The Garden at 485 Elm
People growing together:
a collaborative community garden in Montpelier, Vermont

Compost workdays

Thirteen gardeners completed important garden projects. Hannah, garden co-coordinator, led a compost system design-and-build, and today gardeners measured, cut, and assembled new cedar bins. Gardeners also tilled compost into beds, organized tools and materials for the season, and otherwise readied the garden for the busy planting days to come.

2016-04-30 Steven Gold shovels compost.28

The first gardener to arrive dug right in.

2016-04-30 Cindy, Noah, Bernice & Ebony at the shed.06

Garden shed reorganization. In such a big garden with materials stored in several areas, even large items sometimes seem to disappear. Yesterday we looked and looked, and finally Chris found the 36′-square sifter under a pile of wood.

2016-04-30 Berniece, Cindy & Allison sort compost.58

Making sure that all the items in the compost are really compostable.

2016-04-30 Elizabeth & Lilly arrive.11

Elizabeth and Lilly arrived ready to sift compost.

2016-04-30 Items don't belong in compost.52

These are some of the items Elizabeth separated from the compost. We’ll communicate with everyone who brings compost here to peel labels off fruit, remove all plastic, and take out anything that doesn’t belong.

2016-04-30 Albert tills, Ned drags wheelbarrow.45

Ned drags compost to a bed that will be tilled. Albert embodied The Tillerman, completing at least three beds.

2016-04-30 Hannah, Emma & CA measure plywood for bins.28

Measuring boards for the new compost system Garden Co-coordinator Hannah designed.

2016-04-30 Emma, Hannah & CA assemble compost bins.46

Emma said, “It was very satisfying to put something together.”

2016-04-30 CA & Hannah carry compost bins.00

Carrying the newly assembled cedar compost bins to their home.

2016-04-30 Hannah & CA place compost bins.54

Putting the new cedar compost bins in place. Actually, the pallets and other materials to the right will move and the bins will sit closer to the garden. Even a few feet makes a difference when shoveling compost into a wheelbarrow to push up to the vegetable beds. We want it to be as easy as possible.