Lead Vegetable and Perennial Grower

Carolina Farm Stewardship Association; Franklin (VA); On-site; USD 25,000 - 30,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

On-farm housing

Competitive wage

Job summary

Carolina Farm Stewardship Association in Franklin, Virginia, seeks an experienced Lead Vegetable & Perennial Grower to join our sustainable farm. You will help manage annual vegetables, perennials, fruit and nut trees, and soil health in a close-knit, family-like setting.

We value long-term commitment, practical tree knowledge, and the ability to design and establish new growing areas. A reliable, hardworking candidate with 5+ years in horticulture or related fields is preferred, with on-farm

Qualifications

• 5+ years of substantial growing or horticultural experience strongly preferred

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
• Tree knowledge is important
• We are particularly interested in someone with practical knowledge of trees and woody plants
• Experience with fruit and nut trees, orchards, food forests, agroforestry, native trees, tree establishment, pruning, and general tree care would be especially valuable
• We don’t expect one person to be an expert in everything, but we want someone who understands trees, enjoys working with them, can recognize basic health or structural issues, and is interested in developing this part of the farm alongside our vegetable and perennial gardens
• Ideally, you will have 5+ years of hands-on experience in vegetable production, market gardening, horticulture, organic farming, permaculture, estate gardening, orcharding, or a related field
• You should be comfortable working independently without constant direction and have a good understanding of soil health, plant nutrition, irrigation, crop timing, weeds, pests and diseases, perennial care, and trees
• Knowledge of organic, regenerative, and permaculture approaches is important to us, but we are also practical. We want systems that work well, remain manageable, and improve the farm over time
• Formal horticultural or arboricultural education is welcome, but practical knowledge, judgment, character, and demonstrated growing ability matter more to us than credentials
• Compensation
• $18–$22/hour, depending on experience
• Private 3-bedroom, 2-bathroom on-farm home available

Job description

About The Farm

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.

About The Farm

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.

Job Description

We are looking for an experienced Lead Vegetable & Perennial Grower to join us on our farm in Franklin, Virginia. More than simply filling a position, we hope to find someone who would enjoy putting down roots, becoming part of the life of the farm, and working in a close-knit, family-like environment. We value mutual respect, trust, hard work, good communication, shared meals and conversation, and the satisfaction that comes from caring for a piece of land over time. For the right person, we hope this becomes much more than a seasonal gardening job. We would love to find someone who wants to know the land, see trees they planted mature, improve the soil year after year, and take genuine pride in what we build together.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of substantial growing or horticultural experience strongly preferred

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
• Tree Knowledge Is Important
• We are particularly interested in someone with practical knowledge of trees and woody plants.
• Experience with fruit and nut trees, orchards, food forests, agroforestry, native trees, tree establishment, pruning, and general tree care would be especially valuable.

We don’t expect one person to be an expert in everything, but we want someone who understands trees, enjoys working with them, can recognize basic health or structural issues, and is interested in developing this part of the farm alongside our vegetable and perennial gardens.

Experience matters to us, but character matters just as much. We are looking for someone who is dependable, thoughtful, hardworking, curious, and comfortable taking responsibility. Someone who notices things, enjoys solving problems, and takes satisfaction in leaving a garden, orchard, or piece of land better than they found it.

Ideally, you will have 5+ years of hands‑on experience in vegetable production, market gardening, horticulture, organic farming, permaculture, estate gardening, orcharding, or a related field.

You should be comfortable working independently without constant direction and have a good understanding of soil health, plant nutrition, irrigation, crop timing, weeds, pests and diseases, perennial care, and trees.

Knowledge of organic, regenerative, and permaculture approaches is important to us, but we are also practical. We want systems that work well, remain manageable, and improve the farm over time.

Formal horticultural or arboricultural education is welcome, but practical knowledge, judgment, character, and demonstrated growing ability matter more to us than credentials.

Compensation

• $18–$22/hour, depending on experience
• Private 3-bedroom, 2-bathroom on-farm home available