Beautifying Baywood, Pot-Nets and Longwood Gardens
Life is beautiful.
A simple statement that can be made when things seem to be breaking the right way in one’s life. However, in this instance, life isn’t a person’s but rather actual life – trees, plants, bushes and flowers. Evidence of this can be found when stuck in traffic on Route 24 waiting to get to their destination.
Should one be lucky enough to find themselves next to Baywood Greens, they’ll be greeted with a variety of colors bursting from those trees, plants, bushes and flowers. Residents of Baywood and the surrounding Pot-Nets communities are able to take in the beauty daily. In charge of ensuring the scenery remains eye-catching is Sussex County native Cameron Marcelle.
Marcelle is the director of landscaping for Tunnell Companies L.P. His responsibilities include not only Baywood, but the sprawling communities of Pot-Nets. A tall task for anyone, Marcelle worked his way into the role by studying first at Delaware Technical Community College and then at the famous Longwood Gardens before returning to the area with an expansive knowledge of horticulture.
After working at Tri-State Tree and earning his degree in horticulture from Delaware Tech, he learned of the Longwood Gardens professional gardener training program. The two-year course accepted 16 to 20 people, and Marcelle was chosen in 1995.
“We were meeting people that were the rockstars of the gardening world,” Marcelle said.
Following graduation, he found a job helping to work on a 250-acre piece of property in Ambler, Pa.
“Imagine having 250 acres, 20 minutes outside downtown Philly. It was like the country in the city,” Marcelle said.
Unfortunately, while he could walk to work, his wife was commuting 40 minutes each day. In 1999, after a few years of working the property, Marcelle learned Tunnell Companies was looking for a director of landscaping. He’s held the job for the last 24 years.
“We’re trying to build more sustainable landscapes. In the beginning, we wanted color, [so] let’s pop annuals here and annuals there. Now we’re trying to get a little bit more sustainable with perennials and shrubs. Still provide color, just not buying color every year,” he said.
Marcelle said he believes in planting and caring for the landscape in a practical matter. He thinks plants play well off each other when they are given the freedom to coexist and grow naturally. The fruits of friendly labor each plant provides its neighbor is evident in medians, along tee boxes and in sprawling meadows in Pot-Nets. Trees seem to permit the exact amount of sunlight needed for flowers to flourish without frying and bushes seem to trim themselves when kept confined by one another.
The longtime landscaper and gardener does have a few favorite plants.
“The Itea, Virginia Sweetspire, that’s always been one of my favorites,” Marcelle said. “It does well in a lot of different places.”
A native plant that thrives along banks, the shrub blooms green and white in season and its foliage is a vibrant red or burgundy color. Marcelle is also a fan of the clethra, a plant the University of Delaware says offers much greater diversity than most gardeners realize. Clethra’s flowers bloom in white clusters, which can grow more than 10 inches in mid to late summer and are attractive to pollinators. A golden yellow takes over the plant’s color in fall.
Kim Book, a 10-year resident of Baywood, raves about the colorful views she is treated to every day.
“Baywood is its most beautiful in late June and the months of July and August. The person responsible for Baywood's beauty is Cameron Marcelle,” Book said.
Book added that residents love living in the neighborhood and golfers have told her it’s as close to Augusta as they have seen. She said she pays land rent to live in Baywood, but thinks its well worth the price.
Despite his accomplishments, the very first thing Marcelle said is that what’s seen in Baywood and Pot-Nets is a result of his team.
“You can tell when you go into a community whether or not somebody cares about it,” Marcelle said. “Whether it’s an HOA, the owner of the community, residents themselves, you’re looking at the landscaping.”
Marcelle said he is also a believer in meadows and pollinator gardens and has implemented meadows in the Pot-Nets communities. He says they catch fire in the late spring and summer, radiating all different kinds of colors and bursting with life. For him, there’s a difference between contributing to pollinators and neglecting one’s property. He understands the traditional mindset of a lawn, but he also believes there are benefits to properly maintaining meadows and pollinator gardens.
Following the keys of care, a property owner could allow selected patches to grow out as meadows while maintaining the edges of paths so maintenance is evident. Meadows help with stormwater management and can even save on the cost of landscaping.
“If I want to plant a meadow, it’s going to need to be established, but it’s probably not going to be irrigated,” Marcelle said. “If I want to plant a lawn, it’s definitely going to be irrigated.”
Marcelle said he believes beyond the aesthetics of landscaping, residents can find a sense of well-being among nature.
“Ten minutes at the end of the day, just go walk around your yard or garden and see what’s different than yesterday,” Marcelle said. “Take a breath and look around. Of course, there’s work there and you might be looking at what needs to be done, but you’re also enjoying the fruits of your labor.”
Stuck in traffic along Route 24 can be an ugly scene, but along the heart of the highway lies two beautiful communities full of trees, plants and flowers dedicated to beautifying Baywood and the Pot-Nets communities. Take a moment and see that life is beautiful.
