Spring 2021
The Agricultural Internship Program at the Santa Fe Botanical Garden provides an opportunity for middle school and high school students to gain hands-on horticulture experience and local plant identification knowledge & skills.
The interns’ main project will be to cultivate vegetables and herbs in the agricultural terraces in the Ojos y Manos: Eyes and Hands ethnobotanical garden to donate to local nonprofits, including Kitchen Angels.
This year we have eight students joining our two Volunteer Internship Coordinators and Garden staff in prepping, planting, weeding and caring for the plants. First task was planning the garden and testing seed germination. Students are growing varieties of chiles and tomatoes at home until temperatures are warm enough to plant later this spring. We are very grateful for several varieties of chile seeds donated by the Chile Pepper Institute at New Mexico State University!
Thanks Chile Pepper Institute for donating seeds!
After several weeks of meeting on Zoom and testing seed germination, it was time to get outside! The soil in the terraces was prepped with compost, irrigation was turned on and the interns sowed the first spring seeds of the season including arugula, spinach, lettuce, carrots, radishes, turnips and onions.
Interns planting seeds.
