Friends of the Hort Farm Internships


Intern Ben Crockett Photo: Jodi Anderson		Intern Jodi Anderson Photo: Ben Crockett

Friends of the Hort Farm (FHF) hire Interns each year to help maintain the collections year round. Interns generally work in the spring, summer and fall and should have knowledge of general garden maintenance practices. An understanding of general gardening equipment is a plus. Interns will get familiar with all of the plant collections. A general knowledge of the Horticultural Research Center is adventitious but not required. Compensation and work hours may vary.

Contact information: If you are interested in applying for this position, or if you would like more information, please contact David Heleba at 656-0473, or David.Heleba@uvm.edu.

The Intern Coordinator is Jen Mills: jamvt70@verizon.net.

Sample list of activities for interns:

Edging, weeding and mulching collections
Mowing and maintaining collections
Labeling plants in collections
Working with Curators of various collections
Assisting with Bloom-Time Festival in May
Assisting with FHF Annual Plant Sale in July
Assisting Faculty and Staff research activities
Construction of boardwalk and stone pathways
Maintaining and developing trails
Developing literature and signage for trial stations
Invasive plant species removal
Assisting Common Ground Student Farm

Common Ground Farm

Common Ground, an organic student run educational farm, was born out of the Common Ground Agricultural Club during the end of the spring semester of 1994. It was decided during a UVM Plant and Soil Science Agroecology class fieldtrip that students should form a club that focused on agricultural issues. The discussions, which focused on curriculum issues, took place over dinner at the “Common Ground” restaurant in Brattleboro and from this namesake the Common Ground Agricultural Club was born. The students asked Dr. Wendy Sue Harper, a Soil Scientist in the Plant and Soil Science (PSS) department, to be their faculty advisor, and she agreed. As of 2007, Common Ground's CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) memberships have been steadily growing. This year they will be growing close to 200 different vegetable varieties: everything from Arugula to Zucchini.

Common Ground website: http://www.uvm.edu/~cgsref/

Article about Common Ground from 2003: http://www.uvm.edu/theview/article.php?id=861