plantscaping

Honor Mom the Good Earth Plants Way on Mother’s Day

| May 4, 2016 | Categories: Good Earth Plant Company Tips, Indoor Plants, Living Walls, Plantscaping
Three generations of Mumfords together at La Jolla Shores celebrating Mother's Day in better times, May 2016: (L to R) daughter Allie, Mom, and yours truly.
For those of you who aren’t aware, let me save you from being in the doghouse with Mom the rest of the year. Sunday, May 8 is Mother’s Day. You’re welcome. It’s really hard to miss it if you’re exposed to any kind of advertising. We have been bombarded for two months with advertising reminding us to buy those flowers, chocolates, and greeting cards to honor Mom. I’ve written before about the crazy time for florists at Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day is even crazier when it comes to flowers. The Society of American Florist reports Mother’s Day is the second largest flower holiday, accounting for 24 percent of all flowers sent annually – yes, one in four floral purchases all year long is for Mother’s Day.… Read More

Good Earth Plants Helps Your Great Ideas Grow

| April 21, 2016 | Categories: Architecture and Design, Biophilic Design, Environment, Indoor Plants, Nature and Wellbeing, Plantscaping, Sustainable Living
We can't function well mentally or physically when we are breathing oxygen depleted air. Adding plants to your indoor environment can help a lot. Good Earth Plants can help!
Many of us don’t have labor-intensive jobs, as in the kind of physical work leaving you tired and sore at the end of the day. Our version of heavy lifting gets done mentally, whether we are crunching numbers, crafting communication, or even shooting YouTube videos. But we’re still dependent on a productive and safe environment where we can breathe deeply and let oxygen fuel our brains. Did you know your brain consumes 20 percent of all the oxygen that enters your bloodstream through breathing, but it only makes up two percent of your total body mass? This means your brain uses ten times more oxygen than the rest of your body.… Read More

Workplace Green Goes a Long Way with Employees

| April 7, 2016 | Categories: Architecture and Design, Case Studies, Green Roofs, Indoor Plants, Living Walls, Nature and Wellbeing, Plantscaping, Sustainable Living
Introducing gardens and other natural elements to urban workspaces produces a greater return on investment than other employee perks. Photo Courtesy Karen Contreras, Urban Plantations
We’re all spending a lot more time at work, as much as half our waking hours. So making your workplace a more comfortable and fun place to be makes sense. Keeping employees happy means they’ll be more productive and less likely to look for a new job somewhere else. But doesn’t it seem though like workplace trends have gone a bit weird lately? Just when we all got used to the idea of bringing your dog to work, some of the perks I’ve read about are downright wacky. How about working somewhere with a fully stocked game room from PlayStations to board games like Monopoly and Sorry?… Read More

Don’t Read This Blog Post and You’ll Be Happier

| March 30, 2016 | Categories: Biophilia, Indoor Plants, Nature and Wellbeing, Sustainable Living
Happiness and what makes people happier has always been a keen interest of mine. You might think it’s because I started my career in Plantscaping and green building working in a flower shop. Because flowers make people happy, right? It actually goes back even further for me, a generation further to be exact. My father, Bob, has always loved nature and it definitely rubbed off on me. When he took up nature photography as a serious hobby and then a second profession, it reinforced all those lessons from my childhood. Check out his website here, you’ll love it as much as I do.… Read More

Explore What’s New at Good Earth Plant Company’s Spring Open House

| February 29, 2016 | Categories: Gardening, Good Earth Plant Company, Indoor Plants
Come tour our Living Lab at the Good Earth Plant Company Spring 2016 Open House on May 6.
You’re invited to come see what Good Earth Plant Company and GreenScaped Buildings has to offer at our Spring Open House and Plant Sale on Friday, May 6, from 1 to 4 p.m. See the latest green roof and living wall technology, check out edible gardens, a small aquaponic systems and exciting new innovations at our living lab in Kearny Mesa. Ask questions and see if you can stump our experts! We also offer the opportunity to purchase nursery grade plants and pots at unbelievably discounted prices. There is no cost, but please RSVP to [email protected] Everyone on our guest list will receive a free plant at the door.… Read More

