Plants for gardeners, grown by gardeners

Our Plants

From seed to sale, we take pride in growing plants that will perform well in your garden. Learn more about our growing practices below.

Pre - Order Your Plants!

Feb 1-Feb 15: Order Window

Seeds + Slow Growing Plants for June Planting

Join our mailing list to be notified when the Pre - Order Window Opens

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Seed Sources.

We use seeds from ethical companies that we trust to provide seeds free of GMOs and patented varieties (plant variety patents stifle innovation and the ability to breed plants that withstand changing climate conditions.)

High Desert Seeds: We are proud to offer High Desert Seeds which are grown and packaged in Paonia and surrounding communities. These seeds are primed to grow well our high desert conditions!

Fedco Seeds: Many of our seedlings are grown from Fedco seeds. Fedco offers many short season varieties that perform well with our cool summer nights.

Seed Varieties.

One of the main reasons we grow our own plants is to offer varieties known to grow well in our gardens, rather than varieties that have nation-wide appeal. We always select varieties based on their ability to mature quickly, set and mature fruit in cool night conditions, and can withstand the diseases that are common here.

Almost all our veggie varieties have grown in our Eagle gardens! (Full disclosure: some plants are grown best under simple low-tech row covers)

Soil

We grow our seedlings in Paonia Soil. This light fluffy blend is made with their nutrient dense compost fortified with organic amendments. No blue/green mystery balls of slow release chemical fertilizers in our pots!

We make our own worm castings and compost tea on-site. Your plants are well nourished while they are with us.

Growing Practices.

Our goal is plants that grow full and large in your garden, not their nursery pots!

We thin seedlings down to one plant per pot in most cases. (When we put several plants per pot, it's on purpose. We'll give you instructions on how to divide and space them in your garden.)

We prune seedlings like tomatoes down to a few stems. When growing tomatoes, our goal is the earliest and largest tomatoes, not the largest and bushiest tomato plants. We'll prune off the lowest suckers and leaves as your tomato plants grow, so that they are ready to give you tomatoes sooner.

We pinch cut flower seedlings in most cases. (Some single stem flower varieties cannot be pinched, so we won't do it!) Pinching cut flower seedlings promotes bushier plants with more and longer stems for your bouquets. So when you buy a zinnia from us, it won't be flowering because we'd rather it flower in your garden with long stems that you can arrange into gorgeous bouquets!

We don't treat flowers with growth inhibitors. The flowers we grow are for cut flower gardens, not mass bedding plants. Typically snapdragons, zinnias, and other flowers are treated with growth inhibitors to stunt their natural growth in order to conform to needs of landscape bedding plants.

We'll order in typical bedding plants for that use, but the flowers we grow are for gardeners creating a "cutting garden" where large plants and lanky stems are prized!

We don't overgrow plants. Some veggies don't like living in nursery pots. They respond by setting flowers and fruit pre-maturely which lessens their overall production potential. We want your plants to be young and vigorous when they enter your garden, not overgrown and mature.

Get Our Plants

Pre - Orders and In - Store Purchasing

To offer a larger variety of plants, we use Pre - Orders as well as traditional instore shopping.

Why Pre-Order?

Pre-Orders allow us to plan and grow plants from seed just for you! We can offer a huge variety of plants as pre-order without the risk that they are too unique to sell once they are grown.

Many of our plants are only offered as Pre-Orders, so for the best selection, ordering during the Pre-Order window is your best bet.

During the Pre-Order window, we'll grow out as many of each thing as is ordered! Afterwards, there's no guarantee that you'll be able to get the Pre-Order Only plants in store.

Where Are the Other Plants?

We are working hard to get our plants into our online store. We are prioritizing plant release dates by when we need to plant the seeds to grow your plants. The windows for Pre-Order Availability are listed below. Please order your plants within the window, so we have time to grow them for you!

What are the Pre-Order Windows?

Feb 1-Feb 15: Seeds + Slow Growing Plants for June Planting

  • Seed Packets

  • Tomatoes

  • Peppers

  • Onion Family

  • Eggplants

  • Celery Family

  • Bare Root Fruit & Veg

  • Herbs

  • Cut Flowers

    Feb 15 - Mar 1: Greens for May-June Planting

  • Salad Greens (lettuce, spinach, arugula, etc)

  • Small Greens (bok choi, tatsoi, mustard green, etc)

  • Big Greens (Broccoli, Cauliflower, Cabbage, Kale, Chard, etc)

  • Peas

    Mar 15 - Apr 1: Fast Growing Plants for June Planting

  • Beans

  • Squash/Pumpkin/Melon/Cucumber family

  • Corn

    May 1 - May 15: Large Greens for Summer Planting & Fall Harvest

  • Big Greens (Broccoli, Cauliflower, Cabbage, Kale, Chard, etc)

    June 1-June 15: Small Greens for Late Summer Planting & Fall Harvest + Bulbs

  • Salad Greens (lettuce, spinach, arugula, etc)

  • Small Greens (bok choi, tatsoi, mustard green, etc)

  • Garlic

  • Shallots

  • Tulips

  • Daffodils

Why Require a Deposit?

We're growing these plants just for you!

We're a brand new business, and your deposit helps us pay for expenses like seeds, soil, heat, and electricity while your plants are growing in the greenhouse. You have the option of paying 50%-100% upfront. The remainder will be due when you pick up your plants.

What happens to my deposit if I don't get my plants?

If we kill your plants before you pick them up (during the pick up window,) we'll offer you a substitution. If you don't like the substitution, we'll refund your deposit.

If you don't pick up your plants within the pick up window (and other arrangements haven't been made,) we'll sell or donate your seedlings.

If you don't like the look of your plants at pick up, we'll possibly issue a refund. If we, as experienced mountain gardeners would feel confident planting the seedlings in our garden, we're unlikely to issue a refund.

But, if the seedlings look terrible and we'd hesitate to plant them in our gardens, we'd have marked them as killed and offered you a substitution or refund.

Please remember that we thin and prune our seedlings in our care, and that your plants may not look as full as overcrowded big box store nursery plants. We want your plants to be big and full in your garden, not in their nursery pots!

What about traditional retail shopping?

We'll still have plenty of plants available instore for shopping! We'll grow extras of all the pre-orders and have limited availability of those as well as larger quantities of beloved favorites available once we open on April 28th.

We'll also supplement our inhouse grown plants with other locally- and California- grown offerings!

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