nature

Nature Is Still Open

| March 18, 2020 | Categories: Biophilia, Environment, Good Earth Plant Company Tips, Indoor Plants, Nature and Wellbeing
The South American Clivia plant in my yard is in full bloom! Photo: Jim Mumford
Has it only been a week since my last blog post? Since then, schools, stores, restaurants, bars, gyms, and many workplaces have closed down to try and stop the coronavirus pandemic from spreading. California residents like me and many other Americans are being asked to shelter in place. We are asked to stay at home except to “provide or receive essential services or engage in certain essential activities and work for essential business or government services.” For those few clients that allow us, we consider their plants and asset worth protecting and we are watering them. You can pick up groceries and prescriptions, take your dog to the vet, or put your trash out for collection.… Read More

Let’s Clear the Air

| March 11, 2020 | Categories: Environment, Indoor Plants, Nature and Wellbeing, Plantscaping, Sustainable Living
In the plantscaping business, we've always been concerned about clean indoor enviroments. Photo: Mylene2401/Pixabay
Chances are good you’re spending a lot more time indoors right now. But here is the reality: it’s nothing new. Ongoing research by the Environmental Protection Agency reveals some shocking stats: Americans spend more than 90 percent of their time indoors. If you’re very young or older, you tend to spend even more time indoors. There are a lot of reasons people are anxious about health issues today. But some of us have been concerned for a long time. Here’s why: indoor air can be two to five times more polluted than our air outdoors. This comes as a surprise to many people.… Read More

Green Medicine from Mother Nature

| January 16, 2020 | Categories: Biophilia, Good Earth Plant Company, Good Earth Plant Company Tips, Indoor Plants, Nature and Wellbeing
One way or another, Mother Nature provides many different ways to improve our health and cure our problems. Human beings have relied on plants to treat their illnesses and ailments throughout history. Forty percent of all prescription medication comes from plant extracts or synthetic plant compounds. If you count other types of natural sources such as fungi and molds, nearly three-quarters of all drugs today come from Nature. Worldwide, there are 80,000 types of plants used medicinally, although some are illegal. Nearly 20 percent of them are threatened with extinction due to habitat loss. Aspirin is one of the most common drugs worldwide.… Read More

Turn Black Friday into Green Friday This Year

| November 20, 2019 | Categories: Biophilia, Environment, Nature and Wellbeing, Sustainable Living
#OptOutside Good Earth Plant Company Thanksgiving Sustainability Living Walls Plants
For five years in a row now, REI has closed its stores on Black Friday, the biggest shopping day of the year. It processes no online sales and it paid all its 12,000 employees to spend the day outside with friends and family. How big is Black Friday? It is routinely one of the largest U.S. shopping days, both in stores and online. Adobe Digital Insights Inc. estimates that the single day in 2018 brought in $6.2 billion in online sales in the U.S. We’re completely into the #OptOutside concept at Good Earth Plant Company – we caught on in year number two and told you about it back then.… Read More

Good Day Sunshine! Jump Start Your Day Naturally

| October 2, 2019 | Categories: Biophilia, Gardening, Indoor Plants, Nature and Wellbeing, Plantscaping
What’s the first thing you do when you wake up in the morning? Hit the snooze button? Brush your teeth? Get some coffee? Check social media? Go to the gym? A survey conducted by the consulting firm Deloitte isn’t much of a surprise.  Forty-three percent of people check their phone within five minutes of waking up. Seventeen percent check immediately, some even before they get out of bed. In a study of morning rituals by management expert Laura Vanderkam and Inc. Magazine, successful people start their day with water instead of coffee, exercise, work on either a priority business project or spend time on a personal passion project, spend time with family, meditate – and one-third say they make their beds every day.… Read More

Good Earth Plant Company’s Summer Reading List – Naturally!

| August 14, 2019 | Categories: Good Earth Plant Company Tips, Nature and Wellbeing, Sustainable Living
Summer is the perfect time to read a new nature book and get inspired. Photo: Erika Wittlieb / Pixabay
Science shows us getting out and enjoying the benefits of nature will make us healthier. Reading about nature isn’t a bad idea either. How about reading a book about nature at your favorite outdoor spot? Maybe it’s the beach; maybe it’s the park. Maybe it’s a hammock in your backyard. It doesn’t matter. And we just happen to have some of our favorite nature books for you here to enjoy this summer.  Choose any of them, and then choose your favorite spot. Your Guide to Forest Bathing Amos Clifford Amos Clifford is the founder of the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy Guides and Programs.… Read More

Our Top Ten Best Plant and Nature Apps

| July 31, 2019 | Categories: Architecture and Design, Environment, Gardening, Good Earth Plant Company Tips, Nature and Wellbeing
Back when kids like me didn’t have smartphones, we used BOOKS to learn about nature. If you wanted help identifying plants or birds or animals, you used books called “field guides” to take with you to help figure out whether you were looking at a sparrow or a warbler. If you wanted to figure out where a trail would go, you used a paper map. You better not tear it, or get it wet! But now, technology has put this kind of knowledge in the palm of our hands – as long as your power doesn’t wear out and your wifi is working.… Read More

Here Come Summer – Time to Get Out!

| June 20, 2019 | Categories: Biophilia, Environment, Nature and Wellbeing
It's officially Summer 2019 - and Nature is calling you! Photo: Darius Garza / Pixabay Good Earth Plant Company
Ready or not, here comes summer! More precisely, the summer solstice. The solstice takes place at a precise point in time. This year it will be Friday morning, June 21, exactly at 8:54 a.m. PT according to the Old Farmer’s Almanac. People usually refer to the entire day when this happens as the “Summer Solstice.”  You could go to Stonehenge to visually experience the Solstice or closer – visit our client, the  Salk Institute in La Jolla.  This is the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, meaning it has the most hours of sunlight and the shortest night.… Read More

Spring Into Action: Daylight Saving Time 2019 Is Here

| March 6, 2019 | Categories: Biophilia, Environment, Indoor Plants, Nature and Wellbeing, Plantscaping
Your indoor plants might not know it's time to change the clocks to Daylight Saving Time this weekend, but they know it's spring. Photo: Riala/PixabayCC
We say days are “growing longer” when we start getting more minutes of sunshine each day. Wouldn’t it be nice if that meant we got more than 24 hours in a day? I’d even take a secret eighth day a week no one else knows about. With the generous amount of rain we’ve experienced in California and in San Diego County, it’s been harder to tell there are more daytime minutes. Maybe it’s the reason why it’s such a surprise to realize we switch to Daylight Saving Time for 2019 this weekend – Sunday, March 10.  Before going to bed on Saturday night, move your clocks forward one hour.… Read More

The Blog Posts You Read Most in 2018

| January 2, 2019 | Categories: Architecture and Design, Biophilia, Green Roofs, Living Walls, Moss Walls, Nature and Wellbeing
We enjoy putting time and thought into our weekly blog posts all year. We’re always curious what blog posts were most popular, so we can deliver more of whatever you enjoy reading most. Sometimes, you like practical advice. Other times, you want a little bit of fun.  We won’t comment on the reason why “World Naked Gardening Day” does so well EVERY year. I’m happy you continue to have interest in interior design trends affecting health and wellness, both at home and in the workplace. There are so many innovative ways now to incorporate nature and plants into your working environment including moss walls, replant plant walls, movable living wall dividers, and unique containers that are more like art pieces than simple pots.… Read More