plants

In Business, Green is Good

| August 17, 2017 | Categories: Architecture and Design, Biophilic Design, Case Studies, Environment, Indoor Plants, Nature and Wellbeing, Plantscaping
  When did you last spend time outdoors? You might think everyone is outside enjoying summer weather and school vacations.  In San Diego, there’s hardly a day all year when you can’t be outside in short sleeves (or less). Buried in a report by the Environmental Protection Agency from 1989 is this shocking statistic: people in industrialized countries include the U.S. and Europe  spend more than 90 percent of their time indoors. Specifically, people spend 93 percent of their time indoors, with anther five percent in transit in a car or public transportation, and just two percent outside. I’d like to think this number is lower in San Diego, but even if it’s 80 percent, it’s still a sobering reality.… Read More

Hiring an Interior Plantscaping Service?

| August 3, 2017 | Categories: Case Studies, Good Earth Plant Company Tips, Nature and Wellbeing, Plantscaping
Good Earth Plant horticultural technicians Carlos and Marco install plants at the Alpha Project in San Diego serving homeless..
You’ve admired or flat out envied the beautiful plants in other offices, and you’ve read all about the many benefits of interior Plantscaping. So you have decided it’s time to improve your business or organization’s workspaces and hire a professional to help you. You’ve made a great decision. Even if this wasn’t the way I’ve earned a living for close to 40 years, I’d be just as enthusiastic about all the benefits you, your employees, and your customers and guests will enjoy as a result. Now in addition to everything else on your plate at work, you’re probably wondering how exactly how to go about hiring the right company to create the perfect green spaces in your home, office or building.… Read More

Top Ten Indoor Plants Safe for Your Pets

| July 13, 2017 | Categories: Biophilia, Environment, Gardening, Good Earth Plant Company Tips, Indoor Plants, Plantscaping
Americans love their pets. They’re family to many of us. It’s estimated that 78 million dogs and 85.8 million cats are owned in the United States. Approximately 44% of all households in the U.S. have a dog, and 35% have a cat. When your animals are your family, keeping them safe becomes a top priority. When you’re making your home pet-friendly and pet-safe, be sure you take your houseplants into consideration. While I’ve owned many dogs and cats and never had a problem, it’s a big enough concern to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) to maintain information at its national Animal PoisonControl center about toxic plants.… Read More

Words of Wisdom from the Dalai Lama

| June 22, 2017 | Categories: Biophilia, Environment, Living Walls, Nature and Wellbeing, Plantscaping, Sustainable Living
Most people know Good Earth Plant Company for our living walls, green roofs, and other major projects. But we got our start 40 years ago on a much smaller scale. Our core business for many years is providing Interior Plantscaping services to offices, homes and other buildings, bringing nature indoors for people to enjoy. Early on, I recognized that San Diego didn’t have a firm that did short term plant rentals, so I started one. We used to have contracts with all of the local concert and event producers. Our all-time favorite was the late great Joan Rivers. We’ve also provided stage plants for comedian Robin Williams, Neil Diamond, ZZ Top and Jimmy Buffett among others.… 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

Remember This One Good Thing About Office Plants

| June 8, 2017 | Categories: Architecture and Design, Case Studies, Indoor Plants, Nature and Wellbeing, Plantscaping
When exactly did “multitasking” become a thing? It might have been when we all first got computers on our desks. It happened for sure when we all started having those little computers called smartphones in our hands all the time. The word actually existed in the 1960s as an engineering term, but computer processing made it popular in the 1990s. People brag about how great they are at multitasking, especially at work. After 20 years the laugh is on us, because we’ve learned thanks to scientific studies there is really no such thing as multitasking. What we are all doing is task switching.… Read More

Reduce Workplace Distractions with Plants

| May 18, 2017 | Categories: Architecture and Design, Biophilic Design, Good Earth Plant Company Tips, Living Walls, Nature and Wellbeing, Plantscaping
People working in an office with lots of plants.
Companies were quick to jump on board the open office design trend when it first showed up in the 1990s. Busting down the doors created community and encouraged creativity. People also needed less workspace thanks to technology. No one needed a huge computer workstation anymore when a laptop or even a tablet or phone would do. By opening up office space and shrinking the average workstation, companies could also save a lot of money on their office leases. The result: the International Facilities Managers Association says 70 percent of all workplaces today have some kind of open office design. In the 20 plus years since the walls came down, workplace efficiency experts have learned a lot – mainly that the pendulum swung a little too far and some corrections are needed.… 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

Six Mistakes You’re Making With Your Indoor Plants

| April 13, 2017 | Categories: Gardening, Good Earth Plant Company Tips, Indoor Plants, Plantscaping
Mistakes, we’ve all made a few (with apologies to Frank Sinatra). If I was writing about my OWN mistakes, this blog post would be a novel. Some very big mistakes have made the news recently. I haven’t made any quite that big and I’m sure you haven’t either. But I bet you ARE making some mistakes caring for your indoor plants. The most important thing about making a mistake is recognizing it, and learning from it. And not repeating it. These are everyday principles to our horticultural service technicians at Good Earth Plant Company but we all had to learn these things too.… Read More

No Surprise: More Evidence You Need Nature for Good Health

| March 30, 2017 | Categories: Biophilia, Nature and Wellbeing, Sustainable Living
While Americans have watched efforts to improve our natural healthcare system stall (and that’s as much as I care to mention about politics, I promise), I ran across a new European study offering great advice on something we can all do to improve our health right now. Plant a tree. People living in European nations face a lot of the same health problems we do in the United States: obesity, mental health disorders, and negative effects from pollution. On top of this is the stress and impact of living in our typical urban environments in cities. A team of researchers at the Institute for European Environmental Policy spent a year reviewing more than 200 academic studies on health outcomes to see if there were common findings and recommendations.… Read More