Plantscaping

What is plantscaping? It is interior design focusing on indoor plants as the featured design elements – interior plant design.

Plantscaping is a way to bring nature inside to create warm and inviting spaces for employees, visitors and even homeowners. With plantscaping, plants are a part of the design, not an afterthought.

We often take the vision of a designer or architect and incorporate living and replica plants into the design. Sometimes the plants become the design, such as with a living wall or a moss wall, or sometimes the plants are featured in decorative pots.

Over the years, we’ve brought plantscaping to many beautiful San Diego commercial buildings, office buildings, hospitals and residences. Our portfolio highlights some of our favorite projects.

Workplace – Commercial Plant Designing

Scientific studies show plants in the workplace produce many productivity and wellness benefits. Plants oxygenate the air and reduce carbon dioxide and environmental toxins. They can help baffle excess noise and reduce visual distractions.

The result: plants can increase employee productivity, reduce stress, cut down on absenteeism and even employee turnover. People report increased creativity and problem-solving in workplaces with plants and other elements of nature.

The result for your business or organization: healthier work and living areas creating improved health and well-being, resulting in more overall satisfaction and happiness in your life. Plantscaping is an investment in your environment, your health and your success!

Ho Ho Ho – The Holidays Are Already Here at Good Earth Plant Company

Whinnery Design decorated the lobby for our clients at 655 West Broadway in 2020 - see our living wall in the back! Photo: Courtesy Whinnery Design holidays are here
One week ago today, a record 89 cargo ships were anchored or floating off the coast full of goods waiting to be unloaded at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, according to the Marine Exchange Vessel Traffic Service. Even when they are off the ships, loaded cargo containers are piled up, waiting for a ride by truck or train to their final destination. If you’ve tried to buy furniture, cars, bicycle parts, and now plant pots and containers, the wait can be weeks or months. So you better start thinking about the holidays. Yes, they are right around the corner!… Read More

Time to Celebrate: It’s National Indoor Plant Week

She's got the right attitude for National Indoor Plant Week 2021! Photo: Mikhail Nilov/Pexels
Plant lovers everywhere, get ready to party – the week of  September 20, 2021, is National Indoor Plant Week. We’re giving you advanced notice! It is celebrated the third full week of September every year. I get it, there are a whole lot of these observations. One website claims there are 1,500 of them – that’s a LOT for 365 days and 52 weeks. During the same week, it’s also National Singles Week, National Farm Animals Week, and National Eczema Week. Your indoor plants deserve a celebration. All they want to do is grow and keep you happier and healthier. They don’t judge you and they don’t have to worry about social distancing either (how lucky!).… Read More

Nine Best Tips to Make the Most of Labor Day Weekend 2021

It isn't a coincidence many of our favorite memories involve being outside in Nature, like my 2019 trip to Austria. Get outside Labor Day Weekend! Photo: Jim Mumford
Labor Day 2021 is already here! Yes, Labor Day is recognized this Monday, September 6, 2021. Made any plans? The pandemic might be changing your traditional long weekend getaway. Why not take advantage of the situation to invest time in some late summer gardening which will pay off all through the fall month. Your yard will look great and you will get a healthy dose of Vitamin N – as in Nature. If you enlist your family, especially the kids, they’ll benefit from activities not involving screen time. Good Earth Plant Company’s nine best tips for Labor Day Weekend 2021: Start a compost pile to create some organic fertilizer for next spring’s garden.… Read More

Misting Indoor Plants: The Whole Truth

  Do you need to mist your indoor plants to keep them healthy? No, you don’t. If I stopped there, this would be the shortest blog post in Good Earth Plant Company history! But I wouldn’t do that to my loyal readers. Let’s discuss misting in a little more detail. We get asked about this frequently, especially during hot summer days. Plants and people like the same indoor  humidity Indoor plants prefer a humidity level between 40 and 60 percent. Most common types of indoor plants are native to parts of the world where there is a lot of rain and humidity.… Read More

