The Garden of Knowledge : Education: At Fullerton College, horticulture students gain hands-on experience working the soil, from planting seeds to installing irrigation pipes. Their efforts will be showcased at the plant sale that begins Saturday.

Surrounded by rows of colorful plants and flowers, Fullerton College horticulture student Jill Loya observed that working with the soil also works wonders for her psyche.

“I like being outdoors--being out in nature,” she said. “It’s peaceful to me.”

Nearby, another horticulture major, Daniel Jarnutowski, also labored with an assortment of potted plants. And like Loya, he found one of the special draws to studying horticulture is having only the sky as a roof.

“I like being outside,” Jarnutowski said.

Both students were helping prepare for the horticulture department’s annual fall plant sale, which opens Saturday.

In addition to being a public showcase for student efforts, the seasonal sale of students’ “laboratory projects” provides scholarship money and extra operating funds for the department. Hundreds of visitors are expected to tour the department’s parklike grounds to see the vast array of flowers, trees and greenery, all carefully nurtured by students.

Hands-on experience is the key to much of the education at the community college’s 32-year-old horticulture department, one of the oldest in Orange County.

Students put their hands into the soil. They plant, water and nourish a cornucopia of blooms, buds, shrubs and vines. In the process, the students learn to become landscape architects, commercial gardeners or self-employed entrepreneurs.

“In our classes, we’re outdoors very often because we learn by doing,” said Kent Gordon, coordinator of the horticulture department. “Our horticulture students get experience in these outdoor labs. . . . They do everything from growing seeds to installing irrigation pipes.”

Jarnutowski, 22, of Fullerton said horticulture is already providing him his own business.

“I do gardening and a little bit of landscaping,” he said. “I’m trying to get more into landscaping, but it’s a little tough because I don’t know all the skills, and that’s why I’m here.”

Loya, 34, of La Mirada said she is majoring in horticulture to change careers. “I previously worked in accounting,” she said. “I’ve been attending school here about three years now, part time. I hope to go into landscape architecture.”

Scott Kitzman, 18, of Whittier said he is majoring in horticulture “because I want to be a commercial gardener--be my own boss and set my own hours.”

Gordon, 41, who has taught horticulture at Fullerton College since 1979, said there are many career opportunities for his students. “There’s a real range,” he said. “We have people who go into landscape contracting, landscape design, landscape architecture, irrigation design and consulting, and water management.”

But Gordon acknowledged that the economic recession has cut into the number of immediately available jobs, and the downturn in the housing market in recent years has also badly affected demand for horticulturists. “Landscaping is of course closely tied to the housing industry,” he said.

Fullerton College, which has 20,000 students, averages about 125 horticulture majors a semester, Gordon said. Some students opt solely for a 30-unit vocational certificate; others choose to work for a two-year associate of arts degree and then transfer to a four-year university for a bachelor’s degree in horticulture, he said.

Despite the current job squeeze, Gordon said horticulture remains a good career field, especially in California. Part of horticulture training, he said, involves wise use of water.

“Water management is a big buzzword now,” he said. “We try to take a leading edge in what’s going on” in water conservation. Horticulturists, he said, can advise companies and cities on how to conserve water while keeping the attractive landscaping. One tool is use of California species and other drought-tolerant plants.

Student-grown plants at the college include many such native species. “We try to grow more than our share of natives, but we also use (drought-tolerant) Australian plants, South American plants, South African plants,” Gordon said.

“What we try to do is educate people to broaden their plant palette,” he said. “We want them to understand that there are lots of (drought-tolerant) plants that perform the same function and have the same beauty as the traditional plants.”

Fall Plant Sale Opens: Saturday Hours: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday; no sales Sunday. Next week: Monday through Friday, noon to 5 p.m. Proceeds: Go to scholarships and operating funds. Source: Fullerton College horticulture department