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

Welcome to The Garden!

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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What else is growing at the garden?

River Discovery Walk Discoveries

River Discovery Walk Discoveries

On a beautiful late summer Saturday morning, naturalist and gardener at 485 Elm, Ned Swanberg, introduced us to flora, fauna, and the river itself. We heard bird calls, identified native, exotic, and invasive plants, and found connections between our watershed and the...

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Feeding the community

Feeding the community

According to Hunger Free Vermont: One in five Vermont children experiences hunger or food hardship. To help increase food security, Montpelier offers free community meals every day of the week. Every growing season, the Garden at 485 Elm contributes food to Central...

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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...

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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.                                          ...

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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...

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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...

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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.

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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...

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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  

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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...

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