From Soybeans to Splendor
/by Lynn R. Parks in August 2020 Delaware Beach Life
Botanic Gardens transform a monoculture into a thriving, vivid display of diversity
Not too many years ago, the small farm field on the south side of Piney Neck Road, about 2 miles east of Dagsboro’s Main Street, was dedicated to the growing of soybeans.
DOGfish head learning garden at delaware botanic gardens
No other plants were welcome there — any that appeared were quickly dispatched by the cultivator or sprayed with an herbicide. “This was a monoculture,” says horticulturist Brian Trader. “Just one plant grew here, year after year after year.”
“This was a monoculture,” says horticulturist Brian Trader. “Just one plant grew here, year after year after year.”
That was the situation in 2013. But things are very different now. What was just a sea of beans is home to tens of thousands of blooming plants, grasses, trees and shrubs, most of them native to the Delmarva Peninsula. Read more…