The Bonnie B. Davis Environment and Agricultural Center, completed in 2021, houses offices for the Cooperative Extension; the Department of Environment, Agriculture, Parks and Recreation; Farm Services Agency; Soil and Water Conservation District; and the Orange County Forest Service. The Center was dedicated to the late Bonnie Briley Davis, a Family and Consumer Science Agent who dedicated her career to Orange County residents. It is the first county building named after a Black woman, and the only Center named after a Family and Consumer Science or Home Demonstration Agent.

Master Gardener volunteers of Orange County are developing new demonstration gardens at the Bonnie B. Davis center. The gardens, which will help local residents learn how to deal with garden challenges, are named in honor of the late Ms. Davis.

The existing landscaping at the Davis center was minimal when the building opened. Mart Bumgarner, Orange County horticulture agent, and Master Gardener volunteers saw opportunity in the nearly empty grounds for what was to become the Bonnie B. Davis Demonstration Gardens (BBD Gardens).

The goal of the BBD Gardens is to demonstrate good-gardening practices for the varied interests of Orange County gardeners. The original five gardens were designed by the EMG volunteer training class of 2022. Members of the class prepared the garden beds under the direction of Mart Bumgarner. They subsequently have propagated plants, sought funding for other plant materials and supplies, created raised beds, trellises, a composting site, and began plantings.

These initial gardens offer solutions to different challenges facing Orange County gardeners:

• The D’Sign Garden examines the challenges highlighting a physically low sign identifying the building complex with plants that can withstand the hot, dry, yet humid heat of North Carolina summers.

• The Slope Solution Garden offers solutions to problems of high summer heat and rain runoff on steep slopes.

• The Creative Containers Garden showcases both temporary and permanent exhibits of planters in a patio area with challenges of variable shade and sun, as well as the need to move planters to facilitate alternative uses for the space.

• The N.C. Native Plants Garden offers a display of plants native to our region in a largely shaded area.

• The Year-Round Edible Garden features a variety of edible plants with yields at various times of the year.

Because education is the primary purpose of the gardens, EMG volunteers anticipate undertaking additional gardening initiatives in response to educational needs.