Welcome to The Garden!

Our first long hot spell took us beyond the fear of frost. It was time to plant our hot-weather seedlings.

This week, an AmeriCorps Team of four made great strides in Compostville's transformation. We're revamping our compost system to have greater capacity for food scraps and a longer season of composting. Compostville at The Garden at 485 Elm is one of four grant-funded...

Finally, the air and soil are warm enough to plant seedlings. This week, we planted Brussels sprouts and herbs and, of course, more seed. Next week, we plant seedlings of tomatoes, cukes, hot peppers, eggplants, and basil.

We've planted several beds with cold-hardy seeds, including carrots, beets, kale, and peas. Tender young leaves and shoots are emerging. Temperatures are increasing, and we're preparing to plant warmer weather seedlings.

We've planted all our early crops, the ones that can go in while there's still threat of frost: Beets Carrots Kale & Other Leafy Greens Peas Salad Greens Summer squash We're looking forward to June, when we'll plant tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplants, hot peppers,...

By the Ides of May, we've planted the onion bed, carrots, summer squash, peas, and massive messes of greens. There's much more still to plant as the season warms: Beets, pole beans, bush beans, flowers for cutting, and, of course, tomatoes.

"Water roots, not leaves." "Water the earth, not the air. " These are some of the many lessons we learned from our first garden coordinator in 2014. Here are scenes from this year's watering orientation. /

What's with all the trucks? The Garden at 485 Elm utilizes some very large items.