjoy pictures of his projects, which bear his signature naturalistic design style.

  • Nigel Dunnett’s website: Great pictures of natural perennial gardens in urban landscapes.

Buy Native Plants and Supplies Locally

  • Audubon Society Native Plant Nursery: Great source of a wide variety of native plants of all sizes including trees. Plants are available for purchase at Beechwood Farm (614 Dorseyville Rd) spring through fall (ends October 31st), Tuesday - Sunday, 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. There’s also a shop with great bird feeders, feed, gardening equipment, and books. Buying from this source has the added bonus of contributing to the Audubon Society’s funding.

  • Brenckle’s Greenhouses: The most local nursery for Brighton Heights is also a great source of ferns and other perennials. Shop carefully if you want native plants as they are definitely the minority of plants here. There is also a late summer/early fall fern sale.

  • Michael Brother’s Nursery: A little further away, but located in a beautiful rural setting with a great selection.

  • Chapon’s Greenhouse: Located in the South Hills, this is a large nursery with healthy plants and a good selection.

  • The Barn Landscape Supply: Not a nursery, but an excellent nearby place to get your mulch locally as well as stone and other landscaping materials. Highly recommend buying their Double Shredded Brown/Natural mulch to get a mulch that hasn’t been dyed and will decompose and enrich your soil quickly.

Buy Native Plants Online

  • Izel Plants: This site has the best deals on plants, if you need to buy in bulk.  They consolidate the inventories of wholesale nurseries so retail customers can get access to them.  They’re also really fast at shipping plants.  The plants are mostly deep plugs, meaning they appear small but have strong root systems.  These plants usually catch up to larger store-bought perennials within a year.

  • Prairie Nursery: Another good online nursery for native perennials.  Here you have the option for smaller quantities of plants, though the more you buy the cheaper the plants per unit.

  • Prairie Moon: Similar to Prairie Nursery. 

  • Keystone Wildflowers: Looks like a great selection online, may require pickup instead of shipping to you.

Pittsburgh Programs

Book Recommendations