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!

LoCoFlo Bouquet featured in the new edition of Eco-Beautiful Weddings

We were super excited to see one of our fall bouquets in the new edition of Eco-Beautiful Weddings!

Eco-Beautiful Wedding is a great resource for couples that want to have an amazingly beautiful, eco-friendly wedding. It’s full of ideas for creative decor, fashion, floral…as well as loads of gorgeous photos.

Speaking of gorgeous photos…we are so grateful to be able to partner with like-minded, green vendors such as our friends at Balance Photography. We worked with them on a fun photo shoot back in October out at Thorpewood, one of our favorite, green venues. The bouquet above was commissioned for the shoot and complemented the woodsy, mountain venue perfectly. It was filled with locally grown magnolia, eucalyptus, amaranth, wheat, dahlias and monkey balls. It was wrapped in a simple burlap wrap.

Thanks to Balance Photography and Eco-Beautiful Weddings for including Local Color Flowers  in the Winter/Spring 2013 edition!

Local Color Flowers is now WIND Powered!

Everyday we’re excited about something new at our new Charles Village studio space. As part of our on-going commitment to becoming a more sustainable small business, we’re excited to announce that we’ve switched to wind power through Clean Currents.
Wonder why wind power is awesome? Here’s some reasons:

• Wind power is the 2nd most renewable energy source after solar
• Wind power is a green energy source that doesn’t pollute the environment
• Wind power is abundant and can be harnessed anywhere-including in our own communities.

Switching to wind power with Clean Currents was simple and easy and took very little time.  We’re thrilled to be one of many socially conscious businesses that have made the switch to wind power. It’s another way that our small business can help our community and our environment.

It’s a Wrap!

The 2012 wedding season is officially over! What a season it’s been. We worked on 82 weddings this season. That is definitely up from the 56 we did last year.

But the story isn’t in the numbers.

It’s in the faces.

It’s in the flowers.

  

It’s in the growers.

The story is in all the great people that we worked with this year.

Thank you to everyone who helped to make our 2012 wedding season such a success! We’re grateful to all of you!

Packing. Working. Moving.

This is a crazy week! We are packing up the shed. The shed affectionately got it’s nickname from our friend Emily, who, when she visited for the first time said “I didn’t know you worked in a shed”. 

We’ve been in our Hampden studio for two years now. When we moved in it seemed so glorious. So much room! A private entrance! A bigger cooler! Close to home! And if I’m being honest, the shed had been mostly good to us. We’ve done over 125 weddings in there. It never lost power, even during “Derecho” when our cooler was filled with hundreds of hydrangeas and it was over 100 degrees out. And we’ve become a part of a funny little community of artisans that work in adjacent “sheds”.

But we’ve out grown the space. I mean…we’re busting at the seams. So it’s time to go. Eric has been packing and moving and packing and moving. Tomorrow we’ll do our last event in the space. Then…

We’re off to Charles Village!

Things at our new studio are …still a work in progress. In fact, painting just started today!

But we’re going! This Saturday’s wedding will be the first in the new space. I’m looking forward to a little kitchen, and a big cooler, and heat and AC! Soon…

Thanksgiving is coming! It’s Time To Order Flowers!

I can’t believe Thanksgiving is just two weeks away! If you’re like me, you’re already planning your menu (with loads of local food), strategizing about what the farmers markets will have and feeling hungry (and grateful) throughout the process.

Whether you’re hosting Thanksgiving yourself or spending the day at a friend’s or family member’s house, local flowers are a wonderful addition to any celebration.

Local Color Flowers is excited to offer a variety of locally grown Thanksgiving centerpieces, wreaths, door decorations and more. In the spirit of the original thanksgiving, we’ll use the best flowers, branches, berries and fruits that are available locally to create a unique, seasonal addition to any Thanksgiving dinner.

If you have a large dinner table, maybe you’d like this 12 inch long centerpiece (could be made in a vintage wood box as well) filled with seasonal flowers (colors may vary depending on availability), ornamental cabbage, seed pods, veggies (can you find the brussel sprouts in there??) succulents and more!

Or maybe you’d like to wow your guests with an adorable centerpiece made in a locally grown pumpkin or gourd.

Don’t forget to decorate your door or mantle with a naturally styled wreath made with local berries, greens, branches, pine cones and more. (berry colors will vary depending on availability)

Door swags are super cute too!

Finally, if you want to bring your hosts a great little gift, how about Baltimore only ALL LOCAL gift basket! Filled with some of Baltimore’s favorite “stuff”, the basket is a great way to celebrate the goodness our region has to offer

Buying local this Thanksgiving! To order, fill out the form on our website and someone will be in touch with you to go over the details (pricing, delivery etc). Or you can call me (410-262-1494) or email me ellen@locoflo.com

LoCoFlo Swag Courtesy Of CommonSEED-press

I absolutely love our new LoCoFlo tees and hoodies! I’ve been wanting them for sooo long and now…here they are!

Each tee and hoody has a different flower from our logo on the front.

They’re awesome!

I first met Michael Clark of CommonSEED-press at a Chesapeake Sustainable Business Alliance meeting a few years ago. Michael was passionate about his work as a small, sustainable print shop. CommonSEED-press is located here in Baltimore and is committed to using water-based ink and organic cotton to produce a truly sustainable product. They’ve worked on apparel for some great local businesses including Hamilton Tavern and Woodberry Kitchen.

As happens with a lot of things, tee shirts and hoodies were something I wanted, but spending the time to design/create them always got pushed to the bottom of my list. A few weeks ago, for my 40th birthday, Eric showed up at the studio with boxes of LoCoFlo tee-shirts and sweathshirts!  He had worked with Michael and CommonSeed-press to create great looking, comfortable, sustainable apparel that we can wear at work, on deliveries and for fun.

I love them-and if you’ve seen me in the last few weeks, you’ll notice that my LoCoFlo hoody has become my favorite article of clothing!

Now that we’ve started, we’re hoping to have LoCoFlo “stuff” available for sale in the near future. Stay tuned for availability and options.

Special thanks to CommonSEED-press for their great work!