Nature and Wellbeing

We’ve dedicated more than four decades in the plant and flower business to nature and wellbeing. Our mission is enriching peoples’ lives with plants. Good Earth Plant Company has a greater appreciation for our wellbeing as we all do since the pandemic.

How do we improve the quality of our workplaces, our homes, and all the other indoor spaces where we spend the majority of our time? Can we clean the air? Remove toxins? Add oxygen and make ourselves healthier, happier, and more productive? Yes!

If we are not going to spend more time outside in nature, we have to bring nature INSIDE. We have to recreate living in nature the best way we can.

Ever wonder why you seem to have trouble concentrating on anything, or feel down more than seems normal? You may be suffering from a lack of Vitamin N (that’s “Nature”). You are feeling the lack of connection to nature and wellbeing, which we now study as biophilia, the innate tendency of human beings to find their place and their relationship with the natural world. People suffer from their lack of biophilic connection when they’re shut inside all day and night.

Adding plants to your indoor environment along with natural light and fresh air can go a long way toward improving your quality of life through the combination of nature and wellbeing.

 

Our Solution for the Indoor Generation

| May 23, 2018 | Categories: Biophilia, Environment, Nature and Wellbeing, Plantscaping
When a video or article catches my attention, I like to share it with followers on our Good Earth Plant Company social media pages. When it catches YOUR attention, then I know the message has meaning and impact beyond my little universe. A video I posted earlier this week got more attention than anything we’ve posted for a long time. We aren’t alone. In just 10 days, this video has gotten over eight million views – and that number is going up every day. In case you aren’t one of those eight million, here it is. This video hit me like a runaway truck of truth.… Read More

Save San Diego’s Trees and Save Our Future

| May 10, 2018 | Categories: Environment, Nature and Wellbeing, Sustainable Living
Do your part! Take time to send a message to San Diego's elected officials and tell them not to cut the Urban Forestry budget.
If you know anything about me, you know I believe in the power of trees. One of the most powerful things you can do for the wellbeing of our planet is to plant a tree. Trees are nature’s conservation heroes. Studies show that trees clean the air by filtering pollutants and producing oxygen. Trees reduce soil erosion. Trees reduce energy costs by providing shade and cooling the air, which produces a natural way to offset the scorching heat coming from streets, concrete and buildings. We call this the “urban heat island effect.” California street trees alone save the amount of electricity it would take to air condition 530,000 households every year.… Read More

Green Roofs Could Save San Diego Enough Tax Money To Fix our Streets

| April 5, 2018 | Categories: Architecture and Design, Environment, Green Roofs, Nature and Wellbeing, Sustainable Living
We need urban and suburban parks to insure all San Diego residents are within walking distance of nature. Photo: Nathan Rupert/Creative Commons fix our streets
Sometimes I wonder why I read the news, because it can be depressing. I guess because it’s a relief none of my own problems ever make it into the San Diego Union-Tribune or on local TV. If they did, I’d know I’m having a REALLY bad day. A few recent stories in the news were a serious downer for this Eco-Warrior. In the first one, a report by the City of San Diego ran down our infrastructure funding gap. This is the money we don’t have to fix our streets, sidewalks, lights, traffic signals, and such. The one that got my attention was the $243 million we need to fund local parks.… Read More

Cool Things Made From Plants, Not Plastic

| March 29, 2018 | Categories: Environment, Nature and Wellbeing, Sustainable Living
uman beings are addicted to plastic and trashing our planet with discarded bottles, fishing nets, and more. We need to find a solution. Photo: Courtesy Ocean Cleanup Foundation
Forget being addicted to drugs, or sugar, or the internet. America is addicted most of all to plastic. Last week, the Ocean Cleanup Foundation published a report on the Pacific Garbage Patch, a huge mass of trash swirled together by the ocean’s currents. It sits between the California coast and Hawaii. It is hundreds of miles from land, from any major city. So much trash is getting into the Pacific Ocean that doesn’t biodegrade, it has now grown to 87,000 tons, four to 16 times bigger than anyone previously thought. It is four times the size of the state of California.… Read More

