San Diego

Good Earth Plants Holiday Myth Busting

| December 4, 2015 | Categories: Good Earth Plant Company Tips, Indoor Plants, Plantscaping, Sustainable Living
Many myths circulate at Christmastime, and several of them deal with our favorite holiday theme plants. The Good Earth Plants Eco-Warrior is here with his Myth Busters hat on to help you out by spreading the true dirt. Myth 1: Poinsettias are poisonous. NO, poinsettias are NOT poisonous! It has been a real battle to bust this myth. Some sources attribute the rumor to a 1919 poisoning case in Hawaii that led to the death of a two year-old child. At the time, the cause of the poisoning was incorrectly determined to be a poinsettia leaf. Poison control centers nationwide say a child or pet weighing 50 pounds would have to eat 500 poinsettia leaves to even start being affected, and that might be due to plant overload versus outright poisoning.… Read More

Join the #OptOutside Movement on Black Friday

| November 25, 2015 | Categories: Biophilia, Environment, Good Earth Plant Company, Indoor Plants, Nature and Wellbeing, Sustainable Living
Recently it seems like we barely get to clear the Thanksgiving dinner table before the madness known as Black Friday hits us. So I was one of many people who loved REI’s announcement on October 27 it would not just close its stores in Black Friday and give their 12,000 employees the day off, but it would also encourage all of them to enjoy outdoor activities with family and friends. What a concept, putting Nature at the center of your Thanksgiving holiday. We could all use a reason to burn some calories after chowing down Thursday night. I’m not naïve enough to think there wasn’t a bit of public relations genius behind this.… Read More

Prescribing Nature as the Cure: Ecotherapy

| October 23, 2015 | Categories: Biophilia, Gardening, Good Earth Plant Company Tips, Nature and Wellbeing, Sustainable Living
Human beings need exposure to nature for their physical and mental health.
When I first started writing this blog over two years ago in 2013, one of the first topics I wrote about was the concept of biophilia, the study of the connection between human beings and nature. I’m sure a lot of people thought the idea was a little “out there.” We have come a long way in thinking about how nature affects our well-being in that time. This month, the respected magazine The Atlantic published an article called “The Nature Cure.” It is all about the growing practice of medical professionals including mental health specialists actually prescribing nature to their patients to help treat their ills.… Read More

Get Fresh Ideas at the Good Earth Plants Fall Open House on Friday, October 16

| October 13, 2015 | Categories: Environment, Good Earth Plant Company, Green Roofs, Indoor Plants, Living Walls, Plantscaping, Sustainable Living
In San Diego we are blessed to enjoy the last bits of summer weather almost until Halloween. Good Earth Plant Company loves to take advantage of this with our annual Fall Open House every year in the middle of October. This year, our 2015 Fall Open House and Plant Sale at our warehouse and demo garden takes place Friday October 16, from 2:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. The Open House takes place at our headquarters, 7922 Armour Street in San Diego. See a map here. What’s behind our invitation to you? Everyone at Good Earth Plant Company is very proud of the work we do, and we love to share what we are about.… Read More

Let’s Talk Sustainability in San Diego at the 2015 Green Building Conference & Expo

| August 27, 2015 | Categories: Architecture and Design, Environment, Good Earth Plant Company, Indoor Plants, Living Walls, Sustainable Living
The Good Earth Plant Company living wall at the SDGE Energy Innovation Center is one of our favorite projects. See it at the USGBC Green Building Expo on September 22.
One of the silver linings of our current drought in San Diego is that it has gotten more people thinking about sustainability and the big picture issues surrounding our use of water and other natural resources. This is a great thing! Thinking leads to talking, and talking leads to doing something. The more we start integrating cutting edge sustainability strategies into San Diego’s buildings, homes, and communities, the more we can improve our well-being. This is something I write about a lot on this blog. In September, I’ll get a chance to talk about it at the third annual San Diego Green Building Conference on Saturday, September 22 at the SDG&E Energy Innovation Center.… Read More

