Greenery and plumage flourish all along the streets, parks and walkways throughout Baldwin County.

Somebody has to give a green thumb’s delicate care to these plants or else they would be a variable jungle overgrowing the county.

The Gulf Coast Golf and Landscape Institute at Faulkner State Community College is a program designed to cultivate landscaping entrepreneurs.

“Our program is strongly tailored to help people with their own business,” said Kent Schwartz, founder and director of the program.

The hands-on course deals with all aspects of landscaping and horticulture: landscaping design, plant identification and culture, pest, soil, water and turf management, irrigation and more.

Part of the class involves walking the city blocks of Fairhope identifying the hundreds of plant species there, according to Schwartz.

It’s knowledge local landscapers like Paul Kent consider invaluable.

“(The course) really focused on what the plants in this area would do,” said the 2003 graduate and owner of Southern Exposure Landscapes in Orange Beach. “We talked more about the Gulf Coast landscape than anywhere else, which is what I wanted to do.”

The plants around Fairhope are studied carefully.

“We walk around the city blocks and see whether (the plants) are thriving or not,” Schwartz said.

The idea is not only to teach the students but to give them real life experience. Students must take an internship course for credit to graduate.

In another part of the program, students get time growing their own plants in a nursery. Then they get to plant them in another course, according to Schwartz.

“The nursery was great when I was there,” Kent said.

They even get to experiment with the plant life.

“Hundreds of plants supposedly attract butterflies and we’re trying to work out which ones actually do,” Schwartz said. “Also, we’re growing sea oats to see how they work as yard ornaments.”

There’s even a design aspect of the course allowing students to present their own plans. Then the class collaborates and they put the design into action.

Although the course is customized to help prospective landscaping businesses, an associate’s degree in golf turf management or landscape horticulture can open many other doors, according to Schwartz.

“Although the golf course has a (narrower) outcome, people are going into different aspects of plant science,” he said. “There are a lot of places to get a job.”

One could be the superintendent of a park or golf course, or get hired by any large company dealing with horticulture — like Lowe’s or Home Depot.

“A lot of large chains hire our graduates,” Schwartz noted.

And there will always be jobs for landscapers, according to Schwartz.

“There’s so much building and development,” he said. “As long as there is construction, landscaping goes hand in hand with that.”

But it’s not just for the hard-charging landscaper either.

“There were a lot of retirees there because they just wanted to know a little more,” Kent said.

Schwartz claims the course isn’t too stressful and “we’ll teach you how to get that green thumb.”

“It’s not that intense of an ordeal,” Kent said, adding that he can’t put a price on what he learned.

“I don’t know what I’d be doing without it,” he said. “I’d definitely recommend it and I’d recommend (Schwartz) as a teacher too.”