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

Welcome to The Garden!

Prepping and Planting Next Season’s Garlic

Prepping and Planting Next Season’s Garlic

One of the last tasks we do each season is plant garlic. This task happens only after hard frosts have begun so the garlic seeds don't sprout before spring. https://youtu.be/16WzNcQOqw8 This garden bed grew summer squash and zucchini, which were prolific and...

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What else is growing at the garden?

Planting Potatoes in Trenches and Elsewhere

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...

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First Garden Food of the Season

First Garden Food of the Season

French sorrel is among the first garden crops to appear and the last being harvested before the garden goes to sleep for the winter. This perennial herb has a lemony tang to brighten up any salad or sandwich. It is a cooking herb, and gardeners share French sorrel...

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What’s new in the garden includes history

What’s new in the garden includes history

Gardeners have been busy planting early crops. Seeds now growing include arugula, chard, kale, pac choi, snow & snap peas, mustard greens, and spinach. Garlic planted in November 2023 emerges this spring. Crops planted in previous seasons are coming up too....

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A Flurry of Spring Planting

A Flurry of Spring Planting

Gardeners planted arugula, carrots, chard, kale, mustard greens, pac choi, snap and snow peas, and spinach in beds that had been covered in leaf mulch for the winter. They created narrow furrows, they mixed in compost, and dropped in the seeds. Finally, they watered...

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Planting Garlic in 2023 to Harvest in 2024

Planting Garlic in 2023 to Harvest in 2024

Once Vermont is well into fall frosts, it's garlic planting time. Waiting until extended warm spells have ended ensures the garlic won't germinate and begin growing until spring. Flashback to midsummer: We harvested the garlic planted in 2022 and reserved hundreds of...

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The Winter Squash Bed Becomes the Garlic Bed

The Winter Squash Bed Becomes the Garlic Bed

Winter squash harvest day comes before the first frost or after the squash have stopped maturing in each day's reduced sunlight and warmth. Gardeners harvested the squashes for sorting and distribution then pulled up the vines, which went onto the garden waste...

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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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Potato Harvest Day

Potato Harvest Day

Potatoes are one of the crops we harvest all at once and divide among gardeners. The others are edamame, garlic, onions, and winter squash. Other share-divided crops, when we grow them, include Brussels sprouts, seed pumpkins, and peanuts. Potatoes took up four short...

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