Lead Vegetable and Perennial Grower

About the Role

Our hope is to find someone who wants a long-term home for their skills and interests, rather than simply their next seasonal position. We want you to bring ideas to the table. If you see a better way to manage a garden bed, improve the soil, conserve water, establish a perennial planting, plant an orchard, or make the farm more productive and beautiful, we want to hear it. Our goal is to create a landscape that is productive, beautiful, ecologically healthy, and increasingly resilient with each passing year. Just as importantly, we want the farm to be an enjoyable place to live and work. We hope to maintain a warm, respectful, family-like atmosphere where people help one another, communicate openly, share knowledge, enjoy each other’s company, and feel that their contribution genuinely matters. For the right person, we hope this can be a place to put down roots and look back years from now at gardens and trees you helped establish and feel proud of what you created.

Responsibilities

• Planning and managing annual vegetable production
• Crop planning, succession planting, seed starting, direct seeding, transplanting, cultivation, and harvesting
• Managing perennial vegetables, herbs, berries, flowers, and other productive plantings
• Planting, establishing, pruning, and caring for trees and woody plants
• Helping develop fruit and nut trees, native trees, hedgerows, windbreaks, and other useful tree plantings
• Building healthy soil through compost, mulch, cover crops, and regenerative practices
• Managing irrigation and water needs
• Identifying and addressing weeds, pests, diseases, and plant nutrition issues
• Propagating, dividing, transplanting, and establishing perennial plants
• Maintaining beds, paths, trellises, irrigation, tools, and garden infrastructure
• Harvesting and post-harvest handling
• Keeping growing areas productive, organized, and beautiful
• Helping design and establish new growing areas and perennial systems

Qualifications

• 5+ years of substantial growing or horticultural experience strongly preferred
• Practical knowledge of trees and woody plants, especially fruit and nut trees, orchards, food forests, agroforestry, native trees, tree establishment, pruning, and general tree care
• Experience in vegetable production, market gardening, horticulture, organic farming, permaculture, estate gardening, or orcharding
• Understanding of soil health, plant nutrition, irrigation, crop timing, weeds, pests, diseases, and perennial care
• Knowledge of organic, regenerative, and permaculture approaches
• Ability to work independently and take responsibility
• Dependable, thoughtful, hardworking, and curious character

Pay

$18–$22/hour, depending on experience

Benefits

Private 3-bedroom, 2-bathroom on-farm home available

Send information to claire@riverroadfarmva.com