Mixing It Up with Master Composter Students
Composting is an art and a science. On a perfect fall day, UVM Master Composter students gather at Compostville, the garden's small-scale community compost system. This site helps "expose students to the challenges and iterations of community composting," says Natasha...
What else is growing at the garden?
Eating Well from the Fall Garden
At this time of year, neighbors might ask if the garden has been put to bed. It's understandable, with more and more beds piled with leaves, tucked in for the winter. Still, there's delicious food to harvest. A kiss of frost improves the taste of some crops. Kale and...
Winter Squash Harvest Before a Frost
Every September, gardeners keep an eye on the forecasted low temperatures. Protecting and harvesting frost-sensitive crops rises to the top of the to-do list. Winter squash comes out at frost time. The squashes can handle a bit of frost, but the vines die back, so the...
Cover Crops: A Long-Term Success Story
In August, a University of Vermont Service TREK Farm and Food team transformed the garden, digging in to turn a huge windrow, move compost, and pull copious weeds. One transformative act whose results were not visible that day was planting cover crop. Not long after...
Edamame Harvest
Edamame harvest! Gardeners pulled edamame bushes, stripped them, and divided the pods into shares to take home and eat. Some plants remain in the garden, where the pods' contents will mature and dry into seeds for next season's crop. Each bush's root area was clipped...
Top-Notch Team on a Perfect Day
On a dry, cool, sunny day, the UVM TREK Farm and Food team arrived with open hands and hearts—and a whole lot of skill—and transformed the garden. Though you'll usually find the garden's photo stories in chronological order, here is the TREK team after four hours of...
Harvesting Deliciousness: Potatoes and Onions
Back in May, gardeners planted potatoes and onions in several (and some creative) locations. In August, it was time to harvest them. The team dug potatoes and separated them from the plants. The potatoes were separated by variety in wheelbarrows. The plants went into...
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....
Families Plant Edamame on Father’s Day
We've been planting edamame for a few years here, but the 2023 planting has our attention. The seeds we planted this June were harvested here in 2023. Why didn't we use 2024's seeds? The plants gardeners cordoned off so the seed could dry on them must have had a...
The Many Steps of Potato Planting
Planting potatoes is fun and satisfying, producing a buried crop that sometimes pops out two or even three seasons later. Picking out potato seeds at Guy's Farm and Yard means choosing seed potatoes with eyes on two sides. This year's varieties are Yukon Gold, Russet...
A Quick Taste of a Delicious Crop
For a brief moment in the spring, asparagus is perfect for eating. The Garden at 485 Elm hosts two asparagus boxes: Purple Passion, planted in 2021, and Martha Washington green, planted in 2022. The first couple years, a handful of stalks came up. Every season, there...
