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

Welcome to The Garden!

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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What else is growing at the garden?

How Crops Get Here: Rhubarb

How Crops Get Here: Rhubarb

An email arrived from the person who sold her Montpelier home to the mother of one of the garden cofounders. Rhubarb was growing in the garden beside the house, and the seller thoughtfully suggested we might want it for the community garden. Garden cofounder Chris in...

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Safe, Successful Small-Scale Composting in a Pandemic

Safe, Successful Small-Scale Composting in a Pandemic

Back in the beforetimes . . . Compostville at the Garden at 485 Elm was built from 2017 to 2019 with help from a generous grant and partners including the Vermont Community Garden Network, the Composting Association of Vermont, and the Central Vermont Solid Waste...

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Giving Food on Giving Tuesday

Giving Food on Giving Tuesday

The Garden at 485 Elm made an offering on Giving Tuesday: Garden donation team leader Caitlin Roseen brought our extra—and still beautiful—onion starts to the Montpelier Food Pantry. Caitlin writes: These onion starts will be offered to shoppers along with seed...

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Planting Days Are Here Again

Planting Days Are Here Again

The new health-and-safety considerations for work parties and gardeners gardening here on their own are working well. Seed and seedlings are in the ground: peas, onions, carrots, salad greens, kale, and more. Art projects and experimental crops are under way. We...

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Time to Conduct a Potato Experiment

Time to Conduct a Potato Experiment

What better time to try new things when absolutely everything seems like an entirely new thing? Years ago, the garden grew potatoes in one of the fenced garden’s plot. It was labor-intensive and not greatly beloved. The results were delicious, but local potatoes are...

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Safe Community Gardening in the Time of COVID-19

Safe Community Gardening in the Time of COVID-19

Gardening here this season means adhering to the COVID-19 rules. Our new garden health and safety team devised them to support three groups we identified: Gardeners taking recommended precautions while still visiting public spacesGardeners in high-risk households who...

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Safe Gardening Has Begun

Safe Gardening Has Begun

Gardeners are long accustomed to change being the only constant. Every season is different, but this year has redefined the word "different" for everyone on earth. Gardening means access to food, along with promoting mental and physical well-being. And so we grow....

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Garage Garden Work Party

Garage Garden Work Party

February 29 saw a small garden get-together in the garage. We cleaned and oiled hinged tools and shared homemade coconut milk chai. Camaraderie and inspiration began germinating among returning and new gardeners. At this time of year, the question often arises: do we...

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