The Florida Gardener: Tips and Tricks from Agricultural Specialist Gene McAvoy CC’74, GSNB’83

Join Gene McAvoy, associate director for stakeholder relations at the University of Florida’s Southwest Florida Research and Education Center, as he shares tips and tricks for growing Florida native plants that will attract butterflies and birds.

McAvoy has worked for more than 50 years in the vegetable growing industry, starting in New Jersey when he picked vegetables in high school to earn money for college. He is the associate director for stakeholder relations at the University of Florida’s Southwest Florida Research and Education Center and an emeritus regional vegetable extension agent IV. For more than two decades, he was the university’s regional specialized vegetable/horticulture agent for southwest Florida, working primarily with the commercial vegetable industry. He publishes the biweekly South Florida Vegetable Pest and Disease Hotline and is an expert on worker safety training, best management practices, and food safety training. He serves on the Florida Farm Bureau Vegetable Advisory Committee.