Howard County plans to put its first public garden on a former plantation. A local woman wants its story told.

On a rainy Wednesday evening at a public hearing about a proposed public garden — Howard County’s first — there seemed to be an elephant in the room. About a dozen or so people spoke and offered ideas to the county’s garden focus group last month about what native plants they want to see when the garden, to be located on a former plantation along Route 97 in the western part of the county, comes to fruition.