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...

read more

What else is growing at the garden?

Fall Water Fest fills September

Fall Water Fest fills September

The festival runs until October 1. The organizers describe Fall Water Fest as: An exploration through music, the arts, poetry, and various outdoor explorations of the value and symbolism of water and of our need to protect it from pollution, privatization of the...

read more
A big-deal work party

A big-deal work party

Food ready to eat is the most exciting. We planted more food to extend the season. And we moved something very large.                                          ...

read more
Video:  Compostville Has Moved

Video: Compostville Has Moved

"Not too shabby." That's what Hannah said at the end of this video, though you can't hear her. Hannah is right. Today Hannah, John, and Chris relocated Compostville. It's now away from our neighbor's fence and the Japanese knotweed infestation. The food scraps are in...

read more
Join us for a River Discovery Walk

Join us for a River Discovery Walk

As part of Fall Water Fest (complete schedule below), at 9 a.m. on Saturday, September 17, we'll meet at the Garden at 485 Elm Street, and walk until approximately 11 a.m. We’ll look for late summer changes along the river.  What is fruiting, flying, feeding? What...

read more
Volunteers in the garden

Volunteers in the garden

These delicious ground cherries are volunteers from last year’s tomato beds.  The ground cherries and other Solanaceae we planted this year in Bed 4 are still coming along.

read more
Herb Walk at The Garden at 485 Elm

Herb Walk at The Garden at 485 Elm

Update:   On Thursday, August 18, 5:30-7 p.m., we enjoyed an herb walk with one of our community gardeners, Ella Malamud. Ella invited us into the bounty of medicine in our Garden and/or  how to replace a trip to a drug store with a trip to the garden. Learn to...

read more
Media moments in the garden

Media moments in the garden

Barre-Montpelier Times Argus photographer Stefan Hard wrote and illustrated this story. Times Argus videographer David Smith added dimension with this video of gardeners in action. https://vimeo.com/175741141  

read more
Franken-Peas Found Here

Franken-Peas Found Here

Peas need picking daily in order to continue growing. The more we pick, the more peas will grow. In fact, if we don't pick them, the vines start to die. Why "Franken-Peas"? Because the peas we find deep inside the vines are usually huge to bursting. Depending on the...

read more
Bee balm salad

Bee balm salad

Bee balm grows in the perennial bed outside the garden fence along the road. It's delicious as well as beautiful.  Bee balm is a member of the mint family.  Its petals are sweet and delicious.

read more
Video:  Moving From Scarcity to Abundance

Video: Moving From Scarcity to Abundance

"Shifting the focus of the Montpelier Food Pantry from hunger relief to food justice." ~ Joseph Kiefer, Central Vermont Food Systems Council The Central Vermont Food Systems Council and Just Basics, Inc. created a very special evening about local food systems and...

read more