Trees Are a Teen’s BFF

| February 22, 2018 | Categories: Biophilia, Nature and Wellbeing, Sustainable Living
Are you and especially your kids getting enough vitamin N - as in Nature? Good Earth Plant Company San Diego
  It wasn’t all that long ago that my son and daughter, Ted and Allie, were typical high school students, in a typical 21st century high school. But you don’t have to be a parent or a high school student to feel the impact of the recent events in Parkland, Florida and worry about our teenagers. No, this blog isn’t going to turn into a discussion about events in the news. There are plenty of other places to talk about those issues. But what I do want to talk about is what seems like an epidemic of troubled, depressed teenagers. As a parent it upsets me to see so many kids hurting.… Read More

Calling All Tree Huggers: Fans Rally Behind Pando

| February 15, 2018 | Categories: Biophilia, Environment, Nature and Wellbeing
In last week’s blog post, I wrote about the world’s largest living plants. Thanks for all the positive feedback. Several readers pointed out an important entry for out list we’d missed, and I’m glad they did. We get some of our best blog posts from your suggestions! It is worth a blog post all to itself: the Utah aspen grove now believed to be the world’s largest living organism. It’s so big and utterly unique, it’s been given a name: Pando. Pando is Latin for “I Spread.” Botanist Burton Barnes from the University of Michigan – Ann Arbor gave this aspen grove its name.… Read More

Good Earth Plants Thinks Big: World’s Largest Plants

| February 7, 2018 | Categories: Environment, Indoor Plants, Nature and Wellbeing, Sustainable Living
The Hyperion tree is the tallest tree in the world.
Regular readers of my blog know how much I love trees. The simple act of planting a tree is one of the most valuable things you can do for the planet. One of my first blog posts ever (in 2013) was about treehouses. In 2015, it upset me to learn Caltrans was cutting down mature trees to make way for freeway expansion. So I was happy to hear about plans to protect the health of Balboa Park’s huge Moreton Bay Fig tree next to the Natural History Museum. This tree and I go back a long way. One of my only real jobs before opening Good Earth Plants was working for the Natural History Museum, where I took admission tickets.… Read More

Amazon Goes Big With Biophilia: The Spheres Are Open

| February 1, 2018 | Categories: Biophilia, Biophilic Design, Case Studies, Environment, Nature and Wellbeing, Sustainable Living
Amazon sphere
Seven years, 600 people, 40,000 plants from 300 species, and one really big Ficus tree later, the Amazon Spheres opened this week in the Denny Triangle neighborhood of Seattle. Public officials made speeches, people got their thank yous, and ribbons were cut. Because it’s Amazon, founder and CEO Jeff Bezos did the final honors with the help of Alexa, by saying “Alexa, open The Spheres.” For an Eco-Warrior and biophilic design advocate like me, something like this gets me as geeked out excited as the most hardcore costume wearing fans at Comic-Con. We wrote about the project under construction in 2016.… Read More

Glow In The Dark Trees Could Replace Streetlights

| January 25, 2018 | Categories: Environment, Nature and Wellbeing, Sustainable Living
Could trees one day glow like jellyfish? MIT researchers believe it's possible.
Human civilization took a giant leap when we learned how to make and control fire. Along with fire came the glow of firelight, and the history of man-made lighting is nearly as important to us as fire. Historians believe the first ancient lamp was probably made out of a hollowed-out rock, shell, or some other object that could hold a miniature fire safely about 70,000 years ago. Fast forward to 2018. Now scientists are trying to learn how to manipulate light the same way nature does to create new light sources. One of those methods involves using plants. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) are working on ways to make plants glow by using different methods of bioluminescence (“the production and emission of light by a living organism”).… Read More

Porn Vs. Plants: Guess Which One Is Winning?

| January 11, 2018 | Categories: Architecture and Design, Indoor Plants, Nature and Wellbeing
Virtual reality needs to get real... as in exploring nature.
The beginning of a new year gives everyone a fresh start. Scientific studies show people really do feel extra motivation to set and accomplish goals thanks to the power of believing in the opportunity for a new beginning and another chance to get things right. I get excited at the beginning of the year, because it means one of my favorite annual conferences and trade shows is just days away: the Tropical Plants International Expo (TPIE) in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, which takes place every year in the middle of January. Most people at the show love getting away from their cold weather at home.… Read More