Pittsburgh Innovates

This Saturday marks the second annual Buy Fresh Buy Local Summer Farm Tour, a delicious opportunity to drive to the farms in our region that raise food using sustainable practices.

The tour runs on July 26th from noon to 5 p.m. and features 13 farms in Allegheny and surrounding counties. Farms will offer produce, pies, chops and other goods for sale, so bring a cooler. Farms will also feature a range of activities from hayrides to picnic spots, vegetable picking and educational talks. The cost is $10 per carload—exact change is preferred. Leave your pets at home.

The tour is an opportunity for the non-farming public to connect with local and organic farms in Southwestern, PA, and encourage their existence. The list and map of participating farms, along with further information, is available online. Click here.

In other conservation and sustainable gardening news, Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens has established Project Green Heart to encourage professional landscapers, homeowners, and gardeners to use sustainable landscape practices.

Specialists in the fields of horticulture, arboriculture, and forestry designed the curriculum, which includes the areas of soils and amendments, organic lawn care, tree planting and pruning, integrated pest management, and sustainable plant selection.

Project Green Heart also publishes an annual list of ten sustainable plants based on their non-invasive habits, resistance to disease and insects and low maintenance. The participating nurseries and the sustainable plants of 2008 can be found on Phipps’ website. Click here.