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Local farm, firm join forces to help patio garden grow at PNC Park

4 min read
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Courtesy WallacePancher Group

The Rivendale Patio Garden is on the suite level of PNC Park.

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Courtesy WallacePancher Group

Fruits and vegetables grow in large containers made of recycled steel.

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Courtesy WallacePancher Group

Pirates chairman Bob Nutting, left, and president Frank Coonelly flank Gabe Hays of WallacePancher Group.

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Courtesy WallacePancher Group

Fruits and vegetables grow in large containers made of recycled steel.

Although the on-field product requires further tinkering, the Pittsburgh Pirates have ramped up their culinary game. And it has a decided Washington County flavor.

Rivendale Patio Garden, on the first-base side of PNC Park – home of the scuffling Buccos – is growing fruits and vegetables to be used in dishes served at the North Side ballyard during games. The produce is planted in vast containers made up of recycled steel along the patio of the suite level of the stadium.

Design work began during the 2017 season, but the garden wasn’t completed until about six weeks ago.

“We were originally shooting for last season to get up and going, but we couldn’t quite get everything done. We waited until this season, and that became fortuitous when Rivendale became involved,” said Gabe Hays, director of WallacePancher Group, which specializes in landscape architecture, environment and engineering.

His firm worked on this project with Rivendale Farms and Pirate Charities, the baseball club’s charitable arm, and under the auspices of Pirates Chairman Bob Nutting and President Frank Coonelly. The food is being grown there for Levy Restaurants, the concessionaire for all premium locations at the park.

“The Nutting family had wanted to do a vegetable garden with locally grown food,” Hays said. “We talked to Bob Nutting and realized there were opportunities to do this at PNC Park.”

WallacePancher Group is headquartered in Hermitage, Mercer County, but also has offices in Southpointe (Cecil Township), Waynesburg and St. Clairsville, Ohio. Staffers at the Southpointe location – specifically – handled the design, which was to include sustainable materials and practices.

“We worked with an interior design company. This was a really worthwhile project to be part of,” said John Burglund, director of the Southpointe office. “Mr. Nutting is a very vocal advocate for this type of sustainability.”

So, obviously, are the people at Rivendale Farms. The 170-acre operation in Bulger is creating a Godzilla-sized footprint at PNC Park, becoming its official farm and dairy supplier. Rivendale, in its first full year of operation, now is also sponsoring the patio garden area, which has been renamed Rivendale Suite Level.

Thomas Tull, a film producer and part-owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers, owns the farm with his wife, Alba. Rivendale employs modern technologies and techniques, including robotic milking systems and mobile, solar-powered chicken sheds. Its dairy cows produce a large volume of milk that also is used to make regular and soft-serve ice cream and chocolate milk.

Rivendale, Levy and Grow Pittsburgh – which supports individual, school and community gardens in the region – are maintaining the rooftop location at PNC. Compost byproducts from the concession locations help to sustain the gardening there.

There also is a rainwater collection system on an adjacent rooftop, Burglund said. “Water is collected from the roofs and there are two faucets that can be used to water all of the plants. There also is a greenhouse to start plants from seeds and seedlings.”

Those large planters are as stylish as they are useful, and have inspired creative gardening. Baseball bats – Louisville Sluggers, no less – have been used as trellises to grow tomatoes.

The patio garden not only has nutritional and aesthetic appeal, it is an educational initiative for all ages. Food for thought, so to speak. Tours, which often include school groups, pass through the suite level.

“One of the focuses is to show how food is grown in an urban environment,” Hays said.

WallacePancher Group is a diverse company that started in Hermitage then branched first to Southpointe, where it has an office staff of 12, Burglund said. The Waynesburg location is a field office with nine employees and two interns, serving the coal and oil and gas industries.

Launching a patio garden at the stadium, however, was especially satisfying to the two officials.

“It was fun to do,” Hays said.

“This has been a really good collection of players with different strengths who came together,” Burglund said, sounding as if he were talking about a successful baseball team instead of a ballpark garden.

In each instance, the Pirates are trying to grow a winner.

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