photo credit Sonja Wilkinson and Unsplash
photo credit Sonja Wilkinson and Unsplash
Use this schedule and the resources below to learn our weekly job and garden skill. Check out the training videos and review as needed. You can also look ahead to see what’s we will be doing each week. Review and practice skills your skills each week.
Welcome to the Garden of Youth internship program! We are going to practice and grow our job skills as we grow and sell our garden produce. We will work hard, get dirty and have some fun. We will learn how to grow delicious, organic fruits and vegetables and build our résumés. By the end of the 10 week internship we will know what it takes to shine in any job or career.
Take a look ahead at what skills we will be practicing each week. Use the tabs to review and grow your garden knowledge.
This week we are focusing on basic job and garden skills. We will go into the importance of showing up on-time everyday, working while you are at work, and having what you need to be successful. We will also learn how to gently plant seeds and transplant delicate seedlings in our garden.
Garden Skills: Planting & Transplanting
Job Skills: Show Up On Time Everyday, Work while you are at work, Bring what you need to be successful
No one likes to be sprayed in the face and plants feel the same. Plants want water to their roots at the end of your workday. The warm soil helps prevent the cold water from surprising and shocking the plant roots.
We live in a high plains desert and the air dries out the soil. The only way to tell if a plant needs water, or if the water has been able to get to the plant’s roots is to dig into the soil with your shovel or finger.
Job Skills: Stamina, Cell Phones and Breaks
Compost is how we turn unwanted plant material back into nutrients to feed the soil ecosystem and our future garden vegetables.
Job Skill: Professional Communication in person, phone, texts and emails
This week will we look at some of the most common insect pests and weeds we will find in garden.
Plants are not good or bad and weeds are just plants in the “wrong” place. Corn growing in a driveway is as much of a weed as a dandelion in the garden. Many “weeds” are good for the soil, feed native insects and birds, and some such as common purslane (portulaca oleracea) are delicious additions to salads or stir fry.
Job Skill: Time Management
Bees, moths, birds and bats pollinate flowers in their search for nectar.
Job Skill: Attitude is Contagious
This week we are learning how to market our produce and make our booth inviting, talk with customers about our produce and program, and practice money math.
Job Skills: Merchandizing, money math and talking to customers
Stewardship is recognizing the need to care for the world around us.
Investing in our future selves is important as we build a brighter future.
Job Skill: Invest in your future – have a plan
We live in an amazing world where everything is connected to everything else. Turn over a rock or a rotting log and see a busy miniature world of insects, worms and other invertebrates.
Job Skills Review: 1. Show up every day on-time 2.Bring what you need for success 3. Work during work time, break during break time
One of the best things about our program is that we get to eat and share our work! Nutrition is the science of eating foods that taste good, provide the best fuel for our bodies and help us to feel and be our best.
It’s the last week of Garden of Youth and we have come a long way over the summer.