A Taste of the Garden
So much food is ripe and delicious. Here are a few favorites. Tasty, colorful bush beans grow on vines that will continue producing as long as we continue harvesting them. In the basket are Maxibel haricots verts from High Mowing Organic Seeds, Tricolor beans from...
What else is growing at the garden?
Early March Catnip Interlude
In 2021, we planted catnip. We learned it had insect-repelling properties and held a catnip distilling workshop. A few months and feet of snow later, we all need a charge. That's also part of catnip's potential. Have a look. What a catnip harvest! Back on September 7,...
2021 Boutique Crop: Seed Pumpkins
Here at the Garden at 485 Elm, we grow crops that are shared and distributed among gardeners and the community in one of three ways: First, we grow crops that produce continually, such as lettuces, kale, summer squashes, beans, and peas. Gardeners harvest as much as...
Joy and light to the world
A Grateful Look Back: Garden Catnip Distilling Workshop
The garden gives us so much to be grateful for all year long. Today we express deep garden gratitude to Lauren Andrews, a Central Vermont nurse turned aromatherapist and Aromed Essentials proprietor. On a beautiful early September day, Lauren expanded our...
Putting the Garden to Bed
It's called "putting to bed" because the garden doesn't die; it sleeps. And we gardeners rest our bodies while dreaming about and planning the garden for spring. Harvesting the last radishes. Plenty of beautiful radishes for gardeners and shoppers at the Montpelier...
Next Season’s Garlic Is Planted
Garlic seed is . . . garlic! Every August when we harvest the garlic crop, we retain have of it for replanting. We reserve the biggest, most beautiful heads, In late October or early November, weather depending, Just before it's time to plant, we separate those robust...
The Ginger Harvest Is In
It's tiny but tasty. And almost all of the plant is edible. Each small stack is a ginger share. The bucket to the lower right contains the rhizomes for planting next season. The yield was about as much again as we planted. We're theorizing that letting it grow longer...
The Garden Remains Awake, Alive, & Productive
In the fall, people start asking "How was your garden this year? Must be just about put to bed, eh?" Not quite! Here's what continues in the garden: profusions of salad and leafy greens, herbs, and root veggies; beans, eggplants, peppers, tomatillos, zucchini, and...
Lusciously Beautiful Winter Squash Harvest
Sometimes a perfect crop is ready for harvest on a perfect day. Here at the Garden at 485 Elm, we harvest all the winter squash at once. Then we count how many we have of each variety, divide it by the number of gardeners' households (this year: 17), and put them out...
Peak Garden
The garden lives throughout the year. It sprouts in spring, grows lush in summer, wanes deliciously in fall, and subsides beneath the frozen earth in winter. Each phase has its beauty and place in the seasonal cycles. Now the garden is at peak productivity, and we are...
