(originally posted to Gerten’s Farm Market facebook page on April 2, 2018)
Hello Everyone-
I’m Katie Gerten and it is so great to be back for another season! For those of you who don’t know, I am the store manager at Gerten’s Farm Market and I’m eager to share a few things with you—
First, I want to welcome everyone back! Spring is slow coming this year but it will come and we can’t wait to see you all again very soon! Stay tuned for our spring hours.
I’m so excited to be finishing up classes and wrapping up my time at Dakota County Technical College in Rosemount. I’ve loved learning about Sustainability and the importance of Native plants in the landscape as part of the Horticulture curriculum at DCTC and I’ve been lucky enough to get some design experience, too!
Graduation is a few weeks away and I am SO looking forward to this educational accomplishment. Everyone has been asking what I plan to do once I graduate… I want you all to know that I plan on being in the store at Gerten’s Farm Market for as long as my dad will have me. I hope earning this degree in Landscape Horticulture & Design will allow me to do my work here more professionally & more confidently.
As part of the Landscape Horticulture program I’ve been required to complete a number of internship hours. In addition to my working hours preparing our store for the 2018 season, I chose a few projects that were especially important to me & related directly to the business.
One project you will see on site is new signage throughout our plant benches! I’ve focused on our perennial plants and then added in a few vegetables & flowering annuals.
You will also be getting a lot more from me through our Facebook page. I’ve spent a portion of my internship hours preparing social media updates & articles to be used throughout the season. I’ve chosen some fun and important Lawn & Garden topics in addition to highlighting a few favorite plants and garden products. If there is a topic you want to know more about I would love to elaborate for you so just let me know!
I’ve themed some of the topics around the new trend of “national day of…” so watch for some fun Lawn & Garden versions. I hope the extra posts are helpful and not annoying but either way they are part of my internship so I hope you can enjoy them all the same.
I appreciate everyone’s support along the way, especially the patience and flexibility of my dad, Terry Gerten, and brother, Tony Gerten, who covered for me while I went back to college full time. I’m so grateful of my family & friends for their encouragement through this. A big thank you to my classmates for the knowledge they shared during this experience and also to our wonderful instructors, Matt & Steve, for their great teachings. It’s been a fun two years!
As Terry would say, “Party’s over! Back to work.”
