Horticulture is the art of cultivating plants, flowers and landscaping, and Palo Alto College has a club to help students and employees with their green thumb.

"The landscape is your canvas," said Dustin Olle, president of the Horticulture Club. Olle, a native of Pleasanton, is a Mechanical Engineering major.

Helping out the community and teaching students about the art of horticulture are some of the club's goals. Also, providing plants for sale to students, faculty and staff. A lot of the work the students do is in classes and labs.

"I love the environment of Palo Alto," said Leah Saucedo, a freshman, Biomedical Science major, at Palo Alto College.

The Horticulture Club and different classes and labs have helped to beautify the campus. The Texas Parks and Wildlife recently certified the area in front of the GE Building that features a koi pond as a Texas Wildscape. Every month the Horticulture Club has a meeting to discuss what type of project or activity they will work on in the upcoming month.

Currently, they are working on a community garden downtown. Working with 20 ecotourism students from South America, they put their talents together to bring beauty to the area. Mowing grass, putting in irrigation systems and making walkways are a few of the projects they are working on at this site.

"The Horticulture Club teaches people about different plants and how to use them," said Kirk Williams, the lead instructor of Agriculture/Landscape and Turfgrass Management.

On Sunday, April 18, the Horticulture Club was at the Botanical Garden helping them with their plant sale.

In Spring 2009 they helped KENS 5 with the Mi Casa Make-over. This was a great opportunity for the students in the Horticulture Club to get some professional experience. Given two weeks to complete their project. The project was successfully completed with a lot of hard work. This spring, the club went back to the house to do some maintenance and meet the owners.

All of the students' work is voluntary. Most of the money the club raises is from its semi-annual plant sale in the greenhouse at Palo Alto. Most of the money the club raises is used toward scholarships or to support landscape projects at Palo Alto College. The scholarships are for students who want to pursue a major in Horticulture or Landscaping.

Alamo Colleges built a new greenhouse for Palo Alto's Horticulture Program. The new greenhouse is now located behind the tennis courts. Buying seeds, plants and potting soil, the greenhouse makes it easier for the club to grow plants and flowers.

To join, all you have to do is show up to a meeting, located in the Fine Arts Building. It is that simple. You don't have to be majoring in Horticulture or Landscaping to join the club.

For more information, e-mail Dustin Olle at dustinolle@yahoo.com or Kirk Williams at kwilliams@alamo.edu.