The Garden Way Living Center was a Mecca for gardeners and homesteaders. Opened during the summer of 1973, the retail store was located at 1186 Williston Road* in South Burlington.
The store was stocked with Troy Bilt® roto-tillers, Garden Way carts, gardening tools, seeds, guides, canning supplies, and food processing equipment.
The popularity of the Garden Way Living Center coincided with the rapid expansion of community gardening across Vermont, spearheaded by Tommy Thompson of Gardens for All.
Less than a mile from the store, dozens of new community garden plots were slated to become available in the spring of 1974. The University of Vermont provided land for community gardening at the East Avenue jughandle. Gardens for All coordinated site preparation. The jughandle garden site was in addition to the large Orchard community garden off East Avenue. A new community garden site also opened in 1974 at the UVM Medical Center, on the corner of East Avenue and Colchester Avenue.
Author's note: In the fall of 1982, I traveled from my rented farmstead in Ferrisburgh to the Garden Way Living Center in South Burlington, where Cheese Traders is now located. From the mid 1970s to the mid 1980s, the store was the go-to place for "back to the landers."
I purchased a Vittorio Strainer and Mehu Maija Steamer Juicer that autumn day. During the past four decades, our family has used the ingenious food processing equipment during harvest season to make batches of tomato puree and pink applesauce.
