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

Welcome to The Garden!

Harvesting Deliciousness: Potatoes and Onions

Harvesting Deliciousness: Potatoes and Onions

Back in May, gardeners planted potatoes and onions in several (and some creative) locations. In August, it was time to harvest them. The team dug potatoes and separated them from the plants. The potatoes were separated by variety in wheelbarrows. The plants went into...

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What else is growing at the garden?

University of Vermont TREK Team: Gratitude All Around

University of Vermont TREK Team: Gratitude All Around

For several season, the garden has partnered with the University of Vermont TREK program's service track for incoming first-year students. Enthusiastic teams spend a couple of hours pitching in to help projects feeding the community, including community gardens like...

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The Potato and Onion Harvests Are In

The Potato and Onion Harvests Are In

For most crops in the Garden at 485 Elm, gardeners harvest whatever's ready to eat. Greens, beans, peas, eggplants, peppers, summer squash, and herbs are harvest as we go. A few crops we harvest all at once then divide by the number of gardener households for...

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Garlic harvest day

Garlic harvest day

Every fall, we plant garlic from seed. A garlic seed is one clove of garlic. We harvest the crop the following season just after midsummer. Garlic is the one crop we save seed from for planting the entire next crop. On a perfect July morning, gardeners from sixteen...

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The Garden of Eating

The Garden of Eating

Ripe husk cherries, aka ground cherries. These sweet-tart treats are related to tomatoes and grow on low bushy plants. Haricots verts and other bush beans are bursting on the vine. We cleared the vines of mature beans so new ones can grow and brought packed full-size...

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The garden is flowers!

The garden is flowers!

The garden is a DIY CSA for gardeners not just for food but for flowers. The Flower Power Team suggests gardeners bring a container, grab scissors from the garden shed, and help themselves to a bouquet. There's bee balm, bachelor's buttons, poppies, and some pinks....

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Dealing with Garden Pests: We’re Hosting a Workshop

Dealing with Garden Pests: We’re Hosting a Workshop

The Garden at 485 Elm is hosting a workshop in organic-gardening-compatible garden pest management on Wednesday, June 23. Learn more at the Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont's website. Then Register here. Garden like a farmer! Integrated Pest Management...

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Garden task: Harvest and eat garlic scapes

Garden task: Harvest and eat garlic scapes

This is the time of the season when we watch the garlic crop for scapes. Scapes are the flowers each growing garlic bulb sends up. Harvesting them keeps the sun, water, and soil nutrients feeding the bulb (our target crop) instead of the beautiful flower that would...

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It’s food, beautiful food

It’s food, beautiful food

Maturity came early to French sorrel, chives, Good King Henry, and a few other perennial and self-seeding plants. Suddenly, the garden is bursting with fresh food. With nearly twenty gardeners' households harvesting crops, how do we share the food? When everyone grows...

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A Garden with Good Friends

A Garden with Good Friends

A gardener here for several years is now a Friend of the Garden. Friends of the Garden join us for work parties or show up to do some weeding and watering without committing to the season. With friends like this . . . we are very fortunate indeed.

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Planting Potatoes

Planting Potatoes

Gardeners dug eight trenches and turned compost into the soil. Planting potatoes while prepping new trenches. Gardeners planted seed potatoes in six of the eight trenches—two furrows each of Chieftain, Kennebec, and Superior varieties. If we score more seed, the last...

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