The Edible Teaching Garden (ETG) is an urban garden in the East End of Pittsburgh maintained by Master Gardeners for horticultural educational purposes.
The garden features fruits, vegetables, herbs, a compost bin, and pollinator-friendly plants offering multiple areas for teaching and enjoyment. Required annual volunteer hours can be earned by Master Gardeners in an outdoor setting, and Master Gardener volunteers can then consume the garden harvest.
The ETG raised beds have been used by MG trainees in the past as their class projects to plan, plant, and tend vegetables with different themes and goals. In 2022, the garden will be an official University trial vegetable garden in conjunction with the Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences. One vegetable will be selected and Master Gardeners will grow and evaluate approximately 10 different varieties. Different vegetable varieties supplied by the University will be grown for strict observation and analysis and compared with data from other vegetable trials across the state. Ultimately, the Edible Teaching Garden is an ongoing annual dynamic experiment using different edibles to demonstrate to the public the benefit of best gardening practices and to engender a love of vegetable gardening.
