Preparing to Plant

The beds are all built now in the greenhouse, and Eric ran up to alamosa with the trailer to get a ton of dirt at a time, because our calculations seemed to be way off (we were estimating over a grand for the soil), so we took the guy from the dirt place's advice - start with a ton, see how much it fills. To fill all the beds in the greenhouse, it took us 2 tons, with a couple extra wheelbarrows from a third ton. The extra goes into our coldframes, helps inoculate our compost pile, and will be mixed into our topsoil for our large outdoor fenced in garden (we are just prepping it this year, doing a 1-time till to break up the compacted soil and get out the large rocks, mixing in compost, and planting a thick cover crop to further improve and loosen the soil, of rye, oats, and 3 types of clovers, and a handful of spare wildflower seeds we have.)

We accepted the bid for the septic, for $3750 including all labor from RMS Utilities in Alamosa. I read up on the literature they sent us, it was actually pretty interesting. They use environmentally friendly materials, and the leech field is meant to conserve as much water as possible. Ultimately I think we will be happier with septic. Carrying out buckets full of poop and trying to clean them outside in the middle of winter doesnt sound like too much fun.
I still think composting toilets are awesome tho, and we will use it in our outhouse we are building this summer, using old wood pallets gotten for free from La Jara Trading Post (they just burn them unless we grab em).

We went through all our seeds and organized them by type, then chose which ones we wanted to plant this year. I started a few already in trays. Well, we dont have any trays and cant really afford them, so made use of what we got - old cornplastic salad containers, cardboard egg cartons, sprout cartons, berry cartons, empty toilet paper rolls, etc. I put them on the cheap folding wood tables and right up against the windowsill, but its not getting too much light. The kale in the 5 gallon bucket is ready to be eaten too. And also in a 3-gallon bucket, I started some yacon tubers that a friend in amsterdam sent me.

Heres a rough outline of whats what .. (pardon the bad editing, but just for reference ..)

TOMATOES

Hanging

Moms Tomato – Variety

Moms Tomato – Medium

Moms Tomato – Big

Tomato – Early Red Stupice

*Moms – 2yrs

Outside

Amazon Chocolate Tomato

Black Plum

Greenhouse

Pink Floyd

Absinthe

Jack White

Amish Paste

Hungarian Heart

LETTUCE AND GREENS

*Totsoi

*Mache

*Mizuna MG

Forellenchus

Yugslavian Red

Mizuna Mustard Green

Mervelle Des Saisons

Lollo Rossa

Bronze Arrowhead

Crisp Mint Romaine

Flame Lettuce

Outside

Thai Green Lettuce

Strawberry Spinach

Osaka Purple Mustard Greens

Bau Sin Mustard greens

Viroflay Spinach (Out in summer/fall, Greenhouse in winter)

Broadstem Green Chard (Out in summer/fall, Greenhouse in winter)

Dinosaur kale (Out in summer/fall, Greenhouse in winter)

True Siberian Kale (Out in summer/fall, Greenhouse in winter)

China Choy Chinese Cabbage (Out in summer/fall, Greenhouse in winter)

Calabrese Broccoli (Out in summer/fall, Greenhouse in winter)

PEPPERS

Sweet Chocolate (Out and In)

Quadrato Asti Giallo

Buran

Alma Paprika

HERBS

Garlic Chives (outside and inside – plant with carrots, tomatoes, brassicas, mustards)

Cilantro Long Standing (inside)

Greek Oregano (In and Out- with broccoli cabbages cucumbers)

Bee Balm (Outside, with tomatoes)

Sweet Genovesa Basil (tomatoes and peppers)

Mrs Burns Lemon Basic (tomatoes and peppers)

Catnip (repels aphids, mice, assorted bugs)

Red Core Chantenay Carrots – Outside

Plum Purple Radish – Inside first set, Outside after

Chioggia Beet (inside and out)

Cousa Squash – Outside

Summer Crookneck Squash -Outside

Table Queen Squash – Outside

Cucurbita Pepo (Squash) Var. giroumontia, var wauszquestia

Early Silverline Melon – Outline

Absinthe Muskmelon Mix – Outside

Yellow Orange and White Watermelon Mix - Outside

True Lemon Cucumber - Inside and Out

Armenian Cucumber – Inside and Out

Egyptian Walking Onions – Outside

Long Red Florence Onion – Mostly Out, few In

Austrian Brown Onion – Mostly Out, few in

Eva’s Burgundy Lettuce Seeds (Winter Greenhouse)

Evas Ground Cherry (outside, nonbed)

Hornings Farm Ground Cherry (outside, nonbed)

Jefferonian Alpine Strawberry Mix (inside and out)

Goldan Bantam Improved Corn (outside)

Various Corn Mixes (outside)

Dwarf Gray Sugar Pea (in and outside)

Sugar Snap (in and out)

Broad Windsor Fava (out)

Good Mother Stallard Bean (outside, 3 sisters)