Tend design by Sarah Yates Photography

Your wedding is a sacred event. When you finally make it to your nuptials, the last thing you should be worrying about is the carbon footprint your walk down the aisle is playing out on the planet. Wedding flowers arguably carry the heaviest environmental impact but are also one of the easiest areas you can lighten the load. Thank goodness because next to the bride, wedding floral is the second most important belle of the ball! The following guide will help bring the greenest greens, whether you are the savvy couple looking to hire conscientious vendors or the DIY modern bride braving her own arrangements.

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As Springs springs, I feel like a enraptured kid seeing things for the very first time. Like really SEEING, and with all my senses…. colors and textures and fragrances and nubile life exploding in a big party for the soul. Even in “sunny” Southern Cali, we awaken to Spring with a new pep in the step and spirited appreciation for even the smallest of changes in our environment as Mother Nature shakes off the chill and straps on her dancing shoes.

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Last week I was creatively constipated. Sorry to be crass but that’s exactly how it can feel, no? When this happens I embark on a now-steady routine to get things moving again, and usually in this order: suddenly feel grouchy upon blockage setting in, sulk, nap, evaluate my future as a working creative, panic, consult my heroes, reconnect to the collective flow, ready to go.

Seeing as this column coincided with said blockage, I thought I’d share some of my tried and true go-to sources of inspiration. Mostly “classics” they are so I won’t bore you with any arty farty analysis. Just enjoy.

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An architectural, clean-lined vessel is key for plantscaping our modern digs. No need for our containers to compete with their contents so let the greens be wild as nature intended and our planters a statement not over-stated.

Photo: Scott Caligure for Tend

Gainey remains my go-to line for plantscaping my projects. This California company gets high props for being both local (vs. the typical overseas) and green in their production, and they have been doing it since the 50s. The classic and clean Cylinder design is where it is at. Custom planter stands by Bells and Whistles for Tend.

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We don’t do gift guides here on Design Milk because everyone does them. We like to be different. Last year, we did staff wishlists and once again we thought it would be fun to continue this new tradition and ask each current contributor what was on their wishlist this holiday season — realistic or pipe dream. So, for next 2 weeks we’ll be featuring staff wishlists.

I especially love Britton’s wishlist this year because I feel like you can really get a sense for who she is!

1. The Ace Hotel in Palm Springs
Yes, I want a hotel in my stocking. There are too many awesome things about the Ace Hotel Palm Springs to list so I’ll just take it all. I’ve never seen Desert-Mod-Nautical-Bohemian-Boy Scout done better.

2. Lyve Shield Necklace
Maybe it’s all of the Dark Ages battle sagas I’ve been obsessed with lately but this shield pendant, made in the ancient tradition, is the stuff legends are made of.

3. Nina Sings the Blues by Nina Simone
The original 1967 RCA Records pressing of Nina Sings the Blues by Nina Simone. Had it. Lent it. Lost it. No one sings it like Nina did. NO ONE.

4. Hand-Woven Market Basket
This lovely fair trade market basket is the perfect tote to get your farmer’s market veggies safely home. Hand woven by the Widow’s Weaving Cooperative in Northern Ghana.

5. Little Plum Vessel
Renewable wood fashioned after Pueblo pottery.

6. Screen-printed kitchen linens
Screen-printed linen. And feathers. Husband, wipe up your red wine with these and you are done for.

7. Heath Ceramics
Friends, food tastes better in Heath.

8. A Velorbis Studine Classic Ladies Bike
Your ride to the farmer’s market, pub and park just got waaaay more stylish.

9. 1000 Garden Ideas book
Written by Stafford Cliff, the author of 1974′s seminal House Book. If it’s anything like that, I want to see pretty gardens but I really want to see the crazy, too.

For those of you who fancy yourself a card-carrying plant nerd (or aspire to be one), allow me to sing the praises of some truly geek-worthy modern varieties.

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Prior to 1974, the US had never seen the likes of a Tillandsia air plant. These fascinating sea-like creatures are all the rage these days and as I design another tilly wedding this week (insert squeals of delight here), I am convinced I will never tire of their magic. Brought here from South America by Paul Isley of Rainforest Flora in a series of rather daunting and dangerous efforts , he and his team supply plant nerds the world over with over 10,000 tillies a week. These soil-less epiphytes take any where from 6 to 20 years to mature from seed and with all the rare hybrids and cultivars, they have become a plant collector’s dream. At once trippy and elegant, tillies can be used as living art with relatively low-maintenance, though do read up on your particular variety as they range in their watering and natural light needs (desert-dwellers beware, Floridians & Pac-North Westerners rejoice).  Here are some of my favorite ways to see tillies used.

These hanging air plant pods by Michael McDowell were designed to drain plants after hydrating; preventing them from sitting in water, which they hate. Simultaneously prehistoric and futuristic, tillies can also be strung en masse on fishing line to create room screens and living chandeliers, hey hey!

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Editor’s note: Please welcome our newest contributor, Britton Neubacher of Tend. She is “a social justice activist turned certified plant geek.” Her monthly column, MilkWeed, will focus on how to incorporate modern plants in and around your home, garden trends and more. Learn more about Britton on our About page.

Photo: Eames (Gloria Koenig; 2005)

Ever walk into one of those places where everything is perfect; the architecture, the furniture, the art, even the resident dog looks manufactured for this space…but something is clearly, eerily missing? You can’t quite put your finger on it but it’s almost like a pulse is absent, some palpable expression of life. It’s beautiful but not inviting. It’s cold. You want to look but not touch nor kick your shoes off and cozy in? This, my friends, is what I refer to as the architectural undead. Where everything acts alive but does not have a heartbeat or lungs to breathe. Well, I’m tired of modern design bring associated with the cold and austere. Mid-century modern understood the need for green (thus my liberal use of vintage interior design pix — so yummy!). Contemporary modern design not so much (as proven by my exhaustive search for current day plantscaping examples ending in a return to said good ol’ days). I say we unearth those wise roots, roll up the sleeves and invite a little friendly dirt in. Together we will be the plantscaper-capers fearlessly bringing life back into the spaces that are inhabited but do not breathe!

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