Plantscaping
I can feel it in the air, see it in the changing landscape. Fall is here.
The days grow shorter. The shadows grow longer. The sycamores are turning golden brown, the bird of paradise are full of flowers, the chaparral is dry and fully dormant, the sage extra pungent. Soon the cottonwoods in the San Diego River bed running through Mission Valley will be yellow, and the liquid ambers in your yard a deep red.
Want even more color? Drive up to Julian or further up into the eastern Sierra mountains around Bishop.
Fall is my favorite season. It doesn’t hurt that my birthday and Good Earth Plant Company’s anniversary both occur in the fall: October 25 and November 1.… Read More
Bringing Nature to The Brick Boutique Hotel in Oceanside
Plants + Creativity Make For Stunning Hospitality Biophilic Design
Oceanside, CA has evolved into a gorgeous destination for food, drinks and ocean views. Once known mostly for rowdy fun, with the addition of luxury boutique hotels and shopping, it’s stepping up its game.
Good Earth Plant Co. was thrilled for the opportunity to partner with creative architectural design firm GTC Creative on biophilic design for one of these gorgeous new Oceanside boutique hotels – The Brick Hotel, including the Q&A Oyster Bay and rooftop bar and lounge Coco Cabana. Hospitality design incorporating plants, or biophilic design, has been a growing trend for the last 5 years.… Read More
Return To Work Incentive Bringing Employees Back
Labor Day 2022 is now behind us, the unofficial end of summer. Back to school and back to work for many Americans. I’m back from a late summer trip to Minneapolis to meet with my workplace greenery colleagues of the Silverado Roundtable, and I snuck in a family visit in Denver. I’m glad to be back at Good Earth Plant Company with many exciting new projects ahead this fall.
Public service announcement: Need us to enrich people’ lives with plants at work or home? Contact us now!
But back to work means something different after the coronavirus pandemic. It doesn’t necessarily mean going back to the office environment.… Read More
Houseplants Show Off at San Diego Botanic Garden
The San Diego area is fortunate to have many public gardens to enjoy including the San Diego Botanic Garden (formerly the Quail Botanical Garden) in Encinitas. When I learned SDBG planned to stage its first-ever special showcase featuring houseplants called “World of Houseplants” I couldn’t wait to see it!
Life got in the way though, but I finally made it along with my mom, Sandy Fowler. The show is only open through Labor Day Monday. If you haven’t had the chance to see it, make time to go.
As we’ve written over the past few years, houseplants have exploded in popularity.… Read More
Fertilizer 101 For Indoor Plant Parents
Good Earth Plant Company loves sharing our best tips on indoor plant selection and care with our plant-loving friends. Our advice on growing orchids was one of our most popular blog posts this year.
The people have spoken. We’re all about giving the people what they want! The next step in developing your personal horticulture skills is learning how to feed and fertilize (the same thing) indoor plants.
Yes, plants get hungry and need food. But plants can’t speak up and whine or beg when they’re hungry – which is a good thing if you have a chowhound or kitty making noise to get their treats. … Read More
Fig Tree Café Gets A Plant-Filled Makeover
We love working with new clients at Good Earth Plant Company. When Rise & Shine Hospitality Group Chief Operating Officer Cesar Garcia needed to remodel the original Pacific Beach location of Fig Tree Café, he started the same place most of us do: Google. Good Earth Plant Company is so glad he did!
If you aren’t familiar with Fig Tree Café, it opened its first location in Pacific Beach in 2008 with a simple mission rooted in the creation of an inviting and genuine dining experience. Since then, CEO and founder Johan Engman opened in Liberty Station in 2013, and recently in East Village.… Read More
Top Trends at Cultivate 22: Color and Creativity
We’ve just wrapped up one of my favorite workplace greenery and horticulture conferences – the annual Cultivate 22 held in Columbus, Ohio, by American Hort, our national organization supporting and promoting the horticulture industry.
We were back last year post-pandemic, but we were all still feeling the many effects of what we’d all gone through. This year, the energy, collaboration, and creativity were truly back. I could tell immediately from the bright-colored plant and floral displays in downtown Columbus. They were missing last year.
More than 650 exhibitors and 10,000 industry professionals like me attend this show to see all the latest products and plants and talk with colleagues to share and learn about the latest trends and solutions for our clients.… Read More
Plants Can Save The World – It’s Science
In my spare time, I read science articles. Doesn’t everyone?
In this case, the headline got my attention: “Plants aren’t good at photosynthesis. We can do it better.”
This didn’t make sense to me. The reason plants grow and thrive is photosynthesis. It’s life and death for plants. The article was
written by Dr. Raffael Jovine, a scientist who is the author of the new book “How Light Makes Life: The Hidden Wonders and World-Saving Powers of Photosynthesis.”
I read more and thankfully, Dr. Jovine isn’t a hater. Far from it. His book explores how photosynthesis was first discovered and understood by humans, how it works, our planet’s reliance on photosynthesis for nearly all life, the economic value of photosynthesis, and how we can use photosynthesis and plants to save our environment and solve many other complex problems like hunger, healthcare, and equity.… Read More
Christmas In July At Good Earth Plant Company: Get Into The Holiday Spirit With Us
We’ve just wrapped up our Fourth of July fun, and a lot of it involved getting outdoors. Picnics, parades, fireworks, and vacation time. More sun, less screens (but not less sunscreen, that’s a different thing).
Now you might return to those screens and see – Santa? Christmas trees? Holiday gift sales?
Maybe you aren’t ready for Christmas in July, but it’s here. It might seem like a marketing grab, but there’s a real story behind Christmas in July.
Christmas In July Has North Carolina Roots
Christmas in July was started 89 years ago at Keystone Camp in Brevard, North Carolina. It’s a girls’ only camp still open today.… Read More
Go Green To Recruit Tech Talent
Before the pandemic, technology employees loved their free meals, foosball, and office happy hour. Post-pandemic, it’s going to take more than booze to bring tech workers back into the office.
Good Earth Plant Company has a hot tip for tech employers: Go green at work.
Many of the big tech companies including the Big Five known as GAMAM (Google, Apple, Meta [Facebook], Amazon, and Microsoft) or FAANG (Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Google) announced they would bring back their workers into the office. Their employees said, “Umm, not so fast.” Recent surveys found nearly three-quarters of tech employees plan to quit their jobs this year in part because of lack of flexibility with the post-pandemic return to the office push and toxic workplace culture.… Read More