Environment

Human impact on the Earth’s environment is creating climate change, global warming, and polluting air, land, and water on our planet with disastrous results. We must work to reverse these effects through sustainable practices and through thoughtful design and practices.

Next Generation of Eco-Warriors Leads the Way

| October 9, 2019 | Categories: Architecture and Design, Biophilia, Environment, Green Roofs, Living Walls, Nature and Wellbeing, Sustainable Living
The next generation of Eco-Warriors paid a visit to Good Earth Plant Company.
Recently, a group of fifth grade students from a San Diego area private school visited Good Earth Plant Company as part of their after school program, the extra-curricular “Lego Robotics Club.” Kids in the club were tasked with identifying a local problem in their city, and then exploring possible solutions. The students decided to focus on the diminishing tree canopy within the city. This is something we’ve also been concerned about, and have written about here on the Good Earth blog. According to the team’s adult leader, Noel Kim, the team is competing for the first time in the “First Lego League” (FLL) Robotics Competition.… Read More

Our Top Ten Best Plant and Nature Apps

| July 31, 2019 | Categories: Architecture and Design, Environment, Gardening, Good Earth Plant Company Tips, Nature and Wellbeing
Back when kids like me didn’t have smartphones, we used BOOKS to learn about nature. If you wanted help identifying plants or birds or animals, you used books called “field guides” to take with you to help figure out whether you were looking at a sparrow or a warbler. If you wanted to figure out where a trail would go, you used a paper map. You better not tear it, or get it wet! But now, technology has put this kind of knowledge in the palm of our hands – as long as your power doesn’t wear out and your wifi is working.… Read More

The Best Sandwich I Ever Ate

| July 11, 2019 | Categories: Biophilia, Environment, Good Earth Plant Company, Nature and Wellbeing
With the Bavarian Alps as your view, it's hard not to enjoy a picnic! Photo: Jim Mumford
Many people think the start of summer is Memorial Day weekend. The ‘official’ start to summer is the day of the Summer Solstice, June 20. For others, it doesn’t really feel like summer until the Fourth of July weekend. Whatever you think, summer is now in full swing. Summer means getting outdoors. Even though we have beautiful weather all year in San Diego compared to the rest of the U.S., the longer days and the relaxed attitude combine to draw us outside for more activities. One of those is cooking. Even someone with limited kitchen skills can turn out a great meal on a barbecue grill.  … Read More

Noise Pollution Is The New Smoking

| June 27, 2019 | Categories: Architecture and Design, Environment, Indoor Plants, Living Walls, Moss Walls, Nature and Wellbeing, Plantscaping
Workplace hell: An office like this is a nightmare of noise pollution and distractions.
Do you know what a decibel is? You probably have a general idea it measures sound. A decibel measures the intensity of sound. It is similar to measurements we use for earthquakes – each decibel multiplies the last one. This is because the human ear can pick up an amazing range of sound. Start with silence at zero decibels or dB. A whisper is 15 dB. A normal conversation (normal, not YELLING) is 60 dB. A lawnmower is 90 dB. A car horn is 110 dB – but thank goodness you’re usually not standing right next to it. A firecracker is 140 dB.… Read More

Here Come Summer – Time to Get Out!

| June 20, 2019 | Categories: Biophilia, Environment, Nature and Wellbeing
It's officially Summer 2019 - and Nature is calling you! Photo: Darius Garza / Pixabay Good Earth Plant Company
Ready or not, here comes summer! More precisely, the summer solstice. The solstice takes place at a precise point in time. This year it will be Friday morning, June 21, exactly at 8:54 a.m. PT according to the Old Farmer’s Almanac. People usually refer to the entire day when this happens as the “Summer Solstice.”  You could go to Stonehenge to visually experience the Solstice or closer – visit our client, the  Salk Institute in La Jolla.  This is the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, meaning it has the most hours of sunlight and the shortest night.… Read More

Here Come The Plant Police

| June 6, 2019 | Categories: Environment, Indoor Plants, Plantscaping, Sustainable Living
Does this indoor plant look like a threat to you? Photo: Pixabay
It’s been our mission at Good Earth Plant Company for more than 40 years to improve peoples’ lives through the beauty, health, wellbeing, and environmental benefits living plants bring into all the spaces around you. From a simple plant in a striking container to a complicated living wall structure, it’s our passion as well as our mission. Even after all these years, I still get excited about our work every day. In the last 10 years, people have embraced the benefits of indoor plants and the principles of biophilic design. I’m so excited about the enthusiasm our current generation of young adults has for plants.… Read More

My Blooming European Vacation

| May 30, 2019 | Categories: Environment, Good Earth Plant Company, Green Roofs, Nature and Wellbeing
There's no way I could pass up a chance to check out this flower shop in Slovakia. Photo: Jim Mumford
In May, I had the luxury of spending a couple of weeks traveling through Eastern Europe on vacation with my family. It turned out to be more than just a good time. It was an education seeing how our European neighbors view the importance of integrating nature into their environment. Those lessons are well worth sharing – along with a few vacation photos to make the point! We began our river boat cruise in Budapest, Hungary, worked our way to Vienna, Austria and concluded our adventure in Germany. Europeans take climate change seriously. It’s a fact, it’s not a debate. They are doing their best to change their everyday practices to slow down the effects on the way to a full stop.… Read More

19 Ways to Celebrate Earth Day 2019 All Year Long

| April 25, 2019 | Categories: Environment, Good Earth Plant Company, Sustainable Living
Happy Earth Day 2022 from Jim Mumford and the Eco-Warriors at Good Earth Plant Company in San Diego.
Forty-nine years ago, the first Earth Day took place in 1970. It is now an annual event celebrated on April 22, coordinated globally by the Earth Day Network. It reaches more than 192 countries each year including hundreds of communities in the United States. Earth Day fell on the Monday after Easter this week. While the “official” day is behind us, Earth Week 2019 is still in full swing. In San Diego, it culminates in the largest free, all-volunteer Earth Fair in the United States at Balboa Park on Saturday, April 27. We love it at Good Earth Plant Company when the rest of the world takes time to focus finding solutions we can make part of our daily routines.… Read More

Go Green on St. Patrick’s Day – and Every Day

| March 13, 2019 | Categories: Environment, Nature and Wellbeing, Sustainable Living
You don’t have to be Irish (or part Irish like me) to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day on Sunday, March 17. We love any occasion focusing on things that are green! It’s more likely than not you possess some Irish heritage as part of your ethnic DNA. In June 1963, President John F. Kennedy gave a speech in Cork, Ireland and said “Most countries send out oil or iron, steel or gold, or some other crop, but Ireland has had only one export and that is its people.” Ireland has a long history of emigration. If you were a Catholic or a Protestant from any denomination outside the Church of England, laws were harsh and the persecution was real and often fatal.… Read More

Spring Into Action: Daylight Saving Time 2019 Is Here

| March 6, 2019 | Categories: Biophilia, Environment, Indoor Plants, Nature and Wellbeing, Plantscaping
Your indoor plants might not know it's time to change the clocks to Daylight Saving Time this weekend, but they know it's spring. Photo: Riala/PixabayCC
We say days are “growing longer” when we start getting more minutes of sunshine each day. Wouldn’t it be nice if that meant we got more than 24 hours in a day? I’d even take a secret eighth day a week no one else knows about. With the generous amount of rain we’ve experienced in California and in San Diego County, it’s been harder to tell there are more daytime minutes. Maybe it’s the reason why it’s such a surprise to realize we switch to Daylight Saving Time for 2019 this weekend – Sunday, March 10.  Before going to bed on Saturday night, move your clocks forward one hour.… Read More