Listen Up: Our Latest Blog Is a Podcast about Plants

Jim Mumford recently appeared on the "It's Your Life" radio show - and now you can hear the podcast version on demand. podcast about plants
Time for something a little different on the Good Earth Plant Company blog this week. You can listen instead of read! I recently spent an hour on the “It’s Your Life” radio show in San Diego, which is also a podcast on all platforms. The theme of the show: “Bringing the Living World of Plants Into Our  Everyday Life.” I couldn’t have done better myself! Host Jim Cooley and co-host Michelle Cooley (yes, they’re husband and wife)  put their curiosity and interviewing skills to good use. They both asked all about plants, plantscaping, living walls, moss walls, green roofs, biophilia and biophilic design – and more.… Read More

Things Are Looking Up For Plant Lovers

Our recent "overhead moment" project for Open Air Vintage took advantage of the high ceilings in its warehouse showroom.
Indoor plants are having more than a moment. Good Earth Plant Company loves seeing so many people adding indoor plants to their home and work environments. It might be the one good thing coming from the pandemic. Since 1977, we’ve been big advocates for the power of plants to improve the quality of your surroundings, from cleaning the air to clearing your mind. Plants are a lot like potato chips. You can’t have just one. It’s also true plants thrive when they are grouped together – and they look cool. But there’s only so much surface space to go around. You can add shelf space and place plants on your existing furniture (be careful with the watering), but at some point, you run out.… Read More

Client Happiness and Health Always Wins Big

Good Earth Plant Company got a nice surprise this week: our living wall project at 655 W. Broadway has won a Silver Award in its category in the 2021 Biophilic Design Awards. We love seeing our client projects featured, and we love seeing everyone else’s work. Awards make us feel great, but what’s more important about them is providing an objective measurement of the quality of our projects. Are we doing the best possible work we can for our clients? Where do we rate against our (mostly friendly) competitors? What can we learn from THEIR award-winning projects? This project has a special place in our horticultural hearts.… Read More

Indoor Plant Trends We Love in 2021

It's good to get out, renew our relationships, and learn a few new tricks for our clients! Photo: Jim Mumford Indoor plant trends
While we were fortunate to flourish despite the pandemic at Good Earth Plant Company, it made me more aware of the importance of human socialization. We are pack animals and we do best when we interact, share ideas, and work together. This lesson became even more vivid to me this week when I attended my first workplace greenery and horticulture conference since the shutdown early last year. It’s one of my favorite shows – Cultivate 21 held annually in Columbus, Ohio by American Hort, our national organization supporting and promoting the horticulture industry. Attendance was nearly as strong as 2019! There are more than 650 exhibitors and 10,000 industry professionals like me from 30 different countries taking in the eight-acre trade show, four days of educational opportunities, and talking with my colleagues about the latest trends and solutions for our clients.… Read More

Indoor Plant Container Basics For Everyone

Mixing and matching different plant and containers into a display adds up to an impressive feature in a home or workspace. Photo: Jim Mumford
So much of our inspiration at Good Earth Plant Company comes from the containers our plants live in. Don’t get me wrong. Our mission remains focused on enriching peoples’ lives with plants. But over the years, some of my biggest brainstorms came when I stretched my thinking about containers. When I realized a green roof is just one big container for plants, it started a whole new business. Plants and containers are inseparable partners to us at Good Earth Plant Company. We work with our clients to choose their containers with care – and flair! Along with the indoor plant craze that started during the pandemic, people have been getting creative with containers, too.… Read More

Indoor Plant Index Is Rising Fast

It's not your imagination. Indoor plants are in short supply and they are worth more. Illustration: Mohamed Hassan Indoor Plant Index
Have you noticed how hard it is to find certain products or services lately? It’s not your imagination. Because of the way many of our spending and purchasing habits have changed combined with unusual limitations due to supplies and employment, there’s a lot more demand. At the top of the list, the home improvement industry has gone wild. While we were all stuck at home, we looked around and realized we needed to refresh our surroundings. This means we all called contractors, plumbers, painters, and electricians, and plantscapers. The good ones are busy, so get in line soon. It’s a shock to see the jump in building material prices, especially lumber and plywood.… Read More