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

Welcome to The Garden!

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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What else is growing at the garden?

Gratitude: UVM TREKkies transform the garden!

Gratitude: UVM TREKkies transform the garden!

Volunteers worked here in the garden all day. It was part of their three-day, peer-led orientation adventures for incoming first-year students at University of Vermont. Many hands accomplished needful projects that we hadn't tackled amid the ongoing demands of garden...

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Happy Garden Day to You!

Happy Garden Day to You!

Food and flowers together—beautiful inspiration! Harvesting flowers is good for the plants' health. Filling our homes with flowers is good for our mental health. Everybody wins.

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Zinnias, cosmos, and daisies

Zinnias, cosmos, and daisies

Food isn't all we grow here at the Garden at 485 Elm. Liz, our flower goddess, makes sure we have cultivated and wild blooming things to calm our spirits and beautify our homes. Gardeners can snip all the blossoms they want. We cut bouquets and give them to our...

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The Garden Bounty Is Here

The Garden Bounty Is Here

Cucumbers have arrived. On the left are green finger cucumbers, on the right, marketmore cukes. Thinning beets and harvesting beets are now the same task. And mighty tasty too! We glean in our own garden. The lopped-off mustard green flowers will make a delicious and...

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Food is love. And we love our community.

Food is love. And we love our community.

Here's a word from the garden's donation team leader, Caitlin Roseen. The first garden donation of 2019 is in the books! This beautiful bunch of garlic scapes was given to Bethany Bowl, which is one of the free community lunch programs in Montpelier. The lunch...

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Season of Abundance

Season of Abundance

Just like that, the garden is vivid, with leafy profusion in many colors. We're dining on garden food daily, and it seems we could harvest lettuces and chard forever. Flowers are blooming, ready for gardeners to cut and and fill their homes. Our greens boxes are...

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Join us for a planting-bed-prep workshop!

Join us for a planting-bed-prep workshop!

P.S. It went great! We learned lots and planted mesclun mixes in well-prepped soil. Please join us at the Garden at 485 Elm for "Soils & Bed Prep for Home Vegetable Gardeners," sponsored by University of Vermont Extension Master Gardener. Registration is required...

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Soup’s On!

Soup’s On!

The season began slowly with a cold, wet June. We planted and replanted. Finally, crops are ready for regular harvesting. How do we share all this food? We harvest lettuce, chard, kale and other greens so they continue to produce as long and as much as possible. We...

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You *can* eat the daisies!

You *can* eat the daisies!

Our herb walk with herbalist Diana Baron fell on a gorgeous late spring evening and revealed a big food surprise: daisies! How did I not know this?The buds, leaves, and stems of daisies have a subtle, herbish flavor and crisp texture. Salads will never be the same....

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