biophilia

Before You Go Back to School, Go Back to Nature

| August 11, 2016 | Categories: Environment, Gardening, Nature and Wellbeing, Sustainable Living
A Harvard study found teens living in areas with high quality green spaces are at less risk of depression.
Those precious days of summer vacation are already starting to wind down. Back to school ads are everywhere. By this point of the summer back when I was a kid (yes, I realize this is a LONG time ago to some of you), I didn’t stay at the breakfast or dinner table a second longer than I had to. I was too busy outside with all kinds of activities. Do kids even build forts anymore? If you are still trying to pry your kids away from the screens of their phones, tablets or laptops to enjoy outdoor activities during the summer and haven’t been too successful, don’t give up.… Read More

Amazon Goes Big With New HQ Biosphere in Seattle

| August 4, 2016 | Categories: Architecture and Design, Biophilia, Biophilic Design, Living Walls, Nature and Wellbeing, Plantscaping, Sustainable Living
Rendering of the Amazon headquarters "biospheres" under construction in Seattle. Photo Courtesy NBBJ
Outrageous workplace perks in the tech industry have reached epic proportions. Google has the reputation of offering the most extreme benefits. Google better enjoy its status while it can. The new Amazon headquarters in downtown Seattle is going to blow Google’s free laundry services and the Facebook snack bar away. Amazon is building three massive “biosphere” type greenhouses as part of its new $4 billion headquarters in the hip Denny Regrade. These three connected greenhouses will house 65,000 square feet of tropical plants, with 3,000 different species. Compare this to the San Diego Botanical Garden in Balboa Park. It houses 2,100 species of plants in just under 20,000 square feet of space.… Read More

What’s Good For Nature Is Good for the Bottom Line at the San Diego Green Building Expo

| July 28, 2016 | Categories: Good Earth Plant Company, Green Roofs, Nature and Wellbeing
USGBC Green Building Conference and Expo September 16, 2016
San Diego is known for a lot of things. Comic-Con. Craft beer. Green building. Yes, the City of San Diego and the state of California as a whole are policy leaders when it comes to setting goals for using water and energy wisely and in sustainable ways, which includes encouraging green building. We all know by now we’ve got to get serious about sustainability to stop doing damage to the planet. Plant a green roof is a good start! But what’s good for Mother Nature can also be good for the bottom line. Business can benefit from biophilic design and thinking.… Read More

Plants’ Secret Language: Can They Communicate?

| July 21, 2016 | Categories: Biophilia, Gardening, Good Earth Plant Company, Nature and Wellbeing, Plantscaping
People have been talking to plants for years. Is there now a way for plants to talk to us?
When I first got started working with plants professionally in the late 1970s, talking to your plants to make them grow better was a hot topic. Even Prince Charles said in a 1986 interview that he talked to his plants. “I just come and talk to the plants, really. Very important to talk to them; they respond.” Some people thought it was pretty hippie dippy, but others took it seriously including a lot of scientists, long before the 1970s fad. German researcher Gustav Fechner wrote a book about it in 1848. Electrical signals in plants were discovered over 100 years ago, in 1873, by British scientist John Burdon-Sanderson.… Read More

Nature Has The Answer to Our Toughest Questions (As Usual)

| July 7, 2016 | Categories: Biophilia, Nature and Wellbeing, Sustainable Living
Could a bionic leaf help us cut our use of fossil fuels for energy and solve the global warming crisis? Research at Harvard University is promising.
The quest to find a new energy source and solve our global warming problem could come down to turning over a new leaf. It’s one of the most exciting developments in science I’ve read about in a long time. Daniel Nocera, the Patterson Rockwood Professor of Energy at Harvard University, has been working on a way to find a new energy source that is practical and replicable. His work is based on one of the most efficient energy processing machines there is: the simple plant leaf, which is responsible for turning light (solar energy) into chemical energy that it can use to fuel growth.… Read More

