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

Welcome to The Garden!

Harvesting, Processing, Cooking, and Eating Edamame

Harvesting, Processing, Cooking, and Eating Edamame

Most of the garden's edamame was ready to harvest. These green plants in the foreground will grow a while longer, but the yellow plants you see the gardeners working on, and the ones way in the background between them, were ripe and ready. Instead of pulling out whole...

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What else is growing at the garden?

Compostville with Master Composters

Compostville with Master Composters

If you haven't already heard, big changes are coming to Compostville. Once our trusty heavy equipment guy does some grading, leveling, and stump removal, the rebuild will get underway. But there's always plenty to do in Compostville. We had our first work party with...

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Brussels sprouts from good to great

Brussels sprouts from good to great

A light frost that would kill a tomato plant is only the beginning for Brussels sprouts. Brussels sprouts sweeten to deliciousness after a few hard frosts. We'll be harvesting Brussels sprouts here at the Garden at 485 Elm for as long as there are still buds on the...

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Changes Coming in Compostville

Changes Coming in Compostville

The Garden at 485 Elm began composting food scraps and garden waste in 2014. In that first growing season, we cobbled together some pallets and threw everything in them. It wasn't hot composting, but we kept our food scraps and lawn waste to ourselves. Our first...

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Gardening in sweatshirts again

Gardening in sweatshirts again

The afternoons are comfortable for garden work and there's still plenty to do. This season, our cucumbers flowered and grew delicious. In the late July heat, the leaves turned yellow. By mid-August, all were dead. A gardener speculated that the double boxes were...

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Past peak, but still growing

Past peak, but still growing

Garden productivity has peaked for the season. Where once walls of tomato plants stood, there is open air and cleared beds just planted with cover crop seed. Food remains abundant, though not as varied. There's more planting to be done.

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The garden continues apace in October

The garden continues apace in October

Someone asked me, "How was the garden this season?" "Wonderful!" I replied. "It still is." We are fall gardening, with the end of some crops and the beginning of others. The light is turning autumn colors, rich and golden. We savor the days, each one now noticeably...

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We’re “Wild for Pollinators”

We’re “Wild for Pollinators”

The Garden at 485 Elm is part of the Vermont Community Garden Network's Wild for Pollinators initiative. It's a very serious matter for our food crops that native bees, including honeybees, are in trouble. Pollinator-welcoming habitat in every garden, yard,...

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This workshop is full!  Free Backyard Composting Workshop

This workshop is full! Free Backyard Composting Workshop

This workshop is full.  Please stay tuned for additional opportunities. If you registered before the cutoff, please walk or bicycle if possible. Drivers, please park on another street to save the few driveway spots for those cannot walk as far. Love food, hate waste?...

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