Our studio is always striving to reduce the garbage behind the pretty
OUR MISSION
Pictured above: the amazing valley where we live, farm & swim in spring-fed creeks!
As a design studio with its own (micro-scale!) flower farm, I get to offer my clients some of the most fresh and delicate flowers that are often impossible to find elsewhere. If it doesn’t last shipped in a box for days with no water, chances are you will probably never find it at your average wholesaler. Favorites like dahlias, zinnias, and cosmos all fit this bill. If I want to use some of my favorite flowers I often have to grow them myself!
Most people have concerns about what pesticides/fungicides they are ingesting as food, and I would challenge them to also consider the impact non-sustainable flower production has on their health when handling those Colombian roses, etc. (they’re literally dipped into vats of fungicide moments before shipping!).
Check out the book Flower Confidential for a fascinating expose of the floral industry’s very ugly side. We only get one planet and we MUST do better! This is my main mission behind Laurel Creek Florals. Keeping our beautiful creeks clean on the farm, sharing the healing power of fresh flowers with my community which helps to connect people with the natural world. Not everyone is as lucky to live in a literal rainforest like me, and I don’t take it for granted. Sharing the garden with other creatures is another special treat.
Stalking the monarchs passing by on their fall migration south. This day was magical- there were over a dozen flitting around me while I worked!
Did you know that 80% of flowers sold in the US are imported? The amount of fossil fuels burned in the supply chain to grow a product that is supposed to celebrate nature and bring joy is positively staggering. THIS is what motivates me to keep up with farming on top of events- I have so much less guilt when I can flower a wedding with 100% locally grown blooms even if I have to shop with other farmers, which will always keep money in our local economy and protect acreage from being developed into yet more condos and parking lots.
Flower farming is still agriculture and the diversity of pollinators, song birds, and other benefits to surrounding ecosystems are multifold when managing gardens with soil health at the forefront of our methods. If I use a backpack sprayer it is only for OMRI-certified products (that are used as a last resort to battle pests/disease), compost tea and fish emulsion.
If I order shipped product I strive to seek out American grown over imports if there is availability. Anytime we can buy local from our wonderful farmer friends or harvest here on the farm, the only waste created is my gas to pick up orders and some rubber bands! As opposed to large boxes shipped on cargo jets from South America or the Netherlands, crammed with styrofoam padding/ice packs/and so much single use cellophane wrapping that just one small event can make the bin overflow with garbage in a flash. This garbage will be around for centuries even if your party was just one night. Yikes! Flowers that didn't spend days out of water are always more hardy so we have far less wasted stems overall when they have gone straight from the garden into water.
A fresh layer of compost on the far left, and snapdragons ready for harvest!
Our herd of Red Devon heritage breed beef cattle.
Found this little friend while digging to plant perennials! This is why we keep tillage and chemicals to a minimum so our amphibians do lots of work catching the bugs for us.
Another amphibian friend! This tree frog was lounging in the celosia patch one sunny summer day. Maybe the most beautiful frog I have ever seen!
We never use toxic floral foam (which creates yet another microplastics water pollution nightmare!), choosing pin frogs and chicken wire for the base of designs in rented vessels and always compost leftovers. It would be far less labor to just dump everything into trash bags after breakdown and toss right into venue dumpsters but it is so important to me to practice what I preach in whatever small ways possible, so you will see me pulling stems out to sort for drying or composting, and hoarding plastic water tubes for reuse at clean up.
Could I operate more efficiently by skipping some of these steps? Yes. But the cost to the planet pains me enough to take the extra time even if I kind of hate sitting outside a venue until midnight after leaving the house at 9 AM— just to get those vases back every time.
My partner Sam also runs his own farm operation full-time. His focus is grass-fed beef, pastured pork + chicken and about half an acre of vegetables. He sells in Brevard NC at the Transylvania Market nearly year-round. Visit Eastatoee Community Farm for more.
My silk ribbons are hand-torn in the studio and dyed with plant-based pigment for biodegradable shades that shimmer with nuance and complement the colors of flowers better than any polyester & petro-chemical dyed version could. Even little scraps of silks make it into my compost bin. Eco-printing with bug-damaged blooms and event leftovers is my newest obsession that adds value to our low waste methods.
Thanks for reading and buying local- whether food or flowers!