Rosalinda Sauro Sirianni Garden
Garden volunteer hours are open. Sign up for a slot at Signupgenius.com
North Hills Community Outreach’s (NHCO) Rosalinda Sauro Sirianni Garden is a volunteer, community-supported organic garden. Harvested produce is distributed at our food pantries.
At North Hills Community Outreach, we serve over 1,000 families per year with our three food pantries. We strive to provide the best food we can to our clients. Quality food is often expensive, and so the ability to provide low-income families the opportunity to eat well is the driving force behind the hard work that is poured into the Rosalinda Sauro Sirianni Memorial Garden.
Since our first growing season in 2011, we added 23 fruit trees donated by the Fruit Tree Planting Foundation, a high tunnel that extends the growing season and a strawberry patch. We also added an apiary so that honeybees, which are essential to organic gardening, can pollinate our crops. Also, we have raised beds, a rain water catchment and irrigation system, large compost bins, a rain garden, geocache, and a bioswale.
The Rosalinda Sauro Sirianni Garden is located:
119 Davis Ave.
Pittsburgh, PA 15202
Get Directions
Questions about the garden? Please contact:
Rachel Durkan
Garden Coordinator
412-487-6316 ×3311
rmdurkan@nhco.org
Volunteer
Individuals, families, community clubs, church groups, youth organizations and companies all contribute to the success of NHCO Gardens. Everyone is welcome! No experience is necessary. On-the-job training, supervision and all necessary gardening equipment and supplies are provided. We need help every week of the growing season spring through fall to plant, water, weed and especially harvest the bounty.
Education
We provide a variety of educational opportunities including garden tours, workshops and internships for all age groups. Topics include food insecurity, nutrition, sustainable growing practices, seed starting, cooking and more.
New Solar Greenhouse Expands Access to Nourishing Food to Those in Need
North Hills Community Outreach (NHCO) celebrated the official opening of its new solar greenhouse—and a milestone in addressing food insecurity in Allegheny County—at a ribbon cutting ceremony on October 13.
The solar greenhouse is the latest expansion to NHCO’s Rosalinda Sauro Sirianni Garden in Bellevue. Through the efforts of a small army of volunteers, the Garden has stocked NHCO’s three food pantries with an annual average of 2,500 to 4,000 pounds of fresh
produce during the growing season since 2011. The addition of the Solar Greenhouse will potentially increase that yield by another 1000 pounds per year by extending the growing season to include the spring and fall. Nearly 1600 families and individuals rely on NHCO’s food pantries.
In keeping with NHCO’s commitment to natural, organic farming methods, the solar greenhouse has been developed as an environmentally sustainable operation. Hydroponic growing systems will enable seed starting in the spring and a growing season extension through the fall. An automated ventilation system opens vents for cooling during the day and closes them for heat retention at night. The solar panels themselves will return electricity to the grid year round to offset the heating needed for season extension in late fall and early spring.
The solar greenhouse has also been designed as an accessible space to engage a diversity of volunteers and students in the process of growing food for the community. Additional goals for the facility include using it as an educational platform for local schools and civic groups to learn about organic gardening, nutrition, and the impact of sustainable gardening on communities facing poverty and food deserts.