Jamestown’s Café Garden, Spring 2022
In the fall of 2021, the JCCW Master Gardeners were invited by the Jamestown Settlement to design and install a native plant demonstration and herb garden just outside the visitors’ center cafe. After meeting with Jamestown management, touring the site, and developing a project proposal, a team was formed to get the project going.
In January 2022, team leads Angela Cingale and Judy Kinshaw-Ellis met with Bain Schultz, the grounds department supervisor for both Jamestown and Yorktown, to get an idea of her vision for the project. They exchanged ideas and toured the garden to assess what plants could be retained. They found that the raised bed garden, originally designed and planted about 20 years ago for an anniversary celebration, was very overgrown. Many of the original plantings had outgrown their space, and volunteers were thriving.
After careful deliberation, they decided that this new demonstration garden should include a wide range of native plants and non-native herbs that could be used in the cafe. Their plan for this garden serves two purposes. First, it allows the Settlement to try different natives to evaluate what plants can be added to different areas of the living history museum, and second, it shows visitors how they might include native plants in their yards.
The next step was to clean out the garden and add amended soil to fill it in. Jamestown staff took out the larger shrubs and trees, and the Master Gardener (MG) team came in and removed weeds, herbs, and perennials and pruned some of the existing plants. In March, the MG team developed a list of native plants drawn partially from a researched list of how Native Americans used plants. 
Currently, the garden is in the design stage. In the next few weeks, the design should be completed, and plants purchased. The team will then install plants and add tags that provide educational information for school groups and other visitors. MGs will maintain this café garden through the growing season.
For additional information contact Judy Kinshaw-Ellis ([email protected]) or Angela Cingale ([email protected]).