Cool Moss Walls: The Hottest Trend in Green Living

| June 23, 2016 | Categories: Architecture and Design, Indoor Plants, Living Walls, Moss Walls, Plantscaping
Good Earth Plant Company installed this moss wall at the Bluebeam software company in Pasadena, California, covering three of our hot design trends: moss walls, the WELL building standard, and the color green.
We make the rounds of all top events in the green building industry checking on the latest products and trends. I just returned from Longwood Gardens. The hot topic was hotter than San Diego’s last heat wave: moss walls. As Bernie Sanders might say, moss walls were YUUUUGE! It’s been a long time since everyone was this excited about a single product. The reasons are simple. Moss walls provide all the benefits of traditional living walls and several more. They can thrive in nearly any indoor setting. Growing conditions can be far from perfect – but they don’t need any light, water or maintenance.… Read More

Summer Gardening Projects Let Kids Get Dirty and Keep Parents Happy

| June 9, 2016 | Categories: Biophilia, Gardening, Good Earth Plant Company, Good Earth Plant Company Tips, Indoor Plants, Nature and Wellbeing
Share your spare veggies and other produces with co-workers this summer.
Kids are counting down the days until school is out for the summer. Don’t we all remember that feeling? If you’re a parent, you have a different perspective. Something like, “oh no, how am I going to keep the kids busy and out of trouble all summer!” Why not encourage your kids to do something that comes naturally? Encourage them to get their hands dirty in fun gardening activities. Take advantage of San Diego’s summer weather to work on projects outdoors when it’s cool enough, and indoors when the sun is a little too strong. There are many age appropriate opportunities for gardening and art projects that will instill a love of nature that will last a lifetime.… Read More

Dr. Nature Prescribes Gardening for Good Health

| June 1, 2016 | Categories: Biophilia, Gardening, Good Earth Plant Company Tips, Indoor Plants, Nature and Wellbeing
Monday, June 6 is National Gardening Exercise Day. Get a little dirty and celebrate.
Have you seen all the fitness wristbands on the market? It seems like they can measure nearly anything! Of course you have to be doing something to measure in the first place. We are told that sitting is the new smoking, and if we work behind a desk at all we’ve got to get up and move frequently. The goal is to walk 10,000 steps in a day or get the equivalent amount of exercise. Sure, it sounds easy but it means you need to get in a minimum of five miles of walking per day. If you walk at a brisk pace this can be an hour and 15 minutes or more.… Read More

Good Earth Plants Helps Your Great Ideas Grow

| April 21, 2016 | Categories: Architecture and Design, Biophilic Design, Environment, Indoor Plants, Nature and Wellbeing, Plantscaping, Sustainable Living
We can't function well mentally or physically when we are breathing oxygen depleted air. Adding plants to your indoor environment can help a lot. Good Earth Plants can help!
Many of us don’t have labor-intensive jobs, as in the kind of physical work leaving you tired and sore at the end of the day. Our version of heavy lifting gets done mentally, whether we are crunching numbers, crafting communication, or even shooting YouTube videos. But we’re still dependent on a productive and safe environment where we can breathe deeply and let oxygen fuel our brains. Did you know your brain consumes 20 percent of all the oxygen that enters your bloodstream through breathing, but it only makes up two percent of your total body mass? This means your brain uses ten times more oxygen than the rest of your body.… Read More

Good Earth Plants Says ‘Be Nice To Your Mother (Earth)’!

| April 14, 2016 | Categories: Environment, Good Earth Plant Company, Nature and Wellbeing, Sustainable Living
We can't function well mentally or physically when we are breathing oxygen depleted air. Adding plants to your indoor environment can help a lot. Good Earth Plants can help!
It’s hard to believe Earth Day was a brand new idea well within my lifetime. The first Earth Day took place in 1970. It is now an annual event celebrated on or near April 22, coordinated globally by the Earth Day Network. It reaches more than 192 countries each year including hundreds of communities in the United States. Every day is Earth Day at Good Earth Plant Company! We love it when the rest of the world pauses to focus on environment issues and finding good solutions we can adopt on the official Earth Day, which is April 22. San Diego can brag about its Earth Day Fair, which is the largest free, all-volunteer Earth Day event in the world.… Read More