Lucy Bradley

Lucy Bradley is the Consumer and Community Horticulture Specialist at the NC State University, Department of Horticultural Science. She directs consumer horticulture, community gardening, therapeutic horticulture, preschool gardening, and the North Carolina Extension Master Gardener Volunteer program.

Lucy began her gardening career as a Master Gardener Volunteer in Phoenix, Arizona, and went on to earn a Master’s Degree in Botany and a Ph.D. in Plant Biology from Arizona State University.

She links university expertise with county expertise to expand the impact of the horticulture department. Several of her current projects include:

• The NC Extension Gardener Handbook: now available free online, as a hardcover book from UNC press, and as an interactive online teaching tool from TopHat.

• The Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox: an online plant database with almost 5,000 plants.  Users can select a plant with desired characteristics (95 variables) that will thrive in a specific environment, identify alternate options for poisonous or invasive plants, link to NC  Cooperative Extension publications on how to manage pest and disease problems the plant is susceptible to, see images and video profiles of the plant (including whole plants, plant parts, seasonal interest, life cycle stages), and much more.

• Therapeutic Horticulture Certificate Program: A series of 4 fully online, self-paced courses teaching the theory, practice, and profession of Therapeutic Horticulture.

• Online courses in plant identification and garden, lawn, and landscape management.

Dr. Bradley is an urban pioneer who has raised chickens, bees, native frogs, and a daughter in an edible landscape full of native plants.