Rain Garden at Flick Park

Eagle Project Write-Up

April 2008

John Hoffman

1516 Meadow Lane

Glenview, IL 60025

BSA Troop 156 Glenview, Illinois

Potawatomi District

Northeast Illinois Council

Table of Contents
What Was the Project?

How did it benefit others? Was it of real value?

Who from the group benefited gave guidance?

Contact information

Who helped carry out the project?

What Materials were used and how were they

acquired?

Did you demonstrate leadership of others? Were you

the project director?

Did the project follow the plan?

Total Project Hours

What Was the Project?

For my Eagle project, I planted a rain garden at Flick Park in Glenview, Illinois,
located at 3600 Glenview Road.

Rainwater is currently directed from the pool and park area into a drainage
ditch on the west side of the pool that guides water around the pool into a
detention pond on the north side of the pool. This detention pond holds water
and releases it slowly into the Glenview sewer system at a rate that helps
prevent the municipal sewer system from being overwhelmed. Before I
planted the garden, the system was basic and not aesthetically appealing.
The rain garden improves the efficiency of the current drainage system, and
also makes it more environmentally friendly by filtering and cleaning the
water. The area around the drainage ditch is very popular for recreational
activities, and the rain garden should draw more
people to the area.

The Rain Garden was planted along a stretch of the

drainage area that leads to the drainage basin. It
involved preparing the area by clearing the area of
existing “rip-rap” and tall grass which was present
at the site of the main inlet of water for the
drainage area, marking the area of the garden and then planting seeds and
plants.

First, workers and I removed existing rip-rap around the main inlet pipe using
shovels and our own hands. After removing the rip-rap, smaller stones were
shoveled into a smaller pathway which water follows after it leaves the inlet
pipe. Then, the removed rip-rap was put back.

In the main section of the garden (the 100 feet beyond

the initial section of rip-rap), seeds from an already
purchased “Sedge Meadow Seed Mix” from JFNew were
broadcasted, and, once an area of the garden was
broadcasted, an anti-erosion blanket was rolled over it.
After all of the seeds were broadcasted and the anti-
erosion blanket was laid out, the anti-erosion blanket
was staked down with bio-degradable stakes to
secure the blanket.

Approximately 500 plugs were purchased by the park

district, and arrived at the site with Mr. Wexler. The
area of the garden covered by the anti-erosion
blanket was divided into sections every 9 feet, and
marked with a straight line of spray paint. The plugs
were then spread out into each corresponding section. Workers planted plugs
individually by digging a small hole with a shovel, removing the plastic
covering on the plug, placing the plug in the hole, and packing dirt around it.
This was the most time consuming part of the project.

Also, halfway down the garden (lengthwise), a simple footpath was created
for people who wanted to cross the garden, or get a better look. This was
done by placing medium sized flagstones firmly into the ground.
How did it benefit others? Was it of real value?
There are multiple purposes for this rain garden.

1. This garden will improve the aesthetic nature of the area in which it is
planted, which will hopefully draw more people to the area for
recreational or other reasons. This aspect of the garden will directly
benefit all people who attend Flick Park as well as the park district,
since the rain garden has the potential to bring in revenue through
attracting more people to Flick Park and its pool.
2. The Village of Glenview is giving grants to Glenview citizens to
encourage people to plant rain gardens; this could serve as an
example to anyone looking to plant a rain garden, and serve as a
source of inspiration for them as well. This means that the rain garden
will benefit not only the environment but Glenview residents who are
looking to plant a rain garden as well.
3. This rain garden will function, meaning that, as a rain garden, it will
alleviate some of the pressures on the municipal sewer systems by
absorbing large amounts of rain water and filtering the rain water that
goes through it, which lowers the level of polluted rain water in the
area. This means that the rain garden will directly benefit the local
environment as well as Glenview residents who may experience storm
sewer backup and blockage less frequently.

Who from the group benefited gave guidance?

Contact information
Ken Wexler, Landscape Architect for the Glenview Park District, supplied
much of the planting advice and was responsible for obtaining the seeds and
the plugs which we planted. He also stayed for the duration of the project and
gave on-site advice and direction (in addition to physical labor). Fred Gullen,
Superintendent of Park Services for the Glenview Park District gave me the
idea for the project, and played a large role in planning the garden. He sat in
on most of the planning meetings, and was responsible for many logistics of
the planting day (providing the field house, getting park district workers to
help out, etc.). Mike Moorman, another representative from the Park District,
also played a large role in the project. He gave on-site advice and planted
seeds at Community Park West to supply plugs for the project (which
unfortunately did not end up working).

Who helped carry out the project?

