Gardeners planted arugula, carrots, chard, kale, mustard greens, pac choi, snap and snow peas, and spinach in beds that had been covered in leaf mulch for the winter. They created narrow furrows, they mixed in compost, and dropped in the seeds. Finally, they watered in the seeds, which need a drink every day. Flower Power Team unearthed the weedy flower rows for later planting of seedlings that were started indoors. Out in the rows, they preserved perennials that will come into bloom later on. Behold, before and after weeding! Berryville is the garden’s newest project. Here, gardeners prepar ..read more

Sleep well. We look forward to seeing you in the spring. The post Goodnight, Sweet Garden first appeared on The Garden at 485 Elm ..read more

Winter squash harvest day comes before the first frost or after the squash have stopped maturing in each day’s reduced sunlight and warmth. Gardeners harvested the squashes for sorting and distribution then pulled up the vines, which went onto the garden waste windrow. We grow three or four squash varieties each year. Delicious, versatile delicata is a favorite. Gardeners arranged the squash by variety. From left to right, butternut, delicata, buttercup, and a grab bag of smalls. In the background to the left, a gardener dumps a load of squash vines onto the garden waste windrow. The windro ..read more

Most of the garden’s edamame was ready to harvest. These green plants in the foreground will grow a while longer, but the yellow plants you see the gardeners working on, and the ones way in the background between them, were ripe and ready. Instead of pulling out whole plants, gardeners snipped them off just above the ground to leave the healthy legume roots to imbue the soil with nutrients. Each row still contains five plants, which will be left there for the pods to dry out and supply our edamame seed for 2024. The next task was removing edamame pods from each plant. The pods were divided ..read more

Potatoes are one of the crops we harvest all at once and divide among gardeners. The others are edamame, garlic, onions, and winter squash. Other share-divided crops, when we grow them, include Brussels sprouts, seed pumpkins, and peanuts. Potatoes took up four short rows and one long row in this season’s garden. They grow underground and use the space efficiently, so harvesting this small area yields generous shares. Gardeners dig in carefully several inches from the plant. It’s impossible to tell from the surface exactly where the potatoes ended up growing, and shovel-chopped potatoes spoi ..read more

Each garden season as the fall college semester approaches, students participating in the University of Vermont TREK program arrive at the garden. The Garden at 485 Elm is so lucky to be a destination for TREK service volunteers! Several 485 Elm gardeners joined the UVM team for three hours packed with garden fun. Team members harvested bolting lettuce, rescuing what was still edible and bringing the rest to the garden waste windrow, where it will break down and become nutritious compost to grow more crops. Speaking of the garden waste windrow, the team turned over this heavy, weedy mound to ..read more

Garlic harvest day included the last of the onions. The gorgeous harvest yielded robust shares of garlic and onions for gardeners here and for the Montpelier Food Pantry as well as our entire stock of garlic seed, which we’ll plant later in the fall. Garlic heads pull or shovel easily from the moist soil. We harvest alliums early to ward off damage from a recent garden crop predator, the leek moth. Leek moths lay eggs in the leaves of garlic, onions, and other allium plants. The larvae hatch and burrow down the leaves toward the head or bulb. Harvesting in early August ensures gardeners beat ..read more

The garden is overflowing with fresh vegetables, herbs, and, yes, flowers. Three rows and trellises for climbing flowers host varieties that attract pollinators, beautify the garden, and bloom for gardeners who harvest them, take them home, and give them as gifts. Indeed, we call them cutting flowers. Thanks to the gardeners who harvested flowers, took these lovely photos, and allowed us to share them! The post The Power of Flowers first appeared on The Garden at 485 Elm ..read more

Onions are one of the most reliable crops at the Garden at 485 Elm. When we get them in early enough, they grow into gorgeous bulbs that we harvest all at once and divide among gardeners here. Gardeners enjoy red, white, and yellow onions and shallots. This season, gardeners expressed concern about how the onions look as they’re growing, especially the white onions. Two issues are visible. The onions leaves look spotty, and the bulbs are popping out of the ground. The leaves are brown because of leek moths, a pest there’s no avoiding. This is at issue only if the leek moth larvae make their ..read more

Whichever direction you look in the garden, there’s food ready to eat. These haricots verts and other bush beans need harvesting for the vines to continue producing. Edamame and pole beans will come later. There’s greens, greens, greens! As fast as they get harvested and eventually go by, we plant more. Arugula is going in on the left. On the right, some of what’s going home with gardeners daily: arugula, chard, collards, kale, lettuces, and more. For a zap of flavor, the garden’s medium-hot peppers include these flamingo flares along with jalapeños and what might be shishitos. They’re rip ..read more