Over in the UK, Oasis Floral Products teamed up with marketing agency Queen Bee to put together a kit that makes it easier for florists to have sustainability conversations with their customers. It’s called Let’s Talk Eco: A Florist’s Marketing & Confidence Kit. 

The kit pulls together talking points for floral businesses so they can educate their staff, plus includes a large collection of downloadable files for counter signs, posters, postcards and packaging stickers. It also includes wording for websites, social media content, newsletter and blog topics, and even practical conversation starters to have with customers. 

As you might expect, since this is a collaboration with Oasis, there’s a strong focus on Oasis Renewal Floral Foam. For businesses that might not know how (or have the bandwidth) to position an eco product, this gives them everything they need and a pretty simple list of ways to get the word out. 

In my day job, I lead a number of marketing collaborations, and I can testify that our campaigns run best when I can hand off a stack of marketing assets to a partner organization so that they have an easy plug-and-play game plan. It leads to more consistent messaging and reliable follow-through from our partners. 

Want to check out the marketing & confidence kit? Head over HERE. 

What on earth is ecogreation, you ask? It’s a new research collaboration project in Europe and it stands for: Ecological greenhouse diversification with multifunctional plants. Researchers and growers from five countries are teaming up to develop more robust and sustainable organic greenhouse growing systems.

The project aims to help the European greenhouse food-growing sector to transition toward more sustainable systems. That includes looking for strong, economic value, positive impacts on soil and fertility, biodiversity, and biological pest control. And they aren’t just catering to the high-tech glass greenhouse growers. They’ll be working unheated poly tunnels as well as heated glasshouses, through a series of locations they are calling “living labs.”

A reminder that while U.S. organic growers can utilize containers at all crop stages, in many countries that is not the case. In the EU, once you are past the transplant stage, organic crops must be grown in living soil, in connection with subsoil. Both soil health and transition requirements become big issues in this scenario.

EcoGreation includes researchers from France, Sweden, Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands. Learn more HERE.

USDA Rural Development just issued its final rule on the changes it made to the Rural Energy for America Program (REAP), which has historically given growers significant financial assistance to adopt energy efficiency improvements as well as renewable energy. Greenhouses were able to install energy curtains, biofuel boilers, solar panels, and more. 

The new rules suggest a vastly different program, one that requires the applicant to fully fund and complete the project before they apply for REAP funding. 

Under the new REAP structure, to apply for funding you must first:

1) Have the project fully built.

2) Provide 12 month's worth of energy production or savings data with the project. Plus provide 12 months of pre-installation data to compare it with.

A press release from the USDA also billed the changes as cutting red tape, with applications moving to an online portal and awards being made on a national basis (as opposed to through a state’s rural development offices). Also of note, the new rules prohibit solar photovoltaic and wind energy systems on existing cropland, and the rules also prohibit solar or wind turbines that contain “components made in a country named as a foreign adversary.”

Applicants must also meet the definition of a small business, and multi-location projects are no longer eligible. While this rule becomes effective on October 16, public comments are technically open until November 2, 2026.

These changes will likely narrow the pool of applicants, but for those that can make the parameters work, there is funding available. Expect to see a notice of application open and close dates coming from the USDA.

Meanwhile, “regenerative” ag continues to get more of the limelight. The USDA just announced an increase in funding for their Regenerative Pilot Program in 2027, bringing its support up to $1 billion from a previous $700 million.

Billed as a way to help producers adopt conservation systems that improve soil, water quality and farm resilience, the focus is on whole-farm planning. A press release from the USDA also linked the program to the MAHA concept, quoting  Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., “Farmers are on the front line of our effort to Make America Healthy Again.”

Regenerative ag has been having a moment in the U.S., with increasing attention. But it’s also generating a lot of confusion. There’s no single certification standard (though there are several certification programs, including one that is Regenerative Organic), and this USDA pilot is not a certification or label program—it provides funding for conservation measures that fall into the realm of regenerative.

How to get the USDA funding? Farmers and ranchers interested in regenerative agriculture are encouraged to apply through their local NRCS Service Center. The regenerative application process allows you to apply for both Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) and Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) funding through a single application.

I’m delighted to offer the first snow report of the season. We received 8 inches of fresh white stuff yesterday. Most of us began last weekend with a mad scramble to finish all the garden chores before the storm hit. Then I chopped wood, made a fire, and watched our golden fall turn to monochrome.

I enjoyed a giddy walk with the dogs (it was the puppy’s first snow) and marveled at how easily I fall in love with every season each time it arrives. (Not that winter is here to stay; it will melt and be balmy by Friday.) It has been a truly glorious fall around here, everyone basking in blue skies and glowing cottonwoods. But that day job I mentioned above involves skiing, and so we jumped into grooming cross country ski trails yesterday, with gorgeous shots of happy skiers gliding around in the fog.

Not what I had planned for October 12, but it felt magical to get a little preview of the frozen season and to feel the buzz of energy that arrives with that turn.