Recently, a teenage weeding crew filled six five-gallon buckets with weeds in less than 30 minutes. It is testimony to their efficiency, but also to the fast rate of growth of the plants in the 250 flower beds in a dozen different parks in Rapid City.

With a few exceptions, the five teenage boys with the help of supervisor Bonnie Burton have been the only thing between the beautiful edged and weeded flower beds found throughout the city and a tangled field of plants gone wild.

"We come back once a week. In a week's time, it grows back that fast," Joey Young said.

Young, 16, has worked on the city's weed team for three years. The job fits his love of the outdoors, but it's not an easy job. In early spring, Young helped city crews with planting, which meant crawling on hands and knees through the freshly tilled flower beds while transplanting flowers and bulbs.

"It was so wet that you had to wear raincoats, and it was plenty cold … but my first year working here, it was so hot, it was miserable," he said.

But there are perks.

"We got to take home flowers that hadn't been planted," Young said.

He has since been joined by Lance Ebright, Ryan Raue, Trenton Meiron and Keenan Caesar, the newest weeder hired on the crew.

Like the rest of them, Caesar's father thought his son might do well pulling weeds. His mother grows a garden, so he had some experience.

"My dad asked me if I wanted to do this," Caesar said.

The 14-year-old said he might have landed a job at the pet store, which would have meant hours working indoors and possibly cleaning cages. As it is, he's outdoors in the fresh air, working with some pretty easy-going colleagues and "just pulling weeds - it's not really that much of a problem.

"It's pretty good pay," he said with a smile. "I have to pay for my own cell phone."

Although the working conditions can change quickly (recently they were sweating through high humidity), "it's not as easy as it looks," Caesar said.

Ebright, 15, agrees.

He was on the crew last year, thought it was a good job and decided to reapply for his position. "You get off at 2:30 p.m. and have a three-day weekend," he said.

Ebright worked during planting, and this year, it rained nearly every day for two weeks.

"There's a lot of bending over nonstop while you're on your hands and knees in the mud," he said. "It was really muddy."

Last year wasn't a picnic, either. "It was toasty," he recalled.

Yet the job helps him pay for his sound system that he installed in his truck, a motorcycle license and the vehicle's insurance.

Raue has ambitions of being a mechanic, but until then, there's no time for slacking off.

"You can't go wrong with a job at the city," the 16-year-old employee said.

Raue said he knows that Tim Forster and his staff at the city greenhouse receive plenty of applications for the weed crew. He also knows that Forster wants people who are on time, tidy and willing to do what they're told.

"They get a lot of applications, but since I worked here last year, it really helped," he said.

Meiron, 16, returned to the crew, too.

He said his father was a motivating factor in his getting the job, but Meiron also called the city greenhouse specialist to let him know that he was interested.

"We have a lot of fun," Meiron said of the crew.

They find a snake about once a week, run across homeless camps in the gardens and earn a pretty good wage - but more money wouldn't hurt.

"I like the people and hours are pretty good. I'm saving most of my money. I'm trying to save up for a motorcycle," he said.

Even with the bugs, humidity, acres of weeds and back-bending work, they continue to stay with the job.

"I guess because I love the outdoors," Ebright said.

Contact Jomay Steen at 394-8418 or jomay.steen@rapidcityjournal.com.