“Leah Chester-Davis was instrumental in helping the North Carolina Nursery and Landscape Association become involved with the original Extension's Successful Gardener program. This experience was both beneficial and educational to our association as it represented our first effort to market the green industry's goods and services directly to the consumer. Leah set the bar high with well planned and colorful information on plants and gardening practices that consumers could not resist. I look back on that involvement as the initial foundation of our consumer marketing outreach.
Mark Peters, Past President North Carolina Nursery and Landscape Association
This award-winning program brought together N.C. Cooperative Extension horticultural agents to provide research-based gardening information to the public. A number of North Carolina counties and independent and corporate businesses supported this program. The educational marketing communications program consisted of a flagship newsletter distributed through garden centers, landscape companies and individual subscriptions; a website; monthly e-tips; Successful Gardener Learning Centers at many of the home and garden shows in the state; Successful Gardener seminars; radio and television segments; and newspaper columns. Leah served as the team leader and editor for 10 years. She was the co-editor of a book, The Successful Gardener Guide, published by Blair Publisher that included the best of more than 10 years of newsletter articles. The program won numerous state, regional and national awards under Leah’s leadership. It is now known as Extension Gardener.