BROOKINGS – A half-dozen boys from Cub Scouts Pack 1 spent an evening last week learning about pollinators and the role they play in the ecosystem, as well as getting the chance to plant milkweed at the Douglas Chittick Community Gardens.

The Cub Scout members, working for a badge, took scoops of a mixture of milkweed seed and scattered it throughout the plot, which is just less than a quarter of an acre, owned by the city.

“We haven’t been renting these plots here, so we decided this would be a good area to take over,” explained Mitch Pederson, a parks technician who works with the Brookings Parks, Recreation and Forestry Department. “It’s already the city’s property, and it’s not going to take from anybody else’s garden that they get year after year.”

The seeds contained butterfly milkweed, common milkweed and whorled milkweed, and after being scattered, they were “plowed” into the ground by the boys armed with rakes, which they dragged behind them through the entirety of the plot.

In addition to the milkweed, as many as 27 species of wildflowers will be planted. With each plant having a different bloom period, the Cub Scouts have added plants that will serve pollinators from bees to butterflies throughout the year.

“Some will bloom early in the spring, some will be mid to late summer. New England Aster, that one bloomed into late October, early November last year, and it was a nice purple color. Hopefully we get color for about six months out of the year,” Pederson said.