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

Welcome to The Garden!

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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What else is growing at the garden?

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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Bye-Bye Peas, Hello Squash

Bye-Bye Peas, Hello Squash

Gardeners and garden visitors have commented that our pea season seemed to last an unusually long time. Well, peas are over. And so much more is ready!

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Garlic Harvest

Garlic Harvest

We garden together every Tuesday evening, weather permitting. Here's what we did yesterday. Garlic is ready to harvest when lots of other crops are ready, too.  

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