green roofs

Bioinspiration: Letting Nature Inspire Your Work

| November 12, 2013 | Categories: Architecture and Design, Biophilic Design, Good Earth Plant Company, Indoor Plants, Sustainable Living
This week wasn’t about the usual business of green roofs and living walls. I jumped outside the box, exited my silo and spent time at events that remind me of what else is out there. I attended a Downtown San Diego Partnership workshop featuring Fred Kent of Project for Public Spaces. I first heard Fred speak at the Greening the City symposium in March 2006 at Liberty Station. It was there that I was exposed to the idea of green roofs. My passion was ignited. I went on to take a course in New York and studied Fred’s concepts about energizing, engaging and programming public places to build communities.… Read More

The Fall Frenzy

| September 17, 2013 | Categories: Architecture and Design, Biophilic Design, Green Roofs, Living Walls
Living Wall Installation
What a summer! It feels like I turned around from the Memorial Day weekend only to stare right into the Labor Day holiday. It’s been a busy few months to say the least. And while it might not be easy to remember much time spent by the ocean or with the kids, this past summer will be remembered as “the summer of installations!” Great news for us in that we kept the staff busy and working hard to make the living architecture concepts and ideas we described to customers last spring – come to life. Our expert team of Kerry Bauer, Kevin Norton and Nilo Cabrera really made it happen these past few weeks.… Read More

A Perfect Piece of Green PIE from PIA

| September 10, 2013 | Categories: Architecture and Design, Awards & Achievements
I always look forward to the Plant Industry Alliance (PIA) annual Expo in Las Vegas in August. This year’s Plantscape Industry Expo (PIE) was AMAZING! Innovative products, fascinating speakers and incredible living art displays. It seemed everywhere you look, creative, inspired people were talking about new products and the latest in technology and design. This year, we had a great team attend from Good Earth Plants and GreenScaped Buildings. Debbie Hopkins, Dawn Weatherford, Kerry Bauer and I got the chance to meet up with some colleagues and exchange some ideas while learning about the latest in plants. We even got to see a new plant, a type of Mandeville, that has a large hanging pink flower that will be perfect on one of our living walls.… Read More

A Change Is In The Air

| June 25, 2013 | Categories: Awards & Achievements, Good Earth Plant Company, Green Roofs, Living Walls
New Good Earth Plant Company building
Most people will agree that change can be difficult. From little things like learning how a new phone works to moving or starting a new job, change never seems to come easily.  But as I get older, I am finding that while change is tough, it has an upside. Our headquarters are bursting at the seams and it is time to think creatively.  Time to make a change. Today we brought in an office trailer to our headquarters that will be an office for two of our staff. It is a much-needed addition to our space here, but darned if it wasn’t an easy process.… Read More

What do you think of our new look? GEP/GSB New Website!

| June 11, 2013 | Categories: Awards & Achievements, Blog, Good Earth Plant Company, Green Roofs, Living Walls, Sustainable Living
New Good Earth Plant Company and GreenScaped Buildings website
  What do you think of our new look? Good Earth Plant Company and GreenScaped Buildings launched a new combined version of our website this weekend. Since we designed our original websites for each company, we’re into a lot of new things and there is new technology letting us share it with you. The timing was just right. The new website also allows us to bring together our two branches in one place: Good Earth Plant Company and GreenScaped Buildings. The businesses will continue to focus on their specific areas of expertise, but our clients can find all the information they need about every aspect of what we do in one place.… Read More

Imagination and The Possible

| June 7, 2013 | Categories: Architecture and Design, Biophilic Design, Sustainable Living
Arthur C. Clarke, futurist
One of my daily joys is reading our local newspaper, UT San Diego. On May 13, 2013, there was an intriguing front page article by Gary Robbins about science fiction and imagination, as seen by four authors. Robbins wrote about the late Arthur C. Clarke who authored  “2001: A Space Odyssey” in 1968. And while we might look at some of the ideas in the book and movie as shocking, it sure shook up readers to think that someday we’ll be communicating with extra-terrestrials. Who could imagine? How do these super-smart guys come up with these ideas? And how do we use our imagination to see what is POSSIBLE, rather than IMPOSSIBLE?… Read More

Underground Living

| May 6, 2013 | Categories: Architecture and Design, Biophilic Design, Sustainable Living
Hobbit, Underground homes
Once upon a time, humans lived in caves. Over the years, futuristic science fiction books and movies quite often depict humans living underground. But underground living is not just the past and the future. In the form of a green roof, it’s here now. Think of the Teletubbies and Hobbits, clearly residing underground, which apparently is nothing new because Hobbits have lived underground for eons. Everyone knows that. Cool houses, too with windows that frame a green grassy knoll and carved earthen archways. This is by far the one of the coolest ideas I have seen. I may just make one for myself!… Read More

Another Opening, Another Show

| April 26, 2013 | Categories: Good Earth Plant Company, Indoor Plants, Plantscaping, Sustainable Living
“Another Opening, Another Show… ” I know that’s a line from a Broadway show, but also how it feels around here after our Open House and Plant Sale last Friday. We had such an outstanding response from clients, former and new. This place was jumping with people asking about Tower Gardens, Living Walls and AquaPonics. Our event made the calendar in the San Diego Union-Tribune so we had a lot of folks that came that would have otherwise had no idea what we are up to. It was a treat to meet so many new people. And we sold a lot of beautiful plants and containers.… Read More

Jim Mumford’s Thoughts on Union-Tribune News Coverage

| March 19, 2013 | Categories: Biophilic Design, Media Coverage
Last Monday, I was thrilled to see the article on the front page of the Business section of U-T San Diego about our living walls and green roofs, with a large photo of me (above the fold) standing in front of one of our own living walls. There’s nothing like seeing your own grinning mug in the paper before you’ve had coffee on a Monday morning.  A friend and colleague in Arizona had already posted it on Facebook! I am happy that both our company names are mentioned (Good Earth Plants and Greenscaped Buildings) and that in a section labeled “learn more” gave details about our open house and plant sale coming up April 19.… Read More