At Shifting Blooms, we believe in making our environmental impact as small as possible and doing our part to keep our environmental impact low. In the spirit of transparency, here’s a list of things we do to lessen our impact, and some disclaimers about the amount of spraying we do.
Ways We Help
We garden with what I like to call a minimum-till method. We till the soil when we first make a bed, but after that, we only use a hand-powered garden claw to prep the beds in spring. This still preserves the soil structure but allows us to work in the amendments we add every year.
For amendments, we use H-Start, wool pellets, manure, and leaves.
In addition to our annuals, we continue to plant perennials and native plants specifically for our pollinator friends. Since I’ve started gardening on this property, the number of pollinators and good bugs in the soil has substantially increased.
Our (Mostly-no) Spraying Practices
Our flowers are almost never sprayed with chemicals; however, there are a few exceptions. The bug pressure on dahlias is intense, and I have not found a reliable organic way to keep thrips from destroying the whole crop. While I will continue to cover with mesh bags and work on my Brix levels, the dahlias in your bouquet may have been sprayed.
Peonies, snapdragons, and lilacs are also intensely loved by thrips, and I will occasionally spray them off-site and rinse them, especially if they are going in a wedding bouquet.
If you are ever concerned about whether a flower has been sprayed, please let me know, and I will tell you. Also, if you are ordering a bucket of blooms for a cake or other dessert, please let me know so I can offer only flowers that haven’t been sprayed.
Moving Towards Foam-Free Florals
One of my big goals since starting the flower farm has been to ditch the floral foam. While there have been some learning curves in getting used to chicken wire and AgraWool, I now feel confident enough to incorporate them into all of my arrangements.
I will still use traditional foam for my large arch pieces, as I had some breakage last season, but I will work on identifying my errors so I can be entirely foam-free by 2027.
Our Use of Plastics
Plastic is everywhere in the gardening industry, and we have been gradually reducing our use. We invest in heavy-duty seeding trays so that we can reuse that plastic for as many years as possible. In 2026, we are switching to 80% soil blocking. This allows us to further reduce the amount of plastic we use as we expand our farm by using fewer trays.
Our wraps are unfortunately made of plastic, as they are waterproof. However, we reuse as many as possible, as they are quite easy to clean.