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...
What else is growing at the garden?
485 Elm Gardeners Protect Honeybees
Mike and Robin Harris, who garden here at 485 Elm, tend honeybee hives at home. Recently, on WCAX-TV, Robin, Mike, and our garden's UVM Extension Master Composter project lead, Andrea Stander, discussed Vermont's efforts to protect honeybees. Honeybees' survival and...
Compostville 3.0 is underway!
The third iteration of Compostville is online and soon will be accepting gardeners' food scraps! The short videos below demonstrate the system and clarify some dos and don'ts. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjD_8LTgsnQ Here's the garden's UVM Extension Master...
First Major Planting Complete
We've planted seeds and some seedlings that don't require consistently warm soil and sun: beans, beets, Brussels sprouts, carrots, chard, cilantro, kale, onions, parsley, peas, salad greens, squashes, and spinach. We even had time to rebuild the tomatillo box. Here...
Early garden food
Most of our garden crops are barely peeking out of the ground—tiny peas vines, baby bean plants, onion seedlings, and lovely little lettuce infants. Not yet. To keep the harvest growing and share among our many households, we don't harvest heads or pull out whole...
Sunday in the Dirt
Our first big garden work party of the season! It was a gorgeous sunny day, so comfortable for gardening. We knocked off the entire to-do list. Of course, now we have a whole new to-do list to tackle. French sorrel: Eat it as a salad green, flavorful soup herb, and...
Spring Reveal
French sorrel is the first crop we see each spring, and one of the last to go before winter. Garlic planted last fall is starting to peek out from under its winter blanket of leaves, much like us gardeners. These carrots overwintered. They'll be sweet and delicious...
Winter Gardening Dreams
While the garden is under many inches of snow, we have already begun the 2019 season. Our first garden potluck at the 2019 season. No surprise that this gardening group loves enjoying food together. Even in January, we enjoy pesto with garden basil, greens, and...
Compostville 3.0
Have you seen Compostville lately? It's another area of the Garden at 485 Elm, transformed. Did you know that food makes up about 21% of "trash" in the United States. Vermont's Act 148: Universal Recycling & Composting Law mandates that by 2020, food scraps from...
Planting Garlic
On a Saturday in late October, we began planting garlic seed at eight in the morning. We had stay ahead of incoming snow and sleet. Garlic is one crop we grow seed for right here in the garden. We also acquire high-quality organic garlic seed from local growers.
Growing to Give
Every season, we donate fresh, organic food grown right here in The Garden at 485 Elm to local organizations that feed community members. This year, more than forty pounds of fresh, organic garden food went to the Montpelier Food Pantry. Caitlin Roseen, who is...
