Discover the blossoming narrative of Collette Walsh’s Sol Patch Garden, a vibrant urban flower farm nestled in the heart of Braddock.
The best view of Braddock’s last operating steel mill isn’t from atop Kennywood’s coasters or the iron arches of Rankin Bridge – it’s from amongst the towering rows of crimson amaranth and canary sunflowers of Sol Patch Garden, Collette Walsh’s urban flower farm on Braddock Avenue.
Though 2023 marked Sol Patch’s first growing season in Braddock, locals have been fanning over Walsh’s floral flair since 2016, when the farmer made the switch from vegetable production to fleurs. Walsh quickly outgrew her original digs – her Grandmother’s Forest Hills backyard and expanded to a half-acre plot at Hilltop Urban Farm. All the while, Walsh prepared the soil and integrity of the farm’s current home in Braddock, where she also happens to live. Now, fully transitioned to farming on the Monongahela, Walsh almost can’t believe how much she has grown, and how much growing she still gets to do.
Sol Patch is All About “Flowers For the People”
In making the switch from vegetable to flower production, Walsh saw for herself a more financially stable future, creative expression, and connection to her community. Indeed, “flowers for the people,’ is Walsh’s personal mantra, and the ethos with which she makes decisions for Sol Patch’s future. The perimeter of the deer-proof fence enclosing the garden is densely planted with summer annuals for neighbors to pick and enjoy for free. With each arrangement, Walsh and her team aim to create 3-dimensional collages of touch, smell, and wonder.
“I want to change this norm around flowers – that they only appear at weddings and funerals,” says Walsh as she floats by a row of her current favorite plantings: the night-blooming Jewels of Opar. She kneels for a closer look at the delicate mist of tiny magenta blossoms, hanging like clouds above their bed of bright green foliage. “Flowers can give us an everyday sensory experience,” Walsh continues as she plucks one of the green leaves and pops it into her mouth. “I’m honored to be making that happen for folks.”
Braddock Roots
Western Pennsylvania is full of people who have somehow ended up back where they started. In a connection that Walsh describes as “cosmic,” her family history comes from Braddock, where her Great Great Grandparents operated the Braddock Tannery when the town’s population was in the tens of thousands. Generations of Walsh’s family grew up in a three-mile radius of her half acre flower farm. In November, as Sol Patch’s greens and pinks harden to silver and brown, the winter winds off the river will carry Walsh’s seeds down the winding roads connecting Braddock, Rankin, and Forest Hills, joining the lingering whispers of Walsh’s ancestry.
The Future of Sol Patch Garden
Beyond her undeniable, familial pull to Braddock, Walsh notes that her love of the borough comes from her affinity for industrial landscapes. She grew up in Red Hook, Brooklyn – another industrial, riverfront neighborhood, that like Braddock, is a monument to an uphill battle and sits in the shadows of an American behemoth.
Sat directly beneath the region’s last operating steel mill, Sol Patch blooms from the furnace. In Red Hook, Walsh grew up with the only front-facing view of the Statue of Liberty New York City has to offer. Beneath the raised torch of Lady Liberty, Walsh became interested in agriculture, raising chickens in her family backyard under the title, “Red Hook Poultry Association.” In present-day Braddock, Walsh and her team often find themselves working in the garden before first light, cutting stems of dahlias while the mill’s pyres burst out flames. Walsh can’t help but think that she is exactly where she is meant to be.
Every time Walsh drives her truck away from the farm, to sell her fresh or dried flowers at a farmers market, teach bouquet making workshops, or adorn someone’s special occasion with her pretty petals, she passes a sign for Braddock. The sign is also engraved with imagery of the borough’s industrial history. As Walsh looks forward to her future in Braddock, perhaps a zinnia or sunflower would make a fine addition to the welcome banner.
Story by Nina Katz
Photography by Jeff Swensen
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