Good Earth Plant Company

What’s On Your Mind?

| December 27, 2017 | Categories: Architecture and Design, Biophilia, Biophilic Design, Good Earth Plant Company, Nature and Wellbeing
The holiday break always seems too short, doesn’t it! We’re too busy to complain about it though. The year is winding up with a green bang at Good Earth Plant Company. Maybe it’s our mild winter weather inspiring people, or maybe it’s awareness of our surroundings after seeing all of the recent wildfires. Whatever the reason, it’s been all hands on deck installing new projects testing our creativity: living walls, moss walls, colorful planters and succulents, holiday décor and even our first residential green roof all year, which we’ve been sharing with you on our Facebook page. (Hint: Follow us here!)… Read More

Succulents Give You A Fighting Chance Against Wildfires

| December 21, 2017 | Categories: Agriculture and Farming, Architecture and Design, Good Earth Plant Company Tips, Green Roofs, Indoor Plants
Watching wildfires burn across Southern California including close to home in the Bonsall and Fallbrook areas of San Diego County is sobering, especially for a wildfire survivor like me. Most of you know my own story: my home in the Muth Valley area of Lakeside in San Diego County burned to the ground in the Cedar Fire of 2003. I wrote about the experience in a journal shortly after it happened, and posted it to this blog page several years ago. You can read it here. The largest of the fires, the Thomas Fire in Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties, continues to burn and it’s likely to end up as the largest wildfire in California state history.… Read More

Ten Secrets to Successful Workplace Design in 2018

| December 14, 2017 | Categories: Architecture and Design, Biophilic Design, Case Studies, Good Earth Plant Company Tips, Plantscaping
We get to see a lot of workplaces all year long, and we get to work with a lot of smart architects and interior designers creating the modern workplace. We also talk a lot about what the ideal workplace of the future SHOULD look like when I get together with my fellow interior plantscapers and WELL Building Standard advocates across the country. There are plenty of studies where people have told us what they like, and also telling us what makes people more productive, more creative, and more content at work. With 2018 nearly on top of us (how did THIS happen?),… Read More

San Diegans Prove Biophilia Is For Real

| November 30, 2017 | Categories: Architecture and Design, Biophilia, Biophilic Design, Nature and Wellbeing
If there is one thing people know San Diego for, it’s our nice weather. Actually, people think we have perfect weather. Every time they see San Diego on television during an event like Comic-Con, or professional golf tournaments at Torrey Pines, it’s 75 degrees and clear with minimal humidity. If you travel like I do to conferences in other parts of the United States and mention you’re from San Diego, the first thing you hear is a sigh, and then some version of “I’d love to live in San Diego” or “I’d love to visit San Diego.” Or maybe, “I loved visiting San Diego!”… Read More

November Good Earth Plants Leaflet Newsletter

| November 22, 2017 | Categories: Architecture and Design, Biophilic Design, Living Walls, Moss Walls, Newsletters
The Good Earth Leaflet Newsletter is ready for you to gobble right up! In this issue: Learn what our Eco-Warrior in Chief Jim Mumford is thankful for Meet our newest Eco-Warrior, Lisa Oliver See our new Living Wall project for Torrey Plaza Check out a spectacular new moss wall Enjoy our holiday events listings Don’t want to miss one? Sign up for the newsletter here.

Forty Years and Still Growing Strong at Good Earth Plant Company

| November 1, 2017 | Categories: Awards & Achievements, Case Studies, Good Earth Plant Company
The wall that started us down a new road at Pizzeria Mozza Hollywood in 2010. You never forget your first! #GreenWallDay
  It’s been 14,600 days. 350,400 hours. Thousands of plants. Hundreds of employees. One hundred living walls. Two addresses. Two kids! One crazy ride. I’ve known this day was coming, but it’s still nearly impossible for me to grasp, much less explain in a single blog post. Today, November 1, 2017, is officially my 40th anniversary in business as “Good Earth Plant Company.” These are the times we can’t help but look back at the long, winding path bringing us to the present. Many of the steps were deliberate, others were serendipitous, and all were guided by the people along the way.… Read More

Good Earth Plant Company Show and Tell at the Mingei

| October 19, 2017 | Categories: Architecture and Design, Awards & Achievements, Biophilic Design, Case Studies, Good Earth Plant Company, Nature and Wellbeing
Outside of my family of course, there isn’t much I love more than bringing nature and plants into places people work, live, and play. I’m still just as enthusiastic about my mission as I was when I bought my original bucket stand selling flowers and then plants downtown nearly 40 years ago. What comes close is TALKING about the power of nature and plants to make our lives better. If a group of people invites me to come to their conference or meeting or program, they do not have to ask twice. I want people in the audience to walk away with a new way of appreciating nature and with some ideas for incorporating nature into their workplaces and homes.… Read More

Adding Plants Isn’t Rocket Science, But It Should Be

| October 12, 2017 | Categories: Case Studies, Good Earth Plant Company Tips, Indoor Plants, Nature and Wellbeing, Plantscaping
Have you ever felt that post-lunchtime slump at work, around 2 p.m.? You probably blamed it on the California burrito you ate, or a morning coffee crash. The more likely culprit turns out to be carbon dioxide. A research study conducted earlier this year by Harvard, Syracuse, and SUNY Upstate Medical Universities studied office environments and determined the level of carbon dioxide in the average office environment reaches its daily peak around 2 p.m. The CO2 level of 1,000 parts per million is 2.5 times the level of carbon dioxide in the outside atmosphere. Read more about this study in the Harvard Business Journal.… Read More

Change Your Screen, Change Your Life

| October 5, 2017 | Categories: Good Earth Plant Company Tips, Nature and Wellbeing
Just looking at photos of nature like our popular Monkey Faced Orchids can give some of the positive benefits of being outdoors. Monkey Faced Orchids (we love them too much to leave them out)
Where is your phone right now? Chances are good you can reach for it. One in three of you is reading this blog post on a phone right now. According to a 2016 Nielsen Research report, we are now spending nearly 11 hours a day using our tablets, smartphones, personal computers, multimedia devices, video games, radios, DVDs, DVRs and TVs. It’s an hour higher than 2015. We’re all told to put the devices down. You see how well that advice is going over! I’m as guilty as any of you. In my profession, it worries me. The more time we are looking at our smartphones while eating lunch or binging on “Narcos” during a weekend is time we aren’t appreciating the natural world around us.… Read More

Nature’s Way To Boost Employee Productivity

| September 28, 2017 | Categories: Architecture and Design, Biophilia, Biophilic Design, Environment, Nature and Wellbeing, Plantscaping
American workers are known for their productivity, and while we aren’t number one on many lists, we remain in the top five overall on nearly all of them. So it’s kind of shocking to me to read the results of a Gallup Poll from June 2017 which found two-thirds of all employees in the United States say they are “not engaged” or “actively disengaged” at work. These employees aren’t applying themselves. They are just getting by. Most of the time they are checked out. Presenteeism is a new term defining employees that are present, but not engaged. This is not a small thing.… Read More