Eagle Scout Peter Rudzis and the Floretum Garden Club cooperated to make a long-awaited project happen: eliminating a large area of invasive ivy along 7th Avenue in downtown Edmonds and planting some flowering trees instead.

Rudzis, the son of Michael and Michele Rudzis, worked with City of Edmonds Parks Maintenance Manager Rich Lindsay and the Floretum Garden Club as part of his Eagle Scout project.  The city had wanted to get rid of ivy along a fence on 7th Avenue, and the Floretum Garden Club hoped to plant memorial trees to complete the line of flowering pears along the fence at the edge of the field. Under the leadership of Scoutmaster Jay Beavers, Rudzis worked with his troop and their parents to dig up large piles of ivy and remove it.  The city will continue  work to prevent the ivy from reestablishing.

The Floretum Garden club financed the purchase of two large flowering pears to add to the line of flowering trees.  The scouts dug the holes and Floretum members helped plant them. Rudzis and the troop will water the trees until the fall rains start.

“As people came to the play field for the Taste of Edmonds, they could see the results of the Eagle Scout project, another example of volunteers and the city cooperating to make it a better place,” a statement from the Floretum Garden Club said.

— Information submitted by Floretum Garden Club