Green Scene: Learning Horticulture at Fox Valley Tech
By: Erin Davisson
Updated: November 28, 2011
Fox Valley Tech is one local school that's helping to meet that demand through it's horticulture program.
Growing season is year- round at Fox Valley Technical College, because of their on-campus greenhouses.
Horticulture Instructor and Landscape Architect Jim Beard says, "Our students
maintain our campus, we have in the past grown about 40-50 thousand annual plants a year --each one of our greenhouses can grow between ten and twelve thousand annual plants"And all of those plants not only provide training for landscape students- but save the school money.
Says Beard, "We like to tell folks that FVTC's Horticulture program is a small business and our customer is the college."
Fox Valley Tech just recieved a ten thousand dollar grant from the Lowe's Foundation to purchase a boiler that will heat another greenhouse that uses scrap lumber for fuel. It's in keeping with the school's mission of sustainability.
FVTC also provides training for homeowners who want to learn more about doing their own landscaping.
