National Gardening Exercise Day: June 6

| June 2, 2021 | Categories: Biophilia, Gardening, Nature and Wellbeing
Get in your workout by getting in some gardening! Sunday, June 6 is National Gardening Workout Day. Photo: Jim Mumford
Our sedentary lives really hit home for many people over the last year. Did you gain the COVID-19, or was it 20 pounds? We now understand sitting in front of a screen for much of the day can be as harmful to our health as smoking cigarettes. Walking more is great, and if you have a treadmill desk, it’s not so tough to finish 10,000 steps in a day. But if you need to go for a walk the old-fashioned way – yes, outside! – it means you need to get in a minimum of five miles of walking per day.… Read More

Golf and Nature: A Winning Partnership

| May 25, 2021 | Categories: Architecture and Design, Blog, Nature and Wellbeing
We know San Diego's own Phil Mickelson gives Nature a thumbs up. Golf and Nature
San Diego enjoyed a red hot day for sports last Sunday. Between Fernando Tatis Jr. of the Padres smoking another grand slam out of the stands and golfer Phil Mickelson winning the US Open, it was a good day to be on the couch enjoying their accomplishments. You don’t have to be a big fan of professional golf to know and like Phil Mickelson, who’s from San Diego. He didn’t escape to Texas or Florida like most other golfers to evade California taxes. He and his family still call Rancho Santa Fe home. His win last week made history. He is the oldest person to win a major golf tournament at age 50.… Read More

Making Magic With Moss Walls

| May 12, 2021 | Categories: Architecture and Design, Moss Walls, Plantscaping
In case you haven’t figured it out, we love plants at Good Earth Plant Company. From our very first days selling “potted” plants and flowers, it’s been our mission to enrich peoples’ lives with plants. Over the years, we’ve gone big with plants in the form of green roofs and living walls. Living walls have been some of our all-time favorite projects. We’ve put them in restaurants, hotels, malls, schools, and quite a few private homes. They challenge us to be creative and customize each project to meet our client’s needs. But living walls need the right conditions, whether indoors or outdoors, to thrive.… Read More

Ten Plant Care Urban Legends You Need to Ignore

| May 5, 2021 | Categories: Gardening, Good Earth Plant Company Tips, Indoor Plants, Plantscaping
We love enriching peoples’ lives with plants at Good Earth Plant Company. We live for it! One of the ways we do this is sharing our tips and dropping some knowledge on you. Over the last year, so many people brought plants into the homes and their lives for the first time during the pandemic. It’s one of the most positive outcomes of a not-so-positive experience. Over many years, we’ve gotten a lot of questions about plant care, and we’ve also gotten some “tips” ourselves. I’m putting “tips” in quotes, because so many of the things we’ve heard need some serious correcting.… Read More

World Naked Gardening Day 2021 is Here!

| April 28, 2021 | Categories: Biophilia, Environment, Gardening, Good Earth Plant Company Tips, Nature and Wellbeing
Grab your tools and get outside for World Naked Gardening Day 2021 this Saturday, May 1. Photo: Jim Mumford
Thank you, Mother Nature. Summer temperatures are ahead for Southern California this weekend, just in time for one of our favorite days all year. Yes, Saturday is the 17th annual World Naked Gardening Day! More good timing: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) revised its guidance this week on COVID-19 mask guidelines. Fully vaccinated people don’t need to wear a mask outdoors. At home, you don’t need a mask outside, of course. Great news for the 30% of us who are fully vaccinated. When we first found out about WNGD several years ago at Good Earth Plant Company, we got a big laugh out of it.… Read More

Celebrate Earth Day 2021: Fight Global Warming With Gardening 

| April 21, 2021 | Categories: Biophilia, Biophilic Design, Environment, Nature and Wellbeing, Sustainable Living
Today is Earth Day 2021: the 51st year for Earth Day. It was founded on April 22, 1970, by Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin. He was inspired by student protests against the Vietnam War and hoped to inspire a similar outcry against our war on the environment. It might not be an official national holiday, but it’s an important day to all the Eco-Warriors at Good Earth Plant Company and important for us to call it to every reader’s attention. It’s easy to get discouraged about climate change and global warming and easy to feel powerless about stopping it. But it’s possible if we all add a little effort, which will add up to a lot if we don’t give up.… Read More

The Price of Nature: What Is A Green View Worth?

| April 15, 2021 | Categories: Architecture and Design, Biophilic Design, Environment, Indoor Plants, Nature and Wellbeing
Right up there with the San Diego Padres, the biggest talk in town this spring is the real estate market. Prices have always been at a premium due to San Diego’s location and weather. But now, they seem completely out of control. Real estate is one of the few things you can buy that doesn’t drop in value. One of the most important things you can do to increase the value is landscaping. It’s among the few home improvements you can make with a nearly immediate return on investment – and it only gets better as your landscaping matures. Think about the bathroom or kitchen you remodeled 10 or 15 years ago.… Read More

Plants Matter: Our Ten Reasons Why

| April 7, 2021 | Categories: Architecture and Design, Biophilia, Indoor Plants, Nature and Wellbeing, Plantscaping
From avocados to zucchini, plants are the basis for all foods humans consume. Photo: Any Lane/Pexels Plants Matter
Food Are you reading this over a meal or snack? Without plants, forget having anything to eat. Every single one of the calories in proteins, fats, and carbohydrates we consume comes from plants. Yes, this includes meat, because animals we consume as food eat plants. Plants use the energy created from photosynthesis to convert carbon-dioxide to complex molecules animals including people eat for food. It hardly gets more basic than this! But we have nine more reasons to go. Oxygen Hold your breath. You probably can’t do it for more than a few minutes. Life on Earth depends on oxygen, and that oxygen comes mostly from plants, which generate oxygen as a byproduct of photosynthesis.… Read More

Our Favorite Holiday Is Here! Celebrate Biophilia on St. Patrick’s Day with Good Earth Plant Company

| March 16, 2021 | Categories: Biophilia, Biophilic Design, Gardening, Nature and Wellbeing
Our friend Stumpy, who lives in Jim Mumford's yard, is excited to celebrate St. Patrick's Day. Photo: Jim Mumford
Most people say their favorite holiday is Christmas. Thanksgiving comes next, but Halloween has nearly caught up. Our favorite holiday didn’t even make the list! We’re here to celebrate OUR favorite holiday at Good Earth Plant Company. You don’t have to be Irish (or part Irish like me) to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day on March 17. Think St. Patrick’s Day is all about cheers, beers, and parties? Think again! St. Patrick’s Day celebrates Nature. It’s the original Biophilic Holiday. We’ll explain. St. Patrick’s Day History  You may have Irish heritage like me, as many Americans do. Ireland has a long history of emigration.… Read More

Green Roofs Growing Strong!

| March 3, 2021 | Categories: Architecture and Design, Case Studies, Environment, Good Earth Plant Company, Green Roofs, Sustainable Living, Water and Water Conservation
My original green roof at Good Earth Plant Company in Kearny Mesa, still growing strong after 15 years.
It was 14 years ago this month when the first commercial green roof appeared on an occupied building in the City of San Diego. It was OUR main office at Good Earth Plant Company. You never forget your first! It’s hard to believe it’s been 14 years since we took this leap of faith, although it was made so much easier with all of the expert advice we followed and with the work of the partners who helped make it happen. So a few quick thank yous right at the start go to Ulf Waldman, Robert Thiele, Charlie Miller, Robin Rivet, and Paul Kephart.… Read More