Summer Design Challenge: “No Foam” Alter Arrangement

When I was asked to design a 4ft long piece to go on a traditional alter, I knew that this would be our next “No Foam” design challenge. In the past, when creating a long, low piece like the one requested, we probably would have used some long tray filled with floral foam. Since we’ve given up floral foam, we had to strategize about an alternative.

The bride’s mom shared this photo of an arrangement made by one of our favorite designers, Francoise Weeks as inspiration. She liked the arrangement but wanted just a splash of color.

Our thought was to make the arrangement in pieces for ease of transportation and also because finding a vase the size and shape we needed (very low-maybe 6 inches tall and long-4 feet long) seemed impossible.

We took 6 rectangular glass vases and lined each of them with a bamboo/faux leaf ribbon and then stuffed them full of chicken wire. The ribbon would help make the base look green (instead of seeing the stems) and the chicken wire was used as structure to hold all the tall stems in place.

Since we designed it to look like one piece once set up, we numbered the vases on the back so that we would know what order to put them up once we got to the church.

Once the pieces were filled with foliage, we added a few splashes of orange and purple flowers.

Even when it was mostly done in the studio, I couldn’t get the full effect of what it would look like in the space. Once we arrived at the church and set it up, we finished it with strands of ivy along the bottom of the arrangement to add to the look of cohesiveness.

I cant lie: I loved the finished product!

Working without floral foam may seem like a big jump. Each successful project gives us more confidence and forces us to be more creative.  Have you given up floral foam? We’d love to hear how you did it!

Urban Composting at Real Food Farm

Composting is so cool! You basically take trash and turn it into a nutrient rich soil amendment. Composting keeps organic waste out of trash bags and landfills will enriching the soil with nutrients that will improve the health of your plants.

While many people (and some businesses like Local Color Flowers) compost, many others don’t because they don’t know how and/or they don’t have space.

Real Food Farm has the answer! Real Food Farm, located in Clifton Park in Baltimore City wants your compost. They’ve created a pretty cool compost station next to their hoop houses to accept the community’s compost.

LoCoFlo drops flower scraps/and flower waste off there whenever we run out of room at home. It’s easy, quick and it helps out a growing urban farm. 

Here is list of the do’s and don’ts of dropping off compost.

What they CAN accept for compost:

• fruit & vegetable scraps, coffee grounds & tea bags, dry grains
• egg shells (but NOT eggs)
• fresh leaves, green plants, prunings, hedge trimmings, grass clippings, old potting soil, straw and hay, dry leaves, dead plants (not diseased please)
• flower bouquets & dried flowers
• feathers
• brewery waste (hops & wet grains)
• nut shells, corn cobs
• wood ash & sawdust

What they  CANNOT accept for compost:

• meat or fish bones or scraps
• eggs, cheese or dairy products
• fats, oils, or grease
• animal waste
• invasive weeds
• weeds with seeds
• diseased plants
• “compostable” bags, plates and utensils
• non-organic materials (such as plastic, metal, glass, etc.)

If you stop over at Real Food Farm’s composting station let us know! we’d love to hear about it!