Juliette Olshock has been the Sustainable Landcare Program Manager at Phipps Conservatory for the past 8 years.
In addition to organizing classes for the general public, she provides training and credentialing for business and nonprofit professionals and dedicated amateurs.
This not only helps them to become better at what they do but also helps the general public to discover businesses and other organizations which are devoted to and trained in more natural land care, including native plants.
Like most people in the more sustainable land care movement, she would like to see more people change their concepts of what is beautiful in a landscape.
She manages the Sustainable Landcare Accreditation Course (https://www.phipps.conservatory.org/green-innovation/at-home/sustainable-landcare-services)
Registration for the 2027 program is open now. It is modeled after the Northeast Organic Farming Association (NOFA) Organic Land Care Program and includes substantial instruction about native plants and ecosystems.
It will include a total of 24 hours of webinars on Tuesday and Thursday evenings from 1/26-2/25 and attendance in person at the Phipps Native Plant Conference on 1/29 and a demo of organic tree care on Sat, 2/20.
After initial training, 4 hours of continuing education are required to maintain accreditation.
Accredited businesses are profiled on the site, and non-profits and amateur “advocates”, including myself, are listed.
She manages two certificate programs, “Ecological Gardening” and “Landscape and Garden Design”.
Each includes several core courses offered each spring and fall, and elective classes offered year-round.
She manages their yearly native plant sale at the Phipps Garden Center in Mellon Park.
I ask you to imagine how beneficial her work is and how much joy and satisfaction it gives her.
Juliette enjoys interacting with landscapers. She would love for her job to take her outside more, as well, but she enjoys the time spent working with land care professionals, promoting their work and spreading the word.
Growing up in Erie, PA, she enjoyed and took responsibility for nature. She made a habit of picking up litter.
She was inspired by Dr. Seuss’s The Lorax and Earth Day.
She was a member of her high school’s environmental club.
As a camp counselor, she took children on hikes and taught nature crafts.
She realized that she wanted to have a career in more natural land care but did not know what her options would be. She advises personal and professional exploration.
Concomitantly, she earned a Master of Education in Environmental Education and a Masters of Science in Sustainable Systems.
She has been an adjunct professor at Chatham University in their Food Studies program where she taught Ecological Agriculture and worked with students to plan and plant a food forest at their Eden Hall campus.
She has been a co-owner of 2 permaculture businesses, Pittsburgh Permaculture and Fourth River Workers Guild, where she and a team designed and installed edible gardens in the Pittsburgh area.
Like all of the professionals recognized in this blog series, her love for sustainable land care extends into her volunteer and personal life.
She and a business partner voluntarily created the first food forest in the Hazelwood Neighborhood of Pittsburgh. They and community members planted it in 2010. The food forest grew 5 years before the land was used for another endeavor in the community.
For those wanting to take a deep dive into permaculture and food forestry, she recommends reading the 2 volume Edible Forest Gardens by Dave Jacke and Eric Toensmeier.
Among her many favorite native plants are American Hazelnuts, Chestnut Oaks, Elderberries, Pawpaws, Blueberries and Cardinal Flowers.
She is enthusiastic about her personal garden in the Regent Square Neighborhood.
For one thing, “I’m proud of my compost bin.”
As another example of melding her private and professional lives, she will be teaching a “Home Composting for Beginners” class at Phipps Monday Evening, 11/16, 6:30-8:30 PM: https://my.conservatory.org/10646
Ed Wrenn