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

Welcome to The Garden!

Top-Notch Team on a Perfect Day

Top-Notch Team on a Perfect Day

On a dry, cool, sunny day, the UVM TREK Farm and Food team arrived with open hands and hearts—and a whole lot of skill—and transformed the garden. Though you'll usually find the garden's photo stories in chronological order, here is the TREK team after four hours of...

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What else is growing at the garden?

Adapting Plants and Chickens to the Season

Adapting Plants and Chickens to the Season

Gardeners have planted peas, greens, radishes, and more. Their tender seedlings will attract flea beetles and other beings who, like us, enjoy fresh, delicious food. Gardeners cover the planted beds with Reemay, or acid-free garden fabric, to give the plants a chance...

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Flower Power Prevails

Flower Power Prevails

Gardening weather and soil thaw began early. Flower Power team got right out there to prep the beds for cutting flowers. A gardener who started these giant marigold seedlings indoors ensures enough planting space to allow them to bloom. Watering in the giant marigolds...

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In Which the Garden Has a Chicken Visitation

In Which the Garden Has a Chicken Visitation

Aster, Ophelia, and Winifred live near the garden. Recently, they arrived to spend a couple of weeks here. Aster, Ophelia, and Winnie are helping prepare the garden beds for planting. Chickens use their strong, sharp feet and beaks to search for bugs and seeds....

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It Begins

It Begins

In November 2022, we planted garlic on a day like this one. Partway through the season, there was a harvest, not of garlic but of the scape each plant was sending up. And here's how garlic harvest day goes. Today falls between planting day and scape-harvest day. More...

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Last garden work party: brussels sprouts harvest

Last garden work party: brussels sprouts harvest

Autumn activity in the garden has been varied, busy, and delicious. Posts here have not kept up. Until we get to posting about garlic planting and other garden doings, please enjoy these images from the last garden work party of the season. It was brussels sprouts...

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Garden Cleanup

Garden Cleanup

There's still collards, kale, mustards, collards, and Brussels sprouts growing in the garden. But after several frosts many annuals are done for the season. Gardeners removed plants that are done for the season and laid them on the garden waste windrow to break down...

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Edamame, Year Two

Edamame, Year Two

Last season a gardener scored edamame seed, which can be hard to come by. Perhaps you've eaten edamame at a Japanese restaurant. You might have been served a steaming plate of salted pods for eating the tender legumes within. That's an experience the garden now allows...

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Winter Squash Harvest

Winter Squash Harvest

Harvesting the winter squash happened so quickly that it was over before we could grab photos in the squash bed! Over at the seed pumpkin bed, the work went fast as well. These small pumpkins are called "hulless," as in no pumpkin flesh to eat. They're full of seeds...

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A Taste of What We’re Enjoying in Late Peak Garden

A Taste of What We’re Enjoying in Late Peak Garden

In addition to what's pictured here, we're harvesting and enjoying arugula, basil, beans of many colors, beets, carrots, catnip, chili peppers, chives, cucumbers, edamame, eggplants, French sorrel, ground cherries, lemon balm, nasturtiums, oregano, sunflowers, summer...

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Harvesting Edamame—Except for the Seed Plants

Harvesting Edamame—Except for the Seed Plants

When the edamame plant leaves turn yellow, it's time to harvest the crop. Gardeners harvested all but the sixteen plants closest to edamame perfection. Those will continue to mature. We'll harvest them later and save and dry the seeds to plant next year's crop....

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