We are a female led team of farmers, growers & educators, a.k.a. “Plant Nerds”, focused on sharing our love of and passion for useful plants with our community. Over the last 7 years we have become a central resource for all things relating to growing food in South Florida. We strive to be examples of how individuals can make a difference in their environment by sharing resources on composting, suburban backyard food gardening, growing & making plant medicine and becoming more resilient community members in the process. 

Our business is focused on three main activities: nursery plant production & sales, garden installation & maintenance, and education. Nursery plant production takes place at a small farm property in the Redland, and our garden installation & maintenance happens throughout Miami-Dade (and sometimes even Broward) and is based in Little River. We do our very best to provide our team with a positive work environment and the training & tools they need to efficiently and happily get the work done. We work hard in all types of weather, but we do it as a team, in beautiful gardens all over town in harmony with nature. 

Positions Available:

Garden Team Manager - Part time (Approximately 3 days a week to start with potential to grow into a full time position)

If you’re comfortable working independently and tend to be organized and prepared, like to apply common sense and past experience to find practical solutions to problems, then you may be the perfect new team member we are looking for.

The garden team manager is a new position for our team and we’re hoping to teach someone the inner workings of what keeps the business running. We are looking for someone who can bring their own insights to the administrative tasks and organizational systems we have developed. There is going to be a lot of room for learning, rethinking and executing your own ideas. It’s a multifaceted position because it involves a lot of computer work as well as driving a large van to our nursery in the Redland and packing plants for garden jobs. Our ideal garden team manager will be comfortable leading group meetings, communicating with clients regularly and keeping their profiles up to date. They will take our inventory system to the next level and generally make sure the gardeners are set up for success every week. 

Requirements:

• Excellent communication, writing and organizational skills
• Strong interest in horticulture
• A computer and smartphone you can use to access our client and invoicing platform (Jobber), organizational tools (Google Sheets and Docs) and communication tools (Whatsapp).
• Valid drivers license, reliable transportation and the ability to drive large vehicles (or the willingness to learn)

Ideal Candidate: 

• Has prior experience with managing a small business 
• Has prior experience with sales
• Has basic plant knowledge, particularly with edible plants
• Available Mondays, Wednesdays and Sundays, but is also available for communications daily
• Is comfortable driving a large vehicle 
• Is comfortable using Quickbooks, apps like google sheets and has the ability to use their computer and phone for work 

What we offer:

• Access to free plants aging out of our nursery on a weekly basis
• Free participation in our educational workshops
• Access to fresh organic produce from our family garden and neighbor farm (French Farms)
• Opportunity to advance with pay increases to match increase in responsibilities

This position benefits from a person who is familiar with the gardens we install and maintain so it will involve visits to job sites periodically. You may even be part of the garden team for large installations where extra hands are needed. You’ll be in charge of our plant mobiles and it will be important to know how the team uses supplies and tools. Our mission is to help people grow food for their families and your job includes meeting clients and getting to know their needs and preferences so that we can build the garden of their dreams. 

Lead Vegetable Gardener in Training - Part time (Approximately 3-4 days a week to start with potential to grow into a full time position)

If you are a great team player, a good listener and speaker, enjoy helping others achieve goals and aspirations with warmth, empathy and understanding and you can create stability under pressure, then you may be the perfect new team member we are looking for.

The Lead Gardener in Training position is for a person with either substantial or very little edible gardening experience. We will be training you on the job so that you grow into the Lead Gardener position. The Lead Gardener role is in charge of installing new raised bed gardens and other types of edible gardens such as food forests and container gardens in our clients homes. The Lead Gardener also does simple drip irrigation installations and routine maintenance visits for our clients. It requires a knowledge of basic edible garden requirements such as optimum sun exposure, watering needs, plant spacing and plant succession, organic pest management and harvesting. The Lead Gardener will be communicating with clients on a regular basis and driving to clients homes to install new gardens or do maintenance visits on a weekly basis (in our company van). They must be able to drive a Sprinter van, use the client tracking app used by our team on their smartphone and take clear photos of job sites for posterity. The

Lead Gardener will sometimes work alone, but most of the time works in a team and would be performing a leadership role and managing their coworker(s) when in a team.

Requirements:

• Strength, good physical condition. Ability to work in all kinds of weather
• The ability to lift 50 pounds regularly throughout the day
• Strong interest in horticulture
• Ability to follow instructions and lead a small team
• A smartphone you can use to access our organizational tools (Google Sheets), communication tools (Whatsapp), organizational platform (Asana) and job tracking app (Jobber)
• Valid drivers license, reliable transportation and the ability to drive large vehicles (or the willingness to learn)

Ideal Candidate: 

• Has prior experience with growing edible plants or at least a strong interest to learn 
• Has a flexible schedule and can be available Monday through Thursday as needed
• Is comfortable driving a large vehicle 
• Is comfortable using apps like google sheets and has the ability to use their phone for work 
• Lives in the North Miami/Upper East Side area because of the close proximity to our HQ in Little River

What we offer:

