Vegetable Gardener

Cleveland Botanical Garden (CBG) is a year-round, urban public Garden with 10 acres featuring eleven permanent display gardens, the Eleanor Armstrong Smith Glasshouse, and changing exhibits. The Botanical Garden is a place where a wide variety of living collections are cultivated for scientific, educational, and ornamental purposes.

Gardening Assistants work with CBG horticulture staff in maintaining and preserving the accessioned plants and horticultural displays throughout our outdoor gardens and indoor displays and exhibits, as well as assisting with new plant installations that enhance the beauty of our Cleveland Botanical Garden campus for years to come.

In a specialty garden opportunity, volunteers can focus on our Kitchen Garden. This is for volunteers with vegetable gardening experience. The Kitchen Garden is a teaching garden for high school students that are in the Excel TECC program during the school year and the Green Corps interns over the summer. The primary day to help in the Kitchen Garden is on Thursday mornings (could also do Wednesdays). During the summer, volunteers will work alongside the Green Corps students. As a bonus, Kitchen Garden volunteers can take some of the produce home with them (produce is also used to feed the animals in the Glasshouse and the students will also get some during their internship weeks).

Responsibilities:

• Support staff and serve as a positive representative of Holden Forests & Gardens
• Follow supervisor instructions to complete tasks
• Assist with various gardening tasks, such as
  • Weeding
  • Deadheading
  • Seasonal bed clean up
  • Planting and dividing perennials
  • Applying mulch or compost
  • Raking
  • Planting grass
  • Pruning
  • Watering
  • Mowing
• Ensure that all equipment is cleaned and put away in proper location
• Maintain the safety of people, plants, and animals
• Providing information, direction, and guidance to guests; encourage appropriate guest use of the grounds
• Attend trainings, orientations, or clinics as required
• Additional related tasks as needed

Outcomes/Impact:

• Well maintained garden spaces allow visitors to fully appreciate the wonder, beauty, and value of trees and plants
• Further reduce pesticide usage by physically removing weeds and tending to gardens
• Stewarding and caring for plants in our collection that are used now and in the future by Holden Forests & Gardens staff