He and wife and business partner, Anita Avent, own Plant Delights Nursery and Juniper Level Botanic Garden in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Instead of playing games, he wandered the woods and fields near his home in Raleigh NC, studying wildflowers.
[1] At age five, Avent was building terrariums and dish gardens with mail-order plants, and at seven years old, his parents built a greenhouse for him.
He established Plant Delights Nursery and Juniper Level Botanic Gardens in 1988[4] and by 1994 the business had expanded enough for him to resign his state job and become a full-time nurseryman.
In 2018, Avent was named a Distinguished Alumni at his alma mater, North Carolina State University.