• Access to free plants aging out of our nursery on a weekly basis
• Free participation in our educational workshops
• Access to fresh organic produce from our family garden and neighbor farm (French Farms)
• Tools provided by company
• Opportunity to advance with pay increases to match increase in responsibilities

This job is an amazing opportunity to gain an extreme amount of hands-on experience gardening. Within a couple of months you will be able to identify all of our plants by sight, understand proper plant spacing, harvesting techniques, plus you will be able to identify pest and nutritional issues. Every day on the gardening team is different which is why we love the work so much. We work all over Miami-Dade county planting fruit trees, Florida native plants and vegetable gardens. We joke that this job is like “gardening cross fit” because it is very physical, takes place outdoors in the elements, and requires more physical fitness and endurance than most other jobs. That being said we work as a team to get the job done and do our best to enjoy ourselves and be present in the beauty of our gardening surroundings every day. Starting pay is $15-20 hour dependent on prior experience.

Nursery Manager in Training - Part time (Approximately 3-4 days a week to start with potential to grow into a full time position)

If you are someone who can begin and follow through on projects to completion, set and achieve high standards of conduct and are alert and sensitive to problems, you just may be the perfect team member we are looking for. Small scale agricultural work can be physically challenging but also requires attention to detail, initiative when working independently and on a team, and an engaging level of focus on the task at hand.

Our Nursery Manager in Training position is one focused on growing someone with little to no plant or gardening experience into a team leader position at our nursery by September of this year. In order to manage our nursery operation you will need a basic understanding of all of our growing practices (including seed starting, making cuttings, up potting plants & pest management) in order to manage making inventory & keeping plants healthy. Besides producing plants we also cultivate an exhibition garden on the property, are open to the public two days a week, host educational workshops on the weekends, and we sell plants for pickup, local delivery & nationwide shipping. Our ideal nursery manager will be able to excel in not just making and identifying plants but also with in-person sales, helping customers with their gardening questions, and supporting our small team of employees as they work to seed, make, pack and ship plants. 

Requirements:

• Strength, good physical condition. Ability to work in all kinds of weather
• The ability to lift 35 pounds regularly throughout the day
• Strong interest in horticulture
• Ability to follow instructions and lead a small team
• Reliable phone and email access (for training and routine communication)
• A smartphone you can use to access our organizational tools (google sheets), communication tools (whatsapp), organizational platform (asana) and e-commerce platforms (shopify, shipstation, etc.)
• Valid drivers license and reliable transportation 

Ideal Candidate: 

• Lives in south miami or near the nursery property (located in the Redland)
• Available for work Monday, Tuesday, Friday & Saturday 
• Has prior experience with plants, sales or shopify e-commerce platform
• Is available to start summer of 2022  

What we offer:

• Access to free plants aging out of our nursery on a weekly basis 
• Free participation in our educational workshops
• Access to fresh organic produce from our family garden and neighbor farm (French Farms)
• Opportunity to advance with pay increases to match increase in responsibilities
• Potential for on site housing in a shared home

Nursery Grower Position Part time (Approximately 3-4 days a week to start with potential to grow into a full time position)

As the Nursery grower your main responsibility will be seeding & up potting our inventory of organic seedlings. Seeding is the starting of seeds in trays of germination mix, and involves attention to detail when making the germination mix and keeping track of whats being seeded and when. Up potting is the process of taking the baby plants from the seeding tray and putting them in larger pots so they can mature and then be sold. While it may sound simple theres lots to learn about making healthy plants and keeping plants happy organically, so we will train you how to properly water, fertilize, manage pests and organize the greenhouse. You will also be expected to participate in general maintenance of the potting area including clean up after work days, weeding our common areas, maintaining the exhibition gardens, organizing the materials we use and emptying out used or bad trays of plants into our farm compost. Our whole team also sets our nursery up for retail sales together, packs plants for sale at the farmers market, packs plant orders for local pickup and delivery, and pack plants for shipment nationwide. 

Requirements:

• Strength, good physical condition. Ability to work in all kinds of weather
• The ability to lift 35 pounds regularly throughout the day
• Strong interest in horticulture
• Ability to follow instructions and lead a small team
• Reliable phone and email access (for training and routine communication)
• A smartphone you can use to access our organizational tools (google sheets), communication tools (whatsapp), organizational platform (asana) and e-commerce platforms (shopify, shipstation, etc.)
• Valid drivers license and reliable transportation 

Ideal Candidate: 

• Available for work Monday, Tuesday, Friday & Saturday year round
• Is available to start summer of 2022

What we offer:

• Access to free plants aging out of our nursery on a weekly basis 
• Free participation in our educational workshops
• Access to fresh organic produce from our family garden and neighbor farm (French Farms)
• Opportunity to advance with pay increases to match increase in responsibilities
• Potential for on site housing in a shared home 

How to apply: 

Send us an email to mail@littlerivercooperative.com with your contact info (name, phone number, email address). Copy and paste the following questions and answer them. Please include a resume. 

1. Which position are you applying for?
2. What area of South Florida do you live in?
3. What is it about this advertisement that made you think this position was for you?
4. What are your 3 strongest attributes?
5. Why are you well suited to this position?
6. What is your biggest success?