Gayle Lynn Falkenthal

How to Water Your Plants Using Sub-Irrigation

| August 19, 2020 | Categories: Environment, Gardening, Good Earth Plant Company Tips, Indoor Plants, Plantscaping, Water and Water Conservation
Good Earth Plant Company’s advice on how to water your indoor plants hit pay dirt! Many of you read, commented, and shared the advice in our blog post last week. We are happy to help and thank you for passing our blogs on to your friends and family. The watering tips and methods we discussed all involve surface irrigation. Surface irrigation is any watering technique adding water to the soil from above the plant. Rain provides surface irrigation. But there’s one more way to water your container plants – so call this part three of our series about watering your plants.… Read More

Basic Watering Guide From Our Plant Stylists

| August 12, 2020 | Categories: Biophilic Design, Gardening, Good Earth Plant Company Tips, Indoor Plants, Plantscaping, Water and Water Conservation
Good Earth Plant Company's plant stylists get asked about watering more than any other topic. Photo: Torsten Dettlaff/Pexels
In last week’s blog post, we shared tips from the Good Earth Plant Company experience on whether your plants like a drink of something other than water. Readers told us they enjoyed it – and then said “But we could really use more advice about watering our indoor plants.” If there is one thing we have heard over more than 40 years as plant stylists and indoor plant technicians, it’s this. People still aren’t sure how to water their plants. Proper watering goes hand in hand with proper placement for successful indoor plants. With people spending more time inside due to the coronavirus pandemic, and more picking up plants (see below) to keep them company, we’re following up with Part 2 in our advice series.… Read More

Happy Hour: What Do Indoor Plants Like To Drink?

| August 5, 2020 | Categories: Gardening, Good Earth Plant Company Tips, Indoor Plants, Plantscaping, Water and Water Conservation
Drink up! Plants need water - but do our plants like to drink anything else? Photo: Pexels
After 40 years in business, we’ve learned a lot about plant care at Good Earth Plant Company, and we love to share our best tips with you. One topic never seems to get old: how much should you water your plants? More people are guilty of overwatering their plants, not underwatering them. It’s important to get this right by monitoring your plants and checking the soil. Have you ever wondered if your plants would ever like something besides water to drink? Some people use commercial liquid plant food. But what about some of the common liquids in your home?  Believe or not, the answer is – yes, sometimes!… Read More

Your Summer Solstice Resolution: Get Outside

| July 29, 2020 | Categories: Biophilia, Environment, Nature and Wellbeing
Longer hours of daylight and warmer weather naturally draw us outside more to enjoy it. We’ve been telling you for years this is a GOOD thing (with hats and sunscreen handy). So I had to laugh just a little when I read the Wall Street Journal this week. In an article on its Career and Leadership page, it featured a “new trend” for the coronavirus age: finding ways to hold work meetings in person by – meeting outside. News flash! The article reports workplaces setting up meetings in all kinds of outdoor spaces like parks, beaches, or even in private yards where social distancing and masks allow people to meet safely and get away from their screens and Zoom.… Read More

Indoor Plants and Living Walls Are Essential Workers Too

| July 22, 2020 | Categories: Architecture and Design, Gardening, Indoor Plants, Living Walls, Nature and Wellbeing, Plantscaping
Horticultural technician Sophie Gonzalez hard at work wearing the new custom mask she designed!
According to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, essential workers are those who conduct a range of operations and services that are typically “essential” to continue critical infrastructure operations. Critical infrastructure is a broad term including work sectors from energy to defense to agriculture. Most people think of law enforcement, firefighters, doctors and nurses, and other types of frontline first responders as essential workers. But hasn’t your definition changed over the past few months? I bet you’ll add grocery store workers, truck drivers, caregivers, and the people who make toilet paper to this list now. There are so many unsung heroes grinding away who make things work.… Read More

Let Parks Plant the Seeds for Social Equity

| July 8, 2020 | Categories: Biophilic Design, Environment, Indoor Plants, Nature and Wellbeing
Everyone needs a safe place to play in nature, especially our kids. Photo: Pexels
When I first started writing this blog in 2013, one of the first topics I wrote about was the concept of biophilia, the study of the connection between human beings and nature.  I’m sure people thought the idea was a little “out there.” We have come a long way in thinking about how nature affects our well being in that time. I’m now giving thought to the social equity issues surrounding nature in these times. July is National Park and Recreation Month, an initiative of the National Recreation and Park Association (NRPA). Park and recreation professionals promote a community’s health and well being through access to nature, green space, recreation, and fitness to create a lasting and positive impact on a community’s health and wellness.… Read More

Don’t Be A Buzz Kill! It’s National Pollinator Week

| June 24, 2020 | Categories: Environment, Gardening, Good Earth Plant Company Tips, Nature and Wellbeing, Sustainable Living
We know you might be distracted by everything going on in the world, so give us a minute or two of your attention. The planet is counting on you. “National Pollinators Week” is officially here from June 22 – 28 and it’s worth taking just a few minutes to learn why it’s important to support pollinators and reverse a growing crisis for our planet. National Pollinators Week got started in 2006 through an official U.S. Senate resolution. That year, there was a mysterious loss of honey bee colonies in the United States. Pollinators are vital to 75 percent of the world’s food crops, from avocados to zucchini; and 90 percent of the world’s flowering plants.… Read More

Hot Tip: Add Humidity For A Healthier Office Space 

| June 17, 2020 | Categories: Architecture and Design, Gardening, Good Earth Plant Company Tips, Indoor Plants, Nature and Wellbeing, Plantscaping
Could raising indoor air humidity by using plants help prevent the spread of COVID-19? Some scientists now think so. Photo: Daria Shevtsova / Pexels
Are you a little anxious about returning to the office? You aren’t alone.  Several polls show people worry about being exposed to the coronavirus when they go back to the workplace. Depending on the poll, 60 to 75 percent of people surveyed say they’re worried about this, and worried about being exposed by their co-workers. It’s enough to make a person want to work from home forever. But this isn’t always possible or even a good idea long term. We understand how much a healthy workspace can make a difference at Good Earth Plant Company. We have been working with clients to improve the health and wellbeing of their employees and visitors in all kinds of indoor spaces for more than four decades!… Read More

We Are Learning. We Are Listening. We Stand With You.

| June 9, 2020 | Categories: Case Studies, Good Earth Plant Company, Nature and Wellbeing
Two weeks after we learned about the shocking murder of George Floyd, and just days after his funeral, we all have a lot to think about, and a lot to account for. I’m usually not at all shy about speaking my mind. So it’s no surprise I have heard from people who’ve wondered when I might make a statement about this. But what do we have to add to the conversation at Good Earth Plant Company? Even well-intentioned words are so easily misplaced. As a white Boomer man, what do I have to say from my position of privilege about the racial upheaval in our country?… Read More

Be Like Nature, My Friend

| June 1, 2020 | Categories: Biophilia, Biophilic Design, Environment, Indoor Plants, Nature and Wellbeing, Plantscaping
We have so much to learn from the resilience of Nature. Photo: Quinton Delman/Pixabay
Is 2020 over yet? The situation in our country and in our communities leaves me nearly speechless. It has been a rough year. First, the coronavirus hit. Second, the U.S. economy took a dive, causing unemployment so high it didn’t even seem real. Then, just as it seemed like we might get through the worse of the pandemic crisis, the senseless murder of an African-American man in Minneapolis set off a chain reaction across the U.S. of anger and hurt, including in my home town — specifically the city of La Mesa, California. Many people staged peaceful protests. Some senseless opportunists used the protests as cover to pillage innocent business owners and communities.… Read More