Matthew Yurkovich loves the great outdoors. He also loves his Northside neighborhood of Brighton Heights. As a way to bring the great outdoors to his community and connect his Pittsburgh neighbors to the greater ecosystem, he came up with the idea of the Allegheny Mountains Lot – a micro woodland and wildflower meadow full of native plants – for a vacant lot near his home.

The nondescript vacant lot sits on a busy intersection in Brighton Heights. Matthew’s design takes this unimpressive space and transforms it into a garden with a purpose. The cobblestone-lined trail will invite passersby to walk through the site and view the beautiful plants and native birds and insects that call these plants home. Matthew plans to harvest the seeds from the plants on site and share them with his neighbors in order to encourage their own gardening and beautification of the neighborhoods.  In additional a “take a book, leave a book” Little Free Library will sit on the site for everyone in the community to use.