The confetti and streamers are finally cleaned up, the holiday decorations (mostly) put away for another year. It’s time to begin 2017 with a clean slate. Doesn’t that feel good?

It’s also a good time to look back, take stock, make some observations and learn some lessons. Applied to this blog, we try to provide useful, informative, and sometimes just plain enjoyable information. How do we know if we’re doing a good job?

Thanks to technology, we know when people are clicking on our website and reading blog posts, not just the most recent post but every single blog