How to Water Your Plants Using Sub-Irrigation

Gayle Lynn Falkenthal | August 19, 2020 | Categories: Environment, Gardening, Good Earth Plant Company Tips, Indoor Plants, Plantscaping, Water and Water Conservation

Good Earth Plant Company’s advice on how to water your indoor plants hit pay dirt! Many of you read, commented, and shared the advice in our blog post last week. We are happy to help and thank you for passing our blogs on to your friends and family. The watering tips and methods we discussed all involve surface irrigation. Surface irrigation is any watering technique adding water to the soil from above the plant. Rain provides surface irrigation. But there’s one more way to water your container plants – so call this part three of our series about watering your plants.… Read More

Basic Watering Guide From Our Plant Stylists

Gayle Lynn Falkenthal | August 12, 2020 | Categories: Biophilic Design, Gardening, Good Earth Plant Company Tips, Indoor Plants, Plantscaping, Water and Water Conservation

Good Earth Plant Company's plant stylists get asked about watering more than any other topic. Photo: Torsten Dettlaff/Pexels

In last week’s blog post, we shared tips from the Good Earth Plant Company experience on whether your plants like a drink of something other than water. Readers told us they enjoyed it – and then said “But we could really use more advice about watering our indoor plants.” If there is one thing we have heard over more than 40 years as plant stylists and indoor plant technicians, it’s this. People still aren’t sure how to water their plants. Proper watering goes hand in hand with proper placement for successful indoor plants. With people spending more time inside due to the coronavirus pandemic, and more picking up plants (see below) to keep them company, we’re following up with Part 2 in our advice series.… Read More

Indoor Plants and Living Walls Are Essential Workers Too

Gayle Lynn Falkenthal | July 22, 2020 | Categories: Architecture and Design, Gardening, Indoor Plants, Living Walls, Nature and Wellbeing, Plantscaping

Horticultural technician Sophie Gonzalez hard at work wearing the new custom mask she designed!

According to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, essential workers are those who conduct a range of operations and services that are typically “essential” to continue critical infrastructure operations. Critical infrastructure is a broad term including work sectors from energy to defense to agriculture. Most people think of law enforcement, firefighters, doctors and nurses, and other types of frontline first responders as essential workers. But hasn’t your definition changed over the past few months? I bet you’ll add grocery store workers, truck drivers, caregivers, and the people who make toilet paper to this list now. There are so many unsung heroes grinding away who make things work.… Read More

Hot Tip: Add Humidity For A Healthier Office Space

Gayle Lynn Falkenthal | June 17, 2020 | Categories: Architecture and Design, Gardening, Good Earth Plant Company Tips, Indoor Plants, Nature and Wellbeing, Plantscaping

Could raising indoor air humidity by using plants help prevent the spread of COVID-19? Some scientists now think so. Photo: Daria Shevtsova / Pexels

Are you a little anxious about returning to the office? You aren’t alone. Several polls show people worry about being exposed to the coronavirus when they go back to the workplace. Depending on the poll, 60 to 75 percent of people surveyed say they’re worried about this, and worried about being exposed by their co-workers. It’s enough to make a person want to work from home forever. But this isn’t always possible or even a good idea long term. We understand how much a healthy workspace can make a difference at Good Earth Plant Company. We have been working with clients to improve the health and wellbeing of their employees and visitors in all kinds of indoor spaces for more than four decades!… Read More

Be Like Nature, My Friend

Gayle Lynn Falkenthal | June 1, 2020 | Categories: Biophilia, Biophilic Design, Environment, Indoor Plants, Nature and Wellbeing, Plantscaping

We have so much to learn from the resilience of Nature. Photo: Quinton Delman/Pixabay

Is 2020 over yet? The situation in our country and in our communities leaves me nearly speechless. It has been a rough year. First, the coronavirus hit. Second, the U.S. economy took a dive, causing unemployment so high it didn’t even seem real. Then, just as it seemed like we might get through the worse of the pandemic crisis, the senseless murder of an African-American man in Minneapolis set off a chain reaction across the U.S. of anger and hurt, including in my home town — specifically the city of La Mesa, California. Many people staged peaceful protests. Some senseless opportunists used the protests as cover to pillage innocent business owners and communities.… Read More

Let’s Clear the Air

Gayle Lynn Falkenthal | 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

Time for a Field Trip

Gayle Lynn Falkenthal | March 4, 2020 | Categories: Agriculture and Farming, Case Studies, Good Earth Plant Company

Didn’t you love class field trips when you were a kid? I know I sure did! Anything to get out of the classroom and outside to see some cool things. This hasn’t really changed much now that many of us are trapped inside offices. It’s the same clock ticking down as you try to focus when there are so many more interesting things going on outside. It even happens at Good Earth Plant Company once in a while. We forget to take time to get out and get a fresh perspective. So our design and buying team of Rachel Hecathorn and Cassidy Braddy and I took a field trip recently to two of our favorite commercial nurseries in the North Inland area of San Diego County.… Read More

Indoor Plant Trends Coming At You In 2020

Gayle Lynn Falkenthal | January 24, 2020 | Categories: Architecture and Design, Biophilic Design, Environment, Good Earth Plant Company Tips, Indoor Plants, Plantscaping

We love attending the Tropical Plants International Expo each January, and have lots of cool plant trends to share with you.

We all have our New Year traditions. Mine involves traveling across the country to join my Plantscaping industry colleagues from 45 states and 37 different countries at the Tropical Plants International Expo, AKA TPIE. It’s a blast for me to see all the new concepts and trends in indoor plant production, presentation, and design. There is so much to see, sometimes I worry whether my head might explode! (Spoiler – it didn’t happen). When you have been in business four decades, you see certain concepts and ideas recycled from time to time. We love seeing great old ideas reinvented. We also see the creative use of new technology and new designs.… Read More

Top Biophilic and Nature Design Trends for the Roaring 20s

Gayle Lynn Falkenthal | January 8, 2020 | Categories: Biophilia, Biophilic Design, Good Earth Plant Company Tips, Indoor Plants, Living Walls, Moss Walls, Sustainable Living

Pink flamingo lawn ornaments were invented in 1957. The first one had a name: Diego! Photo: Lena Svensson, Pixabay

The start of a new year would not exist the same way without the human creation of the calendar, but Nature would still let us know it’s the start of a new cycle as the days begin to slowly grow longer heading toward spring. We also feel these natural rhythms going into our 44th year in business (wow!) at Good Earth Plant Company. We look forward to seeing what’s new in our world, along with clever twists on old ideas, plus brand new concepts. We love recycling. Based on what we’re seeing and conversations with our colleagues and our customers, we’re looking forward to the following Top Plantscaping and natural design trends to start the decade of the Roaring 20s returned in 2020.… Read More

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