If you’re in need of an area to de-stress at Long Beach City College, look no further than the horticulture department at the PCC campus. Featuring deadly psychedelic flowers, plants that smell like buttered popcorn, gardens galore, and a friendly neighborhood squirrel named Ethel.
Behind the steel gates bordering the horticulture department, students can be found with a shovel in hand while enjoying their morning coffee brewed in the department’s student-made cafe.
“It’s important to always take time to be in nature,” said Jaazaith Moore, a student who has been taking horticulture classes since 2019.
“I didn’t really choose horticulture. The universe told me nature is the answer, which it is because everything is nature, we are nature,” explained Moore.
Once the COVID-19 pandemic hit, a majority of the plants within the gardens died as a result of the campus closing due to the lockdown.
Now, the horticulture students are back on campus rebuilding and renewing the gardens one plant at a time.
“People are going to have to understand we have not been on this campus in over two years, so there is still a lot of work being done. But things are coming together and are going to look hopefully even better than before soon,” Moore said.
“In the current situation we are living in, I think it’s a great change of environment to not be in a standard room and be able to be in nature, outside, with the sunshine and fresh air in a covid safe area,” says horticulture professor Jorge Ochoa. “There is a little bit for everybody here.”
The horticulture department has various gardens ranging from California native plants to roses and everything in between to suit almost anyone’s taste.
With newly sprouted vegetables, orchards freshly grafted, and gardens pruned, the horticulture department is anticipating a bountiful bloom this Spring, as well as an ADA accessible garden for wheelchair users.
“If you want to see pre-pandemic pictures of our garden, you can go to our Instagram @lbcc_horticulture_club,” Moore said.
For students interested in getting to know more about gardening, nature, and all things plant-related, the horticulture club holds meetings every Monday at noon in the horticulture gardens at the PCC campus.