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

Welcome to The Garden!

Cold-Weather Squash Scramble

Cold-Weather Squash Scramble

The frost that looked likely did not come to pass, but we took that as a signal to harvest all the winter squash. Gardeners planted fourteen rows of winter squash: buttercup, butternut, and delicata seeds. Some squash plants grow into widely sprawling vines. This is...

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What else is growing at the garden?

Huge Flower Grab

Huge Flower Grab

The temperatures in the next few days will be in the 30s. Even if it's not a hard frost, this kind of cold will finish off many of the flowers. Team Flower Power has us covered. These goddesses of garden glory remind us that it's time to harvest huge bouquets for...

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A Bouquet a Day Is the Beautiful Way

A Bouquet a Day Is the Beautiful Way

Flowers are a cherished garden crop. Gardeners snip blooms to brighten their homes and give gifts that warm hearts. For garden flowers to look like this, gardeners put in planning, work, and TLC. Members of the garden's Flower Power team select, start, plant, tend,...

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Potato and Shallot Harvest

Potato and Shallot Harvest

The potatoes were ready, so gardeners dug them up. They were divided into shares, with each of the garden's households getting a bucket of red and purple and a bucket of white potatoes. Unlike potatoes, which must be dug up, shallots lift easily out of the ground....

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A Taste of the Garden

A Taste of the Garden

So much food is ripe and delicious. Here are a few favorites. Tasty, colorful bush beans grow on vines that will continue producing as long as we continue harvesting them. In the basket are Maxibel haricots verts from High Mowing Organic Seeds, Tricolor beans from...

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Aromatic Garlic Harvest Day

Aromatic Garlic Harvest Day

Warm weather moved garlic harvest day to two weeks earlier than last season. Gardeners were ready! Gardeners harvest what they want of most crops as they're ripe and ready. Garlic is one of our share-divided crops: We harvest it all at once and divide it by the number...

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Garlic Scapes: A Delicious Garden Task

Garlic Scapes: A Delicious Garden Task

The garlic plants are sending out scapes. Our job is to harvest and eat them! If we left the scapes on the garlic plants, they'd grow into beautiful flowers, using up energy. Instead, gardeners snap or snip the entire scape from every plant, freeing up those resources...

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Sun + Rain = Food

Sun + Rain = Food

A tree farmer described how trees grow as "Sleep, creep, leap." The garden does the same, with much faster cycles than trees. After a sleepy start, days of sun and rain have kicked things into high gear. All our seedlings are planted. Only a few direct-seed crops...

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Memorial Day Weekend Garden Scramble

Memorial Day Weekend Garden Scramble

Memorial Day weekend is a huge gardening time for Vermonters. We're no exception. The weekend began on Friday at Cate Farm, where these great folks grew the garden's seedlings for basil (Italian, cinnamon, lemon, and Thai), Sungold cherry tomatoes, chili peppers...

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Planting Potatoes in Trenches and Elsewhere

Planting Potatoes in Trenches and Elsewhere

The timing was perfect. The night before potato planting, a gardener found the last of 2023's blanched-and-frozen potatoes at the bottom of the chest freezer and made a delicious treat: Slice the potatoes thinly, brush with avocado oil, sprinkle with seasonings—in...

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First Garden Food of the Season

First Garden Food of the Season

French sorrel is among the first garden crops to appear and the last being harvested before the garden goes to sleep for the winter. This perennial herb has a lemony tang to brighten up any salad or sandwich. It is a cooking herb, and gardeners share French sorrel...

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