Cold-Weather Squash Scramble
The frost that looked likely did not come to pass, but we took that as a signal to harvest all the winter squash. Gardeners planted fourteen rows of winter squash: buttercup, butternut, and delicata seeds. Some squash plants grow into widely sprawling vines. This is...
What else is growing at the garden?
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...
Join Us This Friday for a Garden Tour
Experience the Garden at 485 Elm's eight-season-old collectively grown garden! Join us on Friday, August 13, from 5 to 7:30 p.m. at 485 Elm Street in Montpelier. Please walk or bike if you can; park cars in the driveway facing the garden to allow everyone space to...
Sumptuous Garlic & Onion Harvest
Garlic and onions are among the five crops we harvest all at once and divide into shares. Unlike beans, greens, and peas, which continue producing as everyone harvests all they can eat, these crops are one and done. Shares are very generous! We laid out the garlic by...
Bursting with Herbs
Every season, the Garden at 485 Elm gives dozens of pounds of food to local organizations ensuring our neighbors have access to fresh, delicious local food. On a beautiful evening, we harvested basil, oregano, and thyme that went to the Montpelier Food Pantry for...
So Much Green for 4th of July
This gardener is surrounded by beets to the right, mint at lower left, and potatoes in the background. In the lower right, it's impossible to tell this early what flowers are coming up. That row is growing aster, Salpiglossis, snapdragons, Helenium, Heliopsis (false...
It’s Food
Every season, there's prepping, planting, tending, weeding, baby crops, and then suddenly, food. That's where were at. I went out to the garden and saw someone had harvested peas and left them on the picnic table for others to enjoy. I wondered how the peas were...
