Steven Bruce Design: Samples "From the Garden Bouquet"

Saturday, July 17, 2010

Samples "From the Garden Bouquet"

And you said it couldn’t be done.

This is what we do when we have a weekend off. We create bouquets and centerpieces that we first design in our heads.

We are fortunate to have wonderful neighbors who also have an organic farm called Little Egg Farm (littleeggfarm@gmail.com). They sell organic eggs, and vegetable & herb items in small quantities.

Lucky us.

We have been thinking of creating a total “green” bouquet for a long time. We made a bouquet like this for a bride who got married at The Garrison (see earlier June entry).

Since then I have wanted to modify the idea by using more herbs and edible flowers.

I have been talking to our neighbor Jen about it for a while but we have been too busy to try it. I just got back from picking herbs, handed them to Steve, and said, “Here you go”. It turned out so beautiful & lovely, I am so happy and impressed. I could not wait to share the photos with my Blog friends and clients.
I plan on working on some more with Jen to sell at the local food coop.

Now that I have taken, my photos I am having Steve transform the bouquet into companion centerpieces and will post on this Blog soon.

I am calling this bouquet “From the Garden” because I decided to add Dusty Miller, Queen Anne’s lace, Lavender and Jasmine vine then added a few flowers we are growing in our garden.

It started off being a completely edible bouquet, which you can visualize without the added wild flowers.

The bouquet has Tarragon, several types of Sage, Parsley, Thyme, Rosemary, flowering Oregano, Dill, Fennel, Mint, little yellow Arugula flowers, Scented Geranium, Chamomile and Nasturtium flowers & leaves (edible flowers that come in all sorts of colors). Then I wrapped the bouquet in twine.

After we photograph the “edible centerpieces”, we plan to make a nice dinner out of our work. That is the beauty of using herbs.

When considering this sort of bouquet or centerpiece some issues may arise. You do not always know the condition of these garden plants; they don’t last long in the heat and can wilt or dry up. With these risks in mind, it is a lovely idea for a wedding or an outdoor party.

I withstood the heat to bring you “From the Garden” companion centerpieces.

Boy was it hot today; I even got sunburn during the twenty minutes it took for my photo shoot.

I found some nice spots to take these photos. One place I like is on top of a bale of hay except I don’t like the wooden shingles as the background. The other place I like now is on an old wooden kid’s chair. I am beginning to like this spot the most since it rests in my little garden.

antique ball jar

I wanted to photograph the herbs we used for the bouquet set in several containers. The first design is in an old blue glass Ball jar, then we used a chartreuse glass square, a rustic wooden box and finally a container made out of recycled tires. We bought the tire container on our trip to Paris in April. We thought it was so cool and chic. We cannot tell you our source but hope to use them at a wedding soon.