Water Your Trees Like Mother Nature Would

| August 6, 2015 | Categories: Environment, Gardening, Good Earth Plant Company Tips, Indoor Plants, Water and Water Conservation
Using a bucket as a drip irrigation system works well with trees. Be sure to cover the bucket to prevent accidents with children. Photo: Courtesy Goleta Water District
Two weeks ago, I wrote in this blog about our drought and the importance of preserving our trees. Go ahead and let your lawn turn brown. If you can only afford to water one thing in your yard, water your trees. One of my Good Earth Plants blog readers (thank you!) asked, “What is the best way to water my trees so they get the most water? Is there a trick to it?” We love smart questions and we will answer it here. Since we can’t always count on Mother Nature watering our trees in a Mediterranean climate during a drought, we need to help.… Read More

What Have You Done For Me Lately?

| July 9, 2015 | Categories: Good Earth Plant Company, Green Roofs, Indoor Plants, Sustainable Living
It's a small step in the right direction toward preserving our planet's resources.
Some days the news is a little hard to take, full of reports about shootings, natural disasters, and drought. I thought I would write about it, but then I realized the topic seemed familiar. Check out this blog post I wrote two years ago this month. Not much has changed, has it? The location of the shootings is different, that is about it. As for our weather, it only seems to get drier and hotter. My observations and my advice then wouldn’t change now either. We know what needs to be done and we have many of the solutions at our fingertips, even more than we did two years ago.… Read More

Living Walls With An International Twist

| June 18, 2015 | Categories: Architecture and Design, Living Walls, Plantscaping, Sustainable Living
Our first living wall made out of preserved moss panels imported from Italy. Photo: GreenScaped Buildings
Even though we’ve been installing living walls and vertical gardens in many forms for nearly ten years, there is always something new to learn and to work with. GreenScaped Buildings installed its first ever project this month using preserved “moss” panels. These panels are imported from Italy, and there isn’t anything else like them. They are fire retardant, preserved and super easy to care for. The panels are actually made of preserved lichens. Lichens are composite organisms, which include the properties of simple algae and fungi. They are similar to mosses but don’t have stems or leaves. The lichen is collected without any damage to the vegetation or environment and is hand applied to the panel backing.… Read More

San Diego Downtown News: ‘Living Walls bring life to the city’

| June 9, 2015 | Categories: Case Studies, Living Walls, Media Coverage
The 2017 Pantone Color of the Year "Greenery" is in nearly all our projects, like the living wall at the Thomas Jefferson School of Law in the East Village area of downtown San Diego.
A recent article by Delle Willett in the San Diego Downtown News showcases several of our living wall projects in Downtown San Diego. It’s terrific to see how developers and building owners are integrating nature into the urban environment. Living walls are now featured in (or on) upper-end hotels and restaurants, designer retail stores, chic spas, exclusive clubs — basically any place looking for distinction, something that makes them stand out from their competitors. Good Earth Plant Company and GreenScaped Buildings is happy to help them stand out! Included in the article are our walls for the law firm of Procopio, Cory, Hargreaves & Savitch, LLP; the Westgate Hotel; the newly opened Urbana rental flats in East Village; and the Thomas Jefferson School of Law, which we built in 2011 and is still the biggest living wall in San Diego.… Read More

Going Green to Keep the Chargers in San Diego

| April 30, 2015 | Categories: Architecture and Design, Green Roofs, Sustainable Living
If we want to keep the Chargers in San Diego, time to think green.
The fate of the San Diego Chargers dominates the news these days. Even though we have been talking about a new stadium for 15 years, the situation became urgent when the clock started ticking down on proposals to the north in Los Angeles and in Carson to lure the team away from San Diego. It all boils down to money. How will we pay for a new stadium, wherever it ends up? We all know development could pay for it, but who wants to pave over more of the city or add more cars to the roads? No one’s gotten around to asking me, and that’s too bad because I have the perfect plan to keep the Chargers in town.… Read More