We are the Northeast Gardens Internship Team, which is made up of Sarah, our staff lead, Solana, our apprentice lead, Olya, our assistant apprentice, and high school interns Mila, Lydia, Finn, Rey and Jaymee. We have been having so much fun and are learning so much about gardening, building, and working together! This post is collaboratively written by all of the team members to showcase to you all what we have been up to. I, Solana, have learned so much about leading a group and initiating collaboration between the high schoolers, as well as project management and communication. This has been an amazing summer for me, and for the interns. Keep reading to hear from the interns about their experience and how our summer has been spent!
Project Overviews
Hey! My name is Finn Bender, and I’m an intern for Spark-Y. In my free time I enjoy gardening. Throughout the summer our group has continued to maintain and fix both the Holland Basin and the Edison High School Garden. We also designed and are building a seed library that will be donated to the community. The seed library project has been super cool to work on and build. Below, my teammates Mila and Lydia will dive deeper into our deliverables.
Holland Basin Seed Library
Hi readers! This summer we (aka the awesome NE gardens team) have collaborated to create a seed library. The project started when we flew ideas back and forth to each other in room 107. First it was a little library. Then we wanted to make it more sustainable so we (with the help of pinterest) had to do a seed library and voila, the Spark-Y seed library was born. With the help of our apprentice and staff leader, Solana and Sarah, our intern team added more designs to both a whiteboard and a 3D model. With a planter top, slanted roof, and a bowl with misc. seeds, our library design was finally finished.
- Written by intern, Lydia Johnson
Holland Basin Maintenance
During our internship, our group took up the task of maintaining the Holland Basin Rain Garden. The Holland Basin was originally built by the City of Minneapolis in the early 2000’s as a flood relief basin for NE Minneapolis. The rain garden, planted in 2021 at the middle of the Basin, treats stormwater as it slowly infiltrates back into the soil, cleaning the water before it flows to the Mississippi River. The native plants planted in the Basin have only had around a year to establish their roots to prepare for potentially intense flooding. Our job this summer was to thoroughly weed and water the Holland Basin Rain Garden to help prepare the plants for when they're “on the job”. Although weeding in the blazing sun for hours on end was tiring and very hot, it was never boring. Running through sprinklers and frequent water breaks kept us cool and energized, and stories, games, and spontaneous running races kept us in high spirits. Though, if you ever walk by the basin, you may notice that the garden is especially well weeded under the shade of the bridge. Gloves, rakes, shovels, and weeding knives, as well as help and guidance from our Apprentice, Solana, and Spark-Y Staff member, Jordan, made maintaining The Holland Basin Rain Garden a great hands-on learning experience.
- Written by intern, Mila Beitz
EHS Garden - Rey Siasoco
My name is Rey Siasoco. I am a Spark-Y intern for the Summer 2022. I am very involved in many things at Edison High School so it was cool working at the garden there. Our group was working on a Seed Library. I learned a lot from this experience but one of the biggest thing I learned is budgeting. Our group had to research items, find the prices and go to the store to get then. It was a really fun experience and taught me a lot.
Olya Noyes
Hi Everyone! I, Olya, am an apprentice assistant with Spark-Y for the summer 2022 internship. Fun fact: I was previously an intern in 2019 with Spark-Y! We have mainly been taking care of the Holland Basin and Edison High School Garden. My favorite days so far have been weeding and running through the sprinklers on hot days and coming back to the office soaked.
