Feeding and Seeding with the Garlic Harvest
As the garlic harvest work party began, rain fell steadily. Gardeners wondered whether many team members would be up for a very wet harvest. No worries. Gardeners turned out for one of the most fun and satisfying work parties of the season....
What else is growing at the garden?
In Which College Students Transform the Garden
Each garden season as the fall college semester approaches, students participating in the University of Vermont TREK program arrive at the garden. The Garden at 485 Elm is so lucky to be a destination for TREK service volunteers! Several 485 Elm gardeners joined the...
Garlic to Seed and to Feed
Garlic harvest day included the last of the onions. The gorgeous harvest yielded robust shares of garlic and onions for gardeners here and for the Montpelier Food Pantry as well as our entire stock of garlic seed, which we'll plant later in the fall. Garlic heads pull...
The Power of Flowers
The garden is overflowing with fresh vegetables, herbs, and, yes, flowers. Three rows and trellises for climbing flowers host varieties that attract pollinators, beautify the garden, and bloom for gardeners who harvest them, take them home, and give them as gifts....
Onions Are Happier Than They Appear
Onions are one of the most reliable crops at the Garden at 485 Elm. When we get them in early enough, they grow into gorgeous bulbs that we harvest all at once and divide among gardeners here. Gardeners enjoy red, white, and yellow onions and shallots. This season,...
The Thick of Harvest Season
Whichever direction you look in the garden, there's food ready to eat. These haricots verts and other bush beans need harvesting for the vines to continue producing. Edamame and pole beans will come later. There's greens, greens, greens! As fast as they get harvested...
After the Flood: Help Vermont’s Farms and Growers
The Garden at 485 Elm grows along the North Branch of the Winooski River, a mile north of the city of Montpelier. On July 10 and 11, six to nine inches of rain fell, swelling the rivers and inundating the city and surrounding streets of homes and businesses....
How to Thin a Carrot
Carrots have tiny seeds. Without surgical precision in planting, carrot jungle happens. The more carrots the better, right? Except if they're too crowded, they don't have room to grow into long, thick carrots. They'll be small, stunted carrots, some of them twisted...
Celebrating Bugfest
"Celebrating" might not be the best word, but gardeners who tackle garden pest management are enthusiastic. Tomatillos attract three-lined potato beetles. They're easy to spot, but they're fast and hard to catch. The pest team leader recommends H20 gloves, one of...
Gleaning Herbs for Donation
The first big bundles of garden food for donation are on their way to Just Basics Inc., the Montpelier Food Pantry. Growing a giant garden together means each bed is super productive. A box of chives produces a lot of chives, far more than even twenty-plus gardeners'...
Delicious Garden Tasks
Each garlic plant is sending out a scape. Harvesting the scapes prevents the garlic from growing a big flower, which would draw energy away from the garlic bulb, our target crop. When the scapes are mature as in the photo, gardeners snip or snap the scape off close to...
