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.

 

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

Our Love For Blue Flowers: It’s Complicated

| May 22, 2019 | Categories: Biophilia, Gardening, Indoor Plants, Nature and Wellbeing
Closeup of a beautiful hydrangea. Do you see blue or lavender, or something in between? Photo: LL Marei, Flickr - Creative Commons License
With Memorial Day coming up and the Fourth of July not all that far away, the red, white and blue decorations are starting to appear, including garden and floral displays. Commercial garden centers and big box stores are putting their red, white, and blue flowers and plants front and center. Forty years ago when I sold flowers downtown, the only option I could offer to patriotic customers were red, white and blue carnation bouquets. I’ll let you in on a secret: those blue carnations were NOT found in nature. Naturally blue flowers aren’t just rare. They don’t exist. True blue pigment doesn’t exist in plants of any kind.… Read More

Don’t Bug Me: Control Pests Without Pesticides

| May 8, 2019 | Categories: Gardening, Good Earth Plant Company Tips, Indoor Plants, Nature and Wellbeing, Plantscaping
Keep your indoor plants healthy and pest free with gentle cleaning. Photo: Madiase/Flickr - Creative Commons License
Summer is coming, we promise. Summer brings so many good things, but it also brings some not-so-good things. Plant pests love the summer weather as much as people do. While bugs can bug your indoor plants any time of year, they get more opportunities to thrive in the late spring and summer months. The weather warms up. You turn off the heater, and open your windows and doors. Pests have more ways to enter your house, and they like the more humid air. You see your indoor plants have a growth period as spring arrives. Bugs see a plant buffet. If your first reaction to finding pests on your plants is to grab the pesticide, please stop!… Read More

Expose Yourself to World Naked Gardening Day

| May 1, 2019 | Categories: Biophilia, Gardening, Nature and Wellbeing
Barbie is on board! World Naked Gardening Day is on Saturday, May 4.
I first learned about “World Naked Gardening Day” two years ago. I thought for sure it was a joke played on me by some of my friends. What a surprise to find out it’s a real event, not just what I used to do when I lived in rural San Diego without neighbors close by. And it’s been going on for years. So I wrote a blog post about it. So the laugh is on me, because the original 2017 blog post about World Naked Gardening Day is one of our top most-read blog posts of ALL TIME.  Who knew so many people were interested in this phenomenon?… Read More

Go To The Zoo For the Pandas, Stay for the Plants

| March 27, 2019 | Categories: Case Studies, Indoor Plants, Nature and Wellbeing, Plantscaping
The “World Famous” San Diego Zoo’s two giant pandas will return to China at the end of April. Bai-Yun, 27, and her son, Xiao Liwu, 6, are probably the Zoo’s most popular animals (maybe after the koalas). So you’ve got about a month left to see them and wish them farewell. You might be fighting the crowds, but it shouldn’t be quite as bad as the superbloom frenzy. If you’re from out of town, the zoo is a must visit. But a lot of people miss one of the most impressive things about the San Diego Zoo: the plants! In addition to all of the animals, the San Diego Zoo has thousands of plants as part of the animal habitats.… 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

Plant A Weed and Save the Monarchs

| February 27, 2019 | Categories: Agriculture and Farming, Environment, Gardening, Good Earth Plant Company Tips, Nature and Wellbeing, Sustainable Living
The western California monarch is in danger of extinction. Good Earth Plant Company provides critical milkweed habitat and we're thrilled to see it working. Photo: Erin Lindley
Recently a visitor to Good Earth Plant Company asked me “Hey, what’s that tall plant growing on your green roof?” I told her it was milkweed. What I didn’t say is that it might be the most important plant on the entire green roof. The Western monarch butterfly is one of the most recognizable insects in the world. It is called “the ambassador of nature.” In coastal California cities where migrating monarch butterflies have traditionally spent their winters like Pacific Grove, Pismo Beach, and Santa Barbara, there is a whole tourism industry built around the butterflies. Ten million monarch butterflies used to spend the winter in California during the 1980s, according to estimates.… Read More

Five Reasons Plants Improve Your Bottom Line

| February 20, 2019 | Categories: Architecture and Design, Good Earth Plant Company Tips, Indoor Plants, Nature and Wellbeing, Plantscaping
Humble office plants like this desk terrarium can make you more productive and healthier at work. Photo: Stocksnap/Creative Commons
Plants have never been hotter. The humble indoor plant is suddenly a design trend. We have thousands of people calling themselves “plant parents” who collect and cherish house plants. The trend is creeping its way into more workplaces, too. The benefits of plants in the workplace is something we’re passionate about at Good Earth Plant Company. We’d like more businesses to get passionate about it, too. We know there is one thing ALL businesses are passionate about: making money. Let’s face it, we’re all working hard to earn a good living so we can live well and indulge our interests. So if we told you adding plants is good for your business and will help you make more money, would we get your attention?… Read More

Plants With Purpose Thanks UCSD Hearts & Hands Volunteer Doula Program

| January 22, 2019 | Categories: Awards & Achievements, Good Earth Plant Company, Indoor Plants, Nature and Wellbeing
The UCSD Hearts & Hands Volunteer Doula Program is the latest recipient of the Good Earth Plant Company “Plants with Purpose” nonprofit donation program. Good Earth provided orchids for the program’s annual “Comfort & Joy Volunteer Appreciation Dinner Party. The program’s mission is “to work within the UCSD Medical Center’s patient care team as volunteer birth assistants who provide non-clinical support in accordance with each mother’s preferences during her childbirth. To be a widely regarded, sustainable program model shown to enhance clinical outcomes and increase patient satisfaction.” Its goal is to provide every new mother delivering a baby at the UCSD Medical Center with access to a volunteer doula.… Read More