I recruited some scouts from my troop, friends and classmates, family, and
also the help of Glenview Park District employees to carry out my project. In
order to recruit people I went to the scout meetings preceding the workday
and had people who were interested sign up, and I called them the night
before to remind them. I also spread the word through online social
networking websites to my friends and classmates, and I made an
announcement in many of my classes before the project.
Name Time, in
minutes
John Hoffman 340
Jo
Mrs. Barnas 330
Mr. Moorman 370
Mr. Wexler 275
Mr. Joel Hoffman 340
Mr. Grinnis 210
Carlton Olson 215
Caron Hoffman 250
Jeff Richards 235
Kelsey Gorman 132
Amy Greulich 132
Jacob Metrick 35
Jonathon Anderson 120
Park District Workers (2) 95+95
Joseph (Scout) 57
Josh Raebel 90
Morgan Sendor 86
Rachel Lewandowski 86
Ally Brown 86
Peter Hughes 60
TOTAL TIME IN MINUTES: 3820
TOTAL TIME IN HOURS: 63.67

What materials were used and how were they

acquired?
 How will it be
Name Description/Purpose Quantity
obtained?

Garden
For digging small holes to Supplied by
Shovels/Spad 10
plant the plugs or seeds workers
es

To protect workers' hands Supplied by

Work Gloves 15 pairs
while working workers

Cooler and Supplied by my

To keep refreshments cool 1 Cooler
Ice parents

To keep the workers Supplied by my

Water 98 bottles
hydrated and cool parents

Donated by my
Pizza For lunch both days 5 pizzas
parents

First Aid Kit Comprehensive 1 Troop First Aid Kit

Quantity
To plant in lieu of "plugs" to
Supplied by Park
Seeds (Sedge Meadow Mix from broadcast
District
JFNew Catalogue) over 1500
sq. ft

Donated by various
nurseries and
obtained from
"Plugs" Actual plants ~500
planting seeds at
Community Park
West

To serve as a small
pathway that cuts through
"Rip Rap" Onsite Provided by the
the width of the garden,
rocks (~100) Park District
and to airate the water
that flows through there

To prevent erosion of the

Anti-Erosion 10ft by Provided by Park
seeds and of the general
Blanket 100 ft District
garden

Bio-
To secure the anti-erosion Provided by Park
degradable 20
blanket District
Staples

Provided by Park
Spray Paint To mark garden area 1 bottle
District

Card Table,
Set-up, recording sign-in
Pens, Pencils,
and sign-out information, N/A Provided by Myself
Clipboard,
etc.
etc.

Flat Paving To build a pathway halfway Provided by Park

10
Stones down the garden District

Tape Measure
Supplied by
(100 feet To measure lengths 1
workers
long)

Knife To cut erosion blanket 1 Supplied by myself

All equipment, food, seeds, plants and other services were supplied either by
the Park District or fellow workers. No purchasing of materials was necessary
for me.

Did you demonstrate leadership of others? Were you

the project director?
During the developmental stages of my Eagle Project I demonstrated
leadership by developing the idea with the Glenview Park District, setting up
meetings, calling people to find information and writing up the proposal.
During the actual workday I led all of my workers by directing them to
specific tasks, discussing with the Park District Representatives the progress
of the garden and the next step to take throughout the workday, and keeping
the project organized and on schedule. I was a worker myself, but I always
maintained control of the situation and was always aware of the progress of
the project around me.

Did the project follow the plan?

There were many major changes to the project plan from my original project
proposal.

1) There was no roto-tilling process: The garden area already had an

anti-erosion mat, which made roto-tilling impossible.

2) There was no mulching process: There was not enough room in the
budget for mulch, and, since the weather forecasted rain, most of the
mulch would have been washed away. Also, the workday itself was
quite wet since it had rained the night before, and, even with a water
pump diverting most of the flow of the water, it would have been
extremely difficult, if not impossible, to install mulch on that day.

3) There was only one workday as opposed to three: The first

workday was initially cancelled because, without the roto-tilling
process, it was unnecessary. The project progressed much quicker than
anticipated, and without the mulching process and with more workers
than planned, the project was finished completely on the first day.

4) There was no need to maintain the garden thus far: The weather
has brought so much rain after the garden was planted that the
maintenance part of the project has become unnecessary as well.

5) The planned color palette and layout design for the rain
garden was not followed: Instead, the easiest and more practical
method of simply dividing the rain garden every 9 feet and placing
different types of plugs in each section worked better. The seed that
was scattered before the planting of the plugs will provide for variety.

Those were the major changes to the original project plan. None of these
changes were detrimental to the project.
Who from the group benefited may be contacted to
verify the value of the project?
Fred Gullen, Superintendent of Park Services for the Glenview Park District, or
Ken Wexler, Landscape Architect for the Glenview Park District. Fred Gullen’s
e-mail address is fred.gullen@glenviewparks.org, and his office phone
number is (847) 657-3219. Ken Wexler’s e-mail address is
ken.wexler@glenviewparks.org, and his office phone number is (847) 832-
9670.

Total Project Hours

Hour
Category
s
Concept Development 4

Writing Proposal 24.2

Communication: Meetings,
6.5
Phone Calls and E-mails

Recruiting 3

Project Execution 63.67

Project Evaluation and Writeup 3

104.
TOTAL:
37
After Pictures (May 22, 2008)