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.

 

No Surprise: More Evidence You Need Nature for Good Health

| March 30, 2017 | Categories: Biophilia, Nature and Wellbeing, Sustainable Living
While Americans have watched efforts to improve our natural healthcare system stall (and that’s as much as I care to mention about politics, I promise), I ran across a new European study offering great advice on something we can all do to improve our health right now. Plant a tree. People living in European nations face a lot of the same health problems we do in the United States: obesity, mental health disorders, and negative effects from pollution. On top of this is the stress and impact of living in our typical urban environments in cities. A team of researchers at the Institute for European Environmental Policy spent a year reviewing more than 200 academic studies on health outcomes to see if there were common findings and recommendations.… Read More

The Nose Knows When It’s Springtime

| March 23, 2017 | Categories: Biophilia, Environment, Gardening, Nature and Wellbeing
People who live in climates with true changes of season say they love the cycle from snow to rain to sunshine to fall leaves. It’s true there are times of year when spring flowers and fall leaves are a truly beautiful sight. Transplants to San Diego will tell you they “miss” the changing seasons. Southern California seasons change, too. The changes are more subtle, that’s all. We know it’s officially Spring this week, even when we’ve been hit by more rain (and nothing wrong with that). We are getting more hours of sunlight. Human beings instinctively feel it as part of the biophilic connection we have to the rhythms of nature.… Read More

It’s Natural to Love St. Patrick’s Day

| March 16, 2017 | Categories: Biophilia, Blog, Good Earth Plant Company, Nature and Wellbeing
You don’t have to be Irish (or part Irish like me) to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day on Friday, March 17. We love any occasion focusing on things that are green! March 17 is the date of St. Patrick’s death. Yes, he was a real person. For many years St. Patrick’s Day was a serious religious holiday in Ireland, honoring the man who converted Ireland to Catholicism and who also reportedly “drove the snakes out of Ireland.” This is a historical headscratcher, because there are no snakes native to Ireland. Some historians now believe “snakes” refers to the ancient Pagans, especially the Druids who practiced the dominant spiritual belief in Ireland before the arrival of Christianity.… Read More

Go Green Or Your Employees Might Go Home

| March 2, 2017 | Categories: Architecture and Design, Biophilic Design, Environment, Good Earth Plant Company Tips, Indoor Plants, Nature and Wellbeing
The job market has been opening up. It’s great news for people who want to find a quality job. But it’s not such good news for employers trying to retain their most talented employees. Employers should pay attention to the findings in this year’s annual “State of the American Workplace” survey from the Gallup Organization. It gives them a game plan for developing the kind working environment talented people are looking for. A record 47 percent of the workforce say now is a good time to find a quality job. More than half of employees (51 percent) are searching for new jobs or watching for openings.… Read More

Bugging Out To Save Trees

| February 23, 2017 | Categories: Agriculture and Farming, Environment, Gardening, Good Earth Plant Company Tips, Indoor Plants, Nature and Wellbeing
If UC Santa Cruz music professor David Dunn scores a hit with his latest composition, he’ll have millions of listeners, maybe even hundreds of millions. But they won’t be spending a dime, and they won’t be singing or dancing. They’ll be dying. For ten years, Professor Dunn has created music using sounds in nature, specifically the sound of bark beetles in California’s forest as they munch on trees. Aggressive bark beetles make a LOT of noise. They also contribute to widespread tree destruction, which has been made worse due to several years of drought. His recordings of bark beetles were turned into a CD called “The Sound of Light in Trees.”… Read More

Shhh, Be Quiet – Your Houseplants are Sleeping

| February 2, 2017 | Categories: Biophilia, Gardening, Indoor Plants, Nature and Wellbeing, Plantscaping
When the weather is sunny during the first few months of the year in San Diego, it’s hard to remember it’s winter time. Yes, even in Southern California. The days are getting longer again but we have several more weeks to go before we are getting a full, healthy dose of sunlight and the days even out into spring. During these winter months, your houseplants are taking a nap. Like many other creatures, they slow down and “hibernate” during the winter. Living creatures including plants evolved to conserve their energy when resources are scarce due to the natural cycle of the seasons in winter.… Read More

Good Earth Plant Company Wishes You Happy 4715

| January 26, 2017 | Categories: Architecture and Design, Gardening, Nature and Wellbeing
Gung Hay Fat Choi 4715 (Happy Lunar New Year) from Good Earth Plant Company!
We never turn down the opportunity to celebrate a holiday at Good Earth Plant Company. So we are happy to wish you a Happy New Year, because Saturday, January 28, is the start of the Chinese or Lunar New Year 4715. It is celebrated by one-sixth of the world’s population. The Lunar New Year is the most important holiday in the Chinese calendar. The Chinese lunar calendar measures months the way most cultures did from the beginning of humanity, by following the cycles of the moon. The lunar calendar begins each month when the night sky is darkest, on the new moon.… Read More

Good Earth Plant Company’s Top Ten Workplace Design Trends to Watch for 2017

| December 29, 2016 | Categories: Architecture and Design, Biophilic Design, Case Studies, Good Earth Plant Company Tips, Green Roofs, Living Walls, Nature and Wellbeing, Plantscaping
With just a few days left of 2016, Good Earth Plants has its attention focused on what’s to come for 2017. Here are our top ten predictions on workplace design trends for the next 12 months. Moss Wall Art: Preserved moss walls took our industry by storm in 2016, and there is no sign of it letting up. Look for even more creativity and innovation in these projects. We are incorporating new and different types of mosses and integrating additional materials including elements like driftwood, pods, shells and glass. There is no limit to the possibilities. We are even exploring living moss walls into very limited projects.… Read More

2016 Year In Review – How Did We Do?

| December 22, 2016 | Categories: Awards & Achievements, Good Earth Plant Company, Living Walls, Nature and Wellbeing
Good Earth Plant Company's latest moss wall project at the Bardstown Bourbon distillery in Louisville, Kentucky.
As we head into our 40th year of operation, Good Earth Plant Company is more committed than ever to our mission to bring the beauty, health, wellbeing and environmental benefits of living plants and nature into your life. We started our business providing interior plantscaping design and service to many of the leading workspaces in the San Diego region. Plantscaping is still at the heart of what we do, but our thinking about it has evolved. Making our workplaces and homes look “nice” is a fine motivation. But we now grasp the importance of integrating nature into our lives everyday by bringing the “outside” into our buildings and our urban environment with plants, and the many positive effects of doing so.… Read More

Kermit The Frog Was Wrong: It IS Easy Being Green

| December 15, 2016 | Categories: Environment, Gardening, Living Walls, Nature and Wellbeing, Sustainable Living
The moss wall installed by Good Earth Plant Company at San Diego's newest LEED Certified building, owned by Kilroy Realty in Del Mar Heights.
I don’t remember exactly when the announcement of the Pantone Company’s “Color of the Year” became such a big deal. For the last few years at least, this American company best known for creating a universal color matching system called the “Pantone Matching System” names one color every December it thinks will be the hottest color trend in the coming year. Pantone has a committee of people who watch trends throughout the year in fashion, entertainment including films and TV, auto manufacturing, the fine art world, beauty products, and interior design. The committee members notice how the color is being used, what else it’s being used with, and whether it seems new or fresh.… Read More