Company description

Love & Carrots is DC’s foremost urban farming and edible landscaping company. We design, install and maintain urban farms, vegetable gardens, and native landscapes across DC, MD, and VA. Through our garden care & coaching program we provide expert garden maintenance, guidance, and education in more than 150 gardens every year, helping connect people to their food and inspiring local food production and gardening. Our clients include residents, local restaurants, and community organizations throughout the DMV.

Job description

Our Urban Gardeners are responsible for the maintenance of our clients’ organic vegetable gardens, ensuring that they are beautiful and productive! On an average day they travel to 3-4 gardens, primarily residential, and maintain between 20-30 gardens over the course of a two-week period.

Gardeners work independently, driving from site to site, to perform all necessary garden tasks, and are supported remotely by our office crew and in the field by a team of experienced senior farmers. Our service area ranges throughout the beltway area, and each farmer is provided with a kit containing all tools needed to maintain gardens. Bulk garden materials are stored at our base of operations for employee use.

Winter work:

The season for garden maintenance runs from March through November. From December through February all employees work on our installation crew. Installation crew work requires driving our medium-duty trucks and more heavy lifting/bed filling etc. Garden crew members can choose not to work December through mid February, but if they do work year-round, truck driving and installation work is required for those months.

Maintenance tasks include:

• Seeding, planting, weeding, pruning, harvesting and applying organic pest control practices.
• Amending soil, soil fertility management.
• Trellising, drip irrigation repair and management.
• Ensuring the area in and around the garden is neat and well maintained.
• Tracking visit details on iPad or phone.
• Engaging with clients: teaching, sending recap emails, answering questions, receiving client feedback and applying feedback to gardens.

Necessary Qualifications:

• 1+ year experience with annual vegetable cultivation required
• A valid driver's license and working personal vehicle required.
• Knowledge of proper harvesting, weeding, transplanting, pest/disease ID, sowing, fertilization and rotation/succession planting techniques.
• Ability to lift 50lbs, perform manual work, lift heavy objects, walk and stand for long periods of time
• Ability to perform physical labor outdoors in various weather conditions (heat, rain, cold)
• The ability to think on your feet and come up with solutions to common garden issues on the spot without immediate assistance.
• Proactive, friendly, and prompt communication through phone and email.
• Comfortable teaching adults and children gardening basics (using our supplied curriculum.)
• Attention to detail and organization is critical
• Covid 19 Vaccination - must include the original vaccine series, boosters not required

Compensation and Benefits:

• Schedule: 7:30 AM - 6 PM, Monday - Thursday
• Starting rate: $20/hr +, commensurate with experience.
• Health and Dental insurance, 401k, and paid time off
• Annual smartphone reimbursement
• Annual gear credit
• Mileage reimbursement for use of your personal vehicle on garden routes.
• Vegetables to take home! Our headquarters has a large on-site vegetable garden for staff use.

Compensation

this position is: hourly, $20/hr +

Application instructions

Deadline

September 30, 2023