The goal of this program is to be able to bike 10-miles
uphill, both ways, in the snow, to the grocery store. Or so Tessa said both begrudgingly
and jokingly after a “wicked” 4-mile bike ride to the Polly Hill Arboretum to
help with the wildly-successful plant sale on May 24.
All joking aside, the Polly Hill Arboretum staff has the
great fortune of having Tessa Young, a Rhode Island native and rising sophomore
at the University of Rhode Island, and Eva Colberg, rising junior at the
College of William and Mary and all the way from Palmer, Alaska, on board for
ten more weeks to help over the summer
 |
| Tessa Young, left, and Eva Colberg, right, at the Gay Head Lighthouse viewing area the day after they came to Martha's Vineyard. |
The two of them jumped right in at the Hoft Farm vegetable
garden just after moving in and were in the thick of it at the Polly Hill
Arboretum by the end of the first day. You can easily find them weeding,
mulching or mowing the grass (or a tree, as during episode two of Freakout 2014)
on the grounds nowadays, but how did they come to join us here?
After a long rant in an old stereotypical Jewish voice from
Tessa and a lot of laughing by Eva and myself, we all sat down for a little
chat to reflect on how they got here and how awesome horticulture is!
Eva is majoring in biology, where she if focusing on plant
sciences, since William and Mary does not offer a major in horticulture. Before
this past semester, she was an International relations major, looking to study
environmental policy, but found herself involved in the Botany Club and
gardening. She says she didn’t think to do it party because she didn’t think
she could do what has been done before, as all of her family back home are
still involved in some kind of agriculture or nature-related field.
Tessa is majoring in horticulture, and hopefully minoring in
sustainable agriculture, and has spent the last couple of years working at a
local greenhouse and farm stand.
~~~
They come from different places, but have similar “budding”
horticulture experiences. Both noted
their family grew up taking care of plants and that nature was a big part of
their lives.
Tessa had an eighth grade teacher who let her help with his
jade plants once a week.
“Having a teacher who kind of saw [I was interested in
plants] and was interested in helping me move along that interest,” Tessa said
about her start in horticulture. “Since then I’ve begged my parents to let me
have a garden in the backyard.”
Eva grew up helping her father pick out and plant trees in
his apple orchard (and this year she is using her mad drawing skills to design
the logo for their 7th annual apple smashing!). But, she also found
that as she studied more about sustainable agriculture the more she wanted to
be a part of it.
“I just came closer to the realization,” Eva said. “That was
the biggest part.”
Favorite plants are hard to pin down for some
horticulturists, but Eva had a quick answer.
“Theobroma cacao,”
she chuckled, mischievously, “because I love chocolate. And it’s a gorgeous
tree.”
It wasn’t as easy for Tessa, who couldn’t nail down a
specific one after much thought.
“I’m interested in all succulents,” she said. “It might even
have to do with my eighth grade teacher having his jade plants.” And him giving
her a piece of one to thank her for her help!
“They are just so interesting, I think,” she continued. “They
come in all sorts of interesting shapes and their leaves are just so squishy,”
she said with a giggle.
~~~
“Seriously?!” was the first thing out of Tessa’s mouth when
she was offered the intern position at PHA. It was a long way off from going
back to work at the greenhouse and farmstand over the summer, where she thought
she would be going. Eva knew she didn’t want to go back to babysitting and
thought something on the East Coast would be a good idea.
“[The Polly Hill Arboretum Internship] was amazing. One of
the things that struck me about this one was that they actually want you to
learn during the internship,” Eva reflected. “It’s not just ‘run and get coffee
for our main staff.’”
But beyond the awesomeness of the internship, both Eva and
Tessa knew that this experience would expose them to many more experiences and
show them more options within the field of horticulture.
~~~
The question was: what is the most challenging aspect of
living on Martha’s Vineyard? Granted they’d only been here a week, but, Answer:
“I would have to say living on Martha’s Vineyard is honestly
the easiest place I’ve ever lived,” Eva said without a second thought. “Here it’s
a bigger bubble and there’s a whole new set of things. And it’s still
bike-able, or run-able.”
Tessa reflected more about being away from home, since this
is one of her first times being far away from home.
“I’ve always been in Rhode Island. At school I’m only 45
minutes away,” she said. “It’s not that I’m that far away now. It’s just two
hours, but it’s just that whole idea of being farther away from my parents and
being pushed out of the nest.”
“Friends, family and ticks, I guess” she finished. “Everything
else is super nice out here. It’s beautiful, like can’t even describe with words
how beautiful it is.”
Ticks and poison ivy were definitely at the top of the list
of challenges, especially given the ticks are tiny and there is PI aplenty. The
need to check yourself after someone else find a tick gets to even the best of
us.
~~~
Although it had only been a week since their arrival, the
ladies already had a favorite part of the internship. Besides getting stronger
and being exposed to new horticultural tasks, their favorite part was even simpler
than that.
“Just being outside all day and just doing stuff,” Tessa
stated plainly.
Passion was something else they both identified and each had
a resonating experience that really showed they are in the right place.
“Working with people who are passionate,” Tessa continued. “It’s
funny because we all eat lunch together and while you’re eating lunch people
are still talking about plants, so you know it’s not just a job thing. It’s a
thing that people are actually passionate about. That means a lot to me.”
“The people and the atmosphere are just so conducive to
learning about plants,” Eva added.
“My favorite part this week was just one moment when I’ve
just finished whatever task we had for the moment,” Eva explained, “and we had
just a few minutes until wherever we needed to be next and Tom was like ‘oh,
well, let’s go wander!’ And he was talking about plant species and so open to
questions, and willing to answer anything. That was just amazing because I had
not been expecting that level of engagement.”
~~~
“Cast my seeds,” Tessa said, wispily, and with a groan from
myself and Eva. “And see where I land, and grow and sprout.”
Both Tessa and Eva have a while until they are out in the
professional horticulture world, and they don’t really know where they’re going
to end up; but they understand they want to be working with plants in some way
and that now is the time to learn and gain experience.
“I just want to make sure I get the most that I can and not
let it go to waste because it’s an amazing opportunity,” Eva said.
Eva’s keeping an eye out for opportunities in both
horticulture and agriculture, with a focus in sustainability; and Tessa’s looking
to gain more experience in other fields within horticulture, beyond public
horticulture.
Wherever they are in their plans, they are both keeping an
open mind about the coming years.
“All I know is that wherever I do end up I’m sure I’ll be
happy wherever I am, as long as I’m involved with working with plants and being
around people who are enthusiastic and love what they’re doing,” Tessa said,
bringing the conversation full circle.
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