gardening

Get Dirty, Get Healthier With Horticultural Therapy

| October 5, 2022 | Categories: Architecture and Design, Biophilia, Biophilic Design, Case Studies, Nature and Wellbeing
I do a lot of thinking on my quiet canyon bench. It's much nicer than a traditional therapist's office. Photo: Jim Mumford horticultural therapy
Many people develop a love of gardening and nature as they grow up through older relatives as they care for their flowers, plants, or fruit and vegetable gardens. I spent many family summers enjoying the outdoors and learning about nature in a way that seems a little old-fashioned today. So many of my relatives have a love for nature. My father, Bob, became a much admired – and published! – nature photographer after retiring from the United States Navy. Mom Sandy is an avid backyard gardener and refuses to throw a struggling plant away, and rarely prunes. My daughter, Allie, loves nature – for her, it’s all about animals.… Read More

Celebrity Gardeners Who Love Plants

| June 9, 2021 | Categories: Gardening, Indoor Plants, Sustainable Living
Celebrities are people, too. So during the pandemic when plants helped people cope and fill their time with a wonderful new hobby, celebrities started buying indoor plants and working on their gardens, too. Many of them couldn’t wait to share their new plants  and skills on their social media accounts. Along with all the Millennial and GenZers finding happiness and comfort with their plants, there are plenty of longtime OGs – Original Gardeners! These are the celebrities who’ve loved plants and gardening for years. Some have become horticultural authorities in their own right. At Good Earth Plant Company, we love anyone who loves plants like we do.… Read More

National Gardening Exercise Day: June 6

| June 2, 2021 | Categories: Biophilia, Gardening, Nature and Wellbeing
Get in your workout by getting in some gardening! Sunday, June 6 is National Gardening Workout Day. Photo: Jim Mumford
Our sedentary lives really hit home for many people over the last year. Did you gain the COVID-19, or was it 20 pounds? We now understand sitting in front of a screen for much of the day can be as harmful to our health as smoking cigarettes. Walking more is great, and if you have a treadmill desk, it’s not so tough to finish 10,000 steps in a day. But if you need to go for a walk the old-fashioned way – yes, outside! – it means you need to get in a minimum of five miles of walking per day.… Read More

World Naked Gardening Day 2021 is Here!

| April 28, 2021 | Categories: Biophilia, Environment, Gardening, Good Earth Plant Company Tips, Nature and Wellbeing
Grab your tools and get outside for World Naked Gardening Day 2021 this Saturday, May 1. Photo: Jim Mumford
Thank you, Mother Nature. Summer temperatures are ahead for Southern California this weekend, just in time for one of our favorite days all year. Yes, Saturday is the 17th annual World Naked Gardening Day! More good timing: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) revised its guidance this week on COVID-19 mask guidelines. Fully vaccinated people don’t need to wear a mask outdoors. At home, you don’t need a mask outside, of course. Great news for the 30% of us who are fully vaccinated. When we first found out about WNGD several years ago at Good Earth Plant Company, we got a big laugh out of it.… Read More

Celebrate Earth Day 2021: Fight Global Warming With Gardening 

| April 21, 2021 | Categories: Biophilia, Biophilic Design, Environment, Nature and Wellbeing, Sustainable Living
Today is Earth Day 2021: the 51st year for Earth Day. It was founded on April 22, 1970, by Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin. He was inspired by student protests against the Vietnam War and hoped to inspire a similar outcry against our war on the environment. It might not be an official national holiday, but it’s an important day to all the Eco-Warriors at Good Earth Plant Company and important for us to call it to every reader’s attention. It’s easy to get discouraged about climate change and global warming and easy to feel powerless about stopping it. But it’s possible if we all add a little effort, which will add up to a lot if we don’t give up.… Read More

Planting Seeds During Black History Month

| February 3, 2021 | Categories: Agriculture and Farming, Architecture and Design, Awards & Achievements, Environment, Nature and Wellbeing, Sustainable Living
Mother Nature is diverse, inclusive, and accessible. It’s only when human beings get involved that we put up barriers due to systemic racism. It’s important to us at Good Earth Plant Company to use our platform to celebrate the contributions of Black Americans to horticulture and gardening during Black History Month 2021. Here are some of our favorite resources for you to explore this topic with us, and we know you’ll be inspired as much as we are. Black agriculture pioneers: Most people know the name George Washington Carver. Dr. Carver was an agricultural scientist at Tuskegee University in Alabama. By the time of his death in 1943 he was the single most important Black scientist of the 20th Century.… 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

Tips To Enjoy Summer Naturally

| June 14, 2017 | Categories: Biophilia, Indoor Plants, Nature and Wellbeing, Sustainable Living
You know the years are passing when the months seem to be racing by. It feels like I just put the Christmas decorations away, but in just a few days summer will officially begin on Tuesday, June 20, at 9:24 pm Pacific Time. This is the summer solstice, the day with the most hours of sunlight all year. The four seasons are created when sunlight shifts as our planet orbits the Sun and changes the tilt of its vertical axis. We reach the summer solstice the moment the Sun reaches its northernmost point from the equator. And yes, we have four seasons in san Diego.… Read More

Eight Ways to Celebrate Mother Earth This Mother’s Day

| May 11, 2017 | Categories: Biophilia, Environment, Nature and Wellbeing, Sustainable Living
Time for our annual public service announcement, if you haven’t already heard: Sunday, May 14 is Mother’s Day. You’re welcome. As we all get older, we appreciate our Moms more than ever. This is especially true if you’re a parent. Most of us have to be asking ourselves, “How did she ever put up with me?” So we try our best to say thank you with flowers, gifts, and Sunday brunch. Mom always says she’s thrilled no matter what you do. But there is another Mother we should remember on Mother’s Day: Mother Earth. Why not honor both? They both play vital roles in your life.… Read More

World Naked Gardening Day, There’s a Serious Point

| May 3, 2017 | Categories: Agriculture and Farming, Gardening, Good Earth Plant Company, Nature and Wellbeing
Be careful with your gardening tools on World Naked Gardening Day - it's on May 5, 2018!
When I found out this Saturday, May 6 is officially the 13th annual “World Naked Gardening Day,” of course I laughed. Come on, who wouldn’t? Then I thought, ‘Boy, that’s going to take a LOT of sunscreen. More for some than others!’ World Naked Gardening Day is a real event, and while we all might giggle about it, there’s an important point to it. People across the globe are encouraged, on the first Saturday of May, to get outside and weed, dig, plant, fertilize, and otherwise tend to their garden space as Mother Nature made you: without any clothes on. Founder Mark Storey, a Seattle resident, says gloves, hats, and boots are perfectly OK by him.… Read More