When large growers plant a lot of the same flower, pests can decimate that single crop. This forces growers to use synthetic chemicals to kill pests. These then often find their way into the water, the ground, and the air. They also negatively affect the health of those employed to apply the such chemicals.
We do not use synthetic pesticides, insecticides, or fungicides. Instead, we manage pests by:
Growing many flower varieties in close proximity. This confuses the pests with plants they don’t like (like marigolds).
Using row covers to protect and hide young flower plants.
Creatively using non-toxic materials -- like coffee grounds and mint sprays -- to deter pests.
Many growers prepare large areas for planting by tilling up the soil and planting the same crops year after year. The result is nutrient-poor soil that requires synthetic fertilizers.
We rotate our crops. This means that we plant our annual crops in different locations each year, preventing the depletion of nutrients over and over in the same location. We also regularly amend our soil by adding compost that we generate ourselves from food waste, chicken droppings, leaves, and grass clippings.
We ensure that our local pollinators have plenty of options of things to eat by planting lots of different types of plants and flowers.
We have also worked with the US Department of Agriculture to turn a 5-acre parcel on our property into a certified pollinator field.
And, our commitment to not using synthetic pesticides, insecticides, fungicides ensures that local pollinators are not inadvertently killed.
Approximately 80% of the flowers in the US are imported. This means they are driven to the airport in refrigerated trucks, flown in refrigerated planes, and driven again in refrigerated trucks to the store. This results in hundreds of thousands of metric tons of carbon dioxide introduced into the atmosphere annually.
We cut our flowers the morning we intend to sell them (or the evening before if we are arranging them). Then, we deliver them to you using our electric vehicles which we charge using our solar panels. The result is a bouquet you can enjoy knowing it did not negatively impact the environment.
Watering flowers and other crops during dry periods depletes community water supplies.
We collect rain water from our house and barn roofs and store it in barrels to water all our flowers -- rather than using water processed for human consumption. And, the flowers actually prefer rain water!