Sharing My Super Power With You

| February 25, 2016 | Categories: Architecture and Design, Good Earth Plant Company Tips, Living Walls, Plantscaping
Jim Mumford, AKA the Eco-Warrior Photoshop artwork by Theodore Mumford
Mary Golden of the Golden Group recently interviewed me for a Plantscaping industry blog, and the result was published earlier this week. It gave me an opportunity to talk about some of my favorite topics, the same ones I write about here: Biophilia, innovations in living walls like the spectacular wall in the Birmingham, Alabama airport, and the future of our business. Mary asked me a question I didn’t expect: What is your super power? I gave her this answer: “It’s a combination – being engaged in; my industry, the community, developers, architects and designers, paying attention, watching for opportunity and perseverance.… Read More

Good Earth Plants’ Ten Most Popular Blog Topics

| February 18, 2016 | Categories: Blog, Good Earth Plant Company Tips, Indoor Plants, Living Walls, Plantscaping, Sustainable Living
Find out which of our nearly 200 Good Earth Plant Company blog posts made our Top Ten List.
When you are in business it’s vital to listen to feedback from your clients to learn what’s working, what’s not working, and where you can improve. Let me tell you, sometimes it can be painful! But it is necessary. When I first started as a florist in the Plantscaping industry nearly four decades ago, we didn’t have any posts, tweets, snaps or chats to help us gather feedback. We had to get it the old fashioned way – by actually talking to people. In person! I won’t claim I walked several miles uphill through the snow to do it. Today, there is no excuse for anyone in business not to make at least a minimum effort to gather feedback and use it to improve products and services.… Read More

Good Earth Plants New Year’s Resolution for 2016: Take A Breath

| December 30, 2015 | Categories: Environment, Good Earth Plant Company Tips, Green Roofs, Living Walls, Sustainable Living
Are you thinking about your New Year’s Resolution for 2016? You are in good company. Forty five percent of all Americans make at least one resolution. If you’re struggling with your resolution, blame the Babylonians. Four thousand years ago, they made promises to their gods hoping to win their favor in the coming year. Their most common pledge: to get debt free. Today, the most common resolutions have to do with health: losing weight, exercising more, eating healthier, drinking less alcohol, quitting smoking, and managing stress (source: Marist University poll). Only half of us are still keeping our resolution six months later.… Read More

Bringing Nature into The Workplace Tops Design Trends for 2016

| December 16, 2015 | Categories: Architecture and Design, Biophilic Design, Good Earth Plant Company Tips, Sustainable Living
For more than 38 years, Good Earth Plant Company has made it our mission to bring the beauty, health, well-being and environmental benefits of living plants and nature into your life. We started out as florists and our business grew into providing interior plantscaping design and service to many of the leading workspaces in the San Diego region. As technology has improved and as thinking has evolved about the importance of humanizing our workspaces by bringing the “outside” inside, we have eagerly embraced living walls, green roofs, and other creative natural structures along with container plants and other traditional interiorscape designs at restaurants, upscale hotels, shopping centers, universities, hospitals, corporate headquarters, schools and nonprofits throughout Southern California and the nation.… Read More

Have a Green Christmas with These Tips

| December 12, 2015 | Categories: Good Earth Plant Company Tips, Indoor Plants, Sustainable Living
From Thanksgiving to New Year’s Day, household waste increases by more than 25 percent according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Where do you think all this extra trash ends up? You got it, mostly in landfills. An additional one million tons of waste hits American landfills every WEEK of the holiday season. It’s mainly food, shopping bags, product packaging and wrapping paper. Your San Diego Eco-Warrior is here with a few tips from Good Earth Plants to help you do your part to recycle, reduce and reuse. Consider it your Christmas gift to Mother Nature. Let your fingers do the shopping.… Read More