Steven Broome Eagle Project

Eagle Service Project

My Eagle service project was to organize a group of scouts to work at the North Carolina Botanical Gardens preparing beds for an herb garden. I got the idea when my family visited the Botanical Gardens, hiked its trails, and saw the various exhibits. We noticed that the Botanical Gardens were planning an herb garden and that they hoped to obtain a collection of various herbs for this exhibit. This was a rather unique experience for them.

When I went to the Botanical Gardens, I noticed that they needed some assistance on their herb garden. Since i liked helping people and gardening, I talked to my scoutmaster about my idea for my Eagle service project. I was relatively new in Chapel Hill, and he helped me get in touch with Mr. Ken Moore of the Botanical Gardens.

Mr. Moore and I met to talk about the possibility of my project. He agreed that the Botanical Gardens needed some help for their herb garden and said that he would be glad to have a group of scouts do it. Then we scheduled a time for the project, having agreed on the scope of it.

The project then was to build and prepare the herb beds in the herb garden. This is the first of three phases in completing the herb garden. The second will be the installation of a drainage system to control soil water content. The third will be the actual acquisition and planting of the herbs in the garden. These last two phases will be done by the Botanical Gardens or other volunteers. The last phase will not be complete for a number of years, as locating the herbs may be difficult.

Then I talked to my troop about the project. I got a list of boys needing service projects or desiring a good turn. We went over the details and schedule for the project.

Early on the morning of October 23, I went to the work area ahead of the boys. I talked to Mr. Moore; we went over the last minute details. As the boys arrived, we began the process of clearing the area of weeds and trash and preparing the herb beds.

The last two phases of construction and planting remain to be finished. But those of us who participated in this first phase will always have a warm glow from visiting this herb garden when it is completed, knowing that we helped to bring this part of the North Carolina Botanical Gardens to the people of North Carolina and to the other visitors to the Botanical Gardens. We will keep this sense of accomplishment at having shared the building of something both beautiful and educational.