Blayton’s Garden – Growing Knowledge Starts Here

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11 years and Going Strong

The student garden at J. B. Blayton Elementary School on Jolly Pond Road in Williamsburg is 11 years old and going strong.

The garden was started by a pair of teachers and parents who were interested in creating a special outdoor space where students could learn about all types of plants and pollinators.

The PTA supplied funds to construct a pavilion for shade and to serve as an outdoor classroom.  Many of the volunteers today have been with the garden since the beginning.

The Blayton Garden is co-led by Pam Arnold and Ken Caro who work with parents, teachers, and other master gardener volunteers to deliver a meaningful gardening curriculum to these elementary school students. This fall after a hiatus due to Covid, volunteers,  teachers, and students are happy to be meeting up at the Blayton Garden again.

A Garden Club for Students

The mission of the garden is to educate students about growing, harvesting, cooking, and using, what our earth can produce.  The garden is an after-school “challenge club” sponsored by the Williamsburg-James City County School Division, in partnership with Williamsburg Health Foundation, School Health Initiative Program (SHIP).  SHIP provides buses for after-school activities for students who normally would have to skip health and wellness activities due to a lack of transportation home.

Vegetables and More!  

There are 43 raised vegetable beds in the garden along with a raised bed of berries, a large bulb bed of daffodils, daylilies, and iris, a pollinator garden, an herb garden, and a large bed of strawberries. The Blayton team grows bush beans, broccoli, watermelon, potatoes, sweet potatoes, squash, eggplant, pumpkins, okra, and tomatoes. They also cultivate more unusual edibles like peanuts, leeks, and Jerusalem Artichokes. Students also have the chance to grow fiber-producing plants like flax and cotton and are taught the process of spinning fiber and making fabric.

Water – the Life of the Garden

Several years ago, one of the teachers created a water recapture system that collects water from the roof of the pavilion, into large barrels around each corner, and moves it to a donated storage tank. A solar-powered generator fuels a pump that moves the water from the collection barrels to the storage tank. PVC pipes with spigots are attached around the garden to allow gardeners to water the plants without having to haul hoses or water buckets.

Impact of COVID on the Garden and Looking Ahead

 During the past two years, volunteers have been meeting twice a week to maintain the beds, plant, weed, and water in anticipation of the return of students.  Harvested produce has been donated to local feed banks. This past spring, we dedicated the outdoor pavilion to Ken Caro, one of the project’s co-lead who has been with the garden for 11 years. Now known as “Ken Caro’s Classroom”, the pavilion is ready for students once again!  We are excited and getting ready to welcome students back to the garden for programs and planting this fall!