Mario Batali

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

Growing A Business, 39 Years and Counting

| November 1, 2016 | Categories: Awards & Achievements, Good Earth Plant Company, Green Roofs, Living Walls, Plantscaping
Thirty-nine years ago today, all I wanted was a way to support myself. I was almost 20 and my dad had just kicked me out of the house because I didn’t get a job over the summer. I got a part-time job while going to community college, working at an outdoor “plant stand” in the financial district of downtown San Diego. It turned into my own full-time business. Shortly after starting my gig working for “Plants on the Plaza,” the three owners decided it was too much hassle to make them any real money and they wanted to sell. Back home and at dinner that night, my Naval Captain father said, “Let’s buy it!”… Read More

Jim Mumford and Good Earth Plants in Entrepreneur Magazine, December 2014

| December 29, 2014 | Categories: Biophilic Design, Living Walls, Media Coverage
Entrepreneur Magazine has featured Good Earth Plant Company and a quote from Jim Mumford along with client Batali & Bastianich Hospitality Group (B&BHG) about the living walls created for its Pizzeria Mozza restaurants in West Hollywood and Newport Beach. Entrepreneur Magazine including living walls as part of its Top Trends in Business for 2015. We agree! Read the feature article here.

Dining Out Differently With Sustainability In Mind

| May 21, 2013 | Categories: Agriculture and Farming, Environment, Good Earth Plant Company, Indoor Plants, Living Walls, Nature and Wellbeing, Sustainable Living
Seasons 52 edible wall
When I was a kid, going out to dinner was a big deal. It usually meant getting cleaned up, which for me was a big deal because I truly believe dirt was part of my skin. After the outer layer was scrubbed, it would be clean shirt and shoes and my “table manners” for a couple of hours spent counting down the seconds until the bill came to my dad. Even if it was a family pizza parlor night, dining out was a special event. Menus were bigger than me and in the fancy places, French names like coq au vin or escargot seemed daunting.… Read More

Living Walls: How to Design, Plant, and Price Them – SFGate.com, May 4, 2013

| May 4, 2013 | Categories: Architecture and Design, Living Walls, Media Coverage, Plantscaping
A living wall makes a beautiful and dramatic focal point that pleases clients… highlights the abilities and professionalism of your company. Learn what you need to know about adding these popular interiorscape features to your company’s list of accomplishments. Featuring Jim Mumford, GreenScaped Buildings, San Diego CA Read more: http://events.sfgate.com/san_francisco_ca/events/show/314681063-living-walls-how-to-design-plant-price-them

Walls you can eat – CNN Money

| April 12, 2010 | Categories: Agriculture and Farming, Living Walls, Media Coverage, Sustainable Living
SAN DIEGO (CNNMoney.com) — Mario Batali decided last year to install a garden between his adjoining West Hollywood restaurants, Osteria Mozza and Pizzeria Mozza. But a plain old backyard patch wouldn’t do. Batali wanted something more visually striking, something more … vertical? So he turned to Jim Mumford, the owner of Good Earth Plant and Flower Company in San Diego. Mumford, 52, had built a reputation as a nontraditional gardener. In March 2007, he embarked on a “giant experiment,” replacing the 1,800-square-foot roof of a commercial building he owned with a planter’s paradise: three inches of specialized, lightweight soil over a padded waterproofing and drainage system.… Read More

Mozza’s Edible Garden Wall: Please Don’t Eat the Geraniums While You Wait, LA Weekly

| February 26, 2010 | Categories: Agriculture and Farming, Media Coverage, Sustainable Living
Excerpt from the article that appeared in the LA Weekly blog, February 2010 The next time you’re stuck in line outside Pizzeria Mozza, you’ll have a much more pastoral setting for your wait than the usual valet caravan, the hungry crowds, the celebrities dodging TMZ for a pizza. This morning, Nancy Silverton and crew had an edible garden wall installed along the otherwise unremarkable wall between the Pizzeria and the Osteria on Highland Avenue. The wall is a testament to Mozza’s ongoing commitment to sustainability. It also provides some good aesthetics, as well as, perhaps, a get-your-own amuse bouche. The San Diego company Good Earth Plants & GreenScaped Buildings put up a vertical wall of herbs and flowers and lettuces, including 72 square feet of sage, cilantro, parsley, rosemary, beets, chicory, Italian dandelion, han tsai tai, 3 kinds of mint, 4 kinds of edible geraniums and Chinese celery.… Read More