At Santa Barbara City College, the Environmental Horticulture Department has been offering training in career horticulture, landscaping and other areas of the "green industry". The EH program awards a one year State Certificate in Environmental Horticulture after completion of 10 courses, two of which are cooperative work experience sessions. Classes are offered in the fall starting in August and in the spring starting in January. They are held evenings Monday through Thursday, Friday afternoons and all day Saturday to allow working students to attend. The program is open to anyone, but the career oriented nature of the program mandates a certain rigor that a hobbyist may find a bit surprising.

An Associate of Science degree is awarded after completion of a second year and can be used as a vehicle for job upgrading, a stepping stone to Cal Poly's four year degree, or as a minor for those holding a Bachelor's or Master's degree. There are six areas of emphasis in the Associate's degree:

Environmental Landscape Design

C-27 Landscape Contracting

Horticulture Maintenance and Supervision

Nursery/Greenhouse Technologies

Regenerative and Restoration Horticulture

Horticulture Science (university transfer)

The EH program utilizes two very unique outdoor classroom gardens in practical lab portions of its classes. The Lifescape garden is a collection of over 700 edible and ornamental plants which grow in Santa Barbara's Mediterranean-type climate. Within the Lifescape is also found a turf and lawn display, water-conserving xeriphytes, various hardscape and irrigation displays and a backyard-style composting and green resource recycling endeavor. Students create and maintain the various theme areas as part of their career training.

A second garden is the Chumash Point Ethnobotanical Preserve. This one-of-a-kind landscape located at Chumash Point is perched on the bluff above Shoreline Drive overlooking the Harbor and Wharf. Native plants from Point Conception to the Ventura River and the four northern Channel Islands that the Barbareño and Canaliño Chumash peoples utilized are planted in habitat collections.

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