Planting Potatoes in Trenches and Elsewhere
The timing was perfect. The night before potato planting, a gardener found the last of 2023's blanched-and-frozen potatoes at the bottom of the chest freezer and made a delicious treat: Slice the potatoes thinly, brush with avocado oil, sprinkle with seasonings—in...
What else is growing at the garden?
Free Herb Walk on Independence Day Morning
Our community garden is offering a free herb walk in and around the Garden at 485 Elm. It's at 485 Elm Street in Montpelier, just north of Cummings Street. (www.thegardenat485elm.org Herbalist Diana Baron will take us on a tour of summer herbs at 485 Elm. Our tour...
Gardening at the Solstice
Heat Gets Crops Popping
Our first long hot spell took us beyond the fear of frost. It was time to plant our hot-weather seedlings.
First Food Donation of the Season
With a Little Help from Our Friends at AmeriCorps
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...
We Plant the Season’s First Seedlings
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.
Planting and Growing Increase with the Temperatures
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.
Early Planting Accomplished
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,...
Planting Onion Seedlings
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 the earth, not the air”
"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. /
