Trees Are a Teen’s BFF

Are you and especially your kids getting enough vitamin N - as in Nature? Good Earth Plant Company San Diego
  It wasn’t all that long ago that my son and daughter, Ted and Allie, were typical high school students, in a typical 21st century high school. But you don’t have to be a parent or a high school student to feel the impact of the recent events in Parkland, Florida and worry about our teenagers. No, this blog isn’t going to turn into a discussion about events in the news. There are plenty of other places to talk about those issues. But what I do want to talk about is what seems like an epidemic of troubled, depressed teenagers. As a parent it upsets me to see so many kids hurting.… Read More

Working A Little Plantscaping Magic In Arizona

Can you tell if these plants are real or replica?
Sometimes the best solution for one of our clients is a blend of multiple approaches in a customized design. Good Earth Plant Company recently worked with a San Diego dispensary client with locations in multiple states. For its Tempe, Arizona location, “Tend Tempe,” we needed to find ways to incorporate plants into their facility where the conditions weren’t optimal. Working with Basille Studios on the details, we decided a blend of real and replica (or “faux”) plants would work best. An “illusion” was created with our materials. Where there was enough light and/or enough access to provide ongoing maintenance, we used living plants.… Read More

Calling All Tree Huggers: Fans Rally Behind Pando

In last week’s blog post, I wrote about the world’s largest living plants. Thanks for all the positive feedback. Several readers pointed out an important entry for out list we’d missed, and I’m glad they did. We get some of our best blog posts from your suggestions! It is worth a blog post all to itself: the Utah aspen grove now believed to be the world’s largest living organism. It’s so big and utterly unique, it’s been given a name: Pando. Pando is Latin for “I Spread.” Botanist Burton Barnes from the University of Michigan – Ann Arbor gave this aspen grove its name.… Read More

Jim Mumford Featured in San Diego Home/Garden Lifestyles Magazine

Our Eco-Warrior in Chief, Founder and President of Good Earth Plant Company Jim Mumford, is featured in the February 2018 issue of the award-winning San Diego Home/Garden Lifestyles Magazine. Jim participated in the “Dialogue” feature, a question and answer interview about his background as a plantscaper, Certified Landscape Professional and Green Roof Professional; his San Diego based business and its history; his living wall, green roof, and moss wall projects; and his advocacy for the WELL Building Standard and implementing the principles of biophilia and biophilic design in our every day lives where we live, work, and play. You can read the interview below.… Read More

Good Earth Plants Thinks Big: World’s Largest Plants

The Hyperion tree is the tallest tree in the world.
Regular readers of my blog know how much I love trees. The simple act of planting a tree is one of the most valuable things you can do for the planet. One of my first blog posts ever (in 2013) was about treehouses. In 2015, it upset me to learn Caltrans was cutting down mature trees to make way for freeway expansion. So I was happy to hear about plans to protect the health of Balboa Park’s huge Moreton Bay Fig tree next to the Natural History Museum. This tree and I go back a long way. One of my only real jobs before opening Good Earth Plants was working for the Natural History Museum, where I took admission tickets.… Read More

Amazon Goes Big With Biophilia: The Spheres Are Open

Amazon sphere
Seven years, 600 people, 40,000 plants from 300 species, and one really big Ficus tree later, the Amazon Spheres opened this week in the Denny Triangle neighborhood of Seattle. Public officials made speeches, people got their thank yous, and ribbons were cut. Because it’s Amazon, founder and CEO Jeff Bezos did the final honors with the help of Alexa, by saying “Alexa, open The Spheres.” For an Eco-Warrior and biophilic design advocate like me, something like this gets me as geeked out excited as the most hardcore costume wearing fans at Comic-Con. We wrote about the project under construction in 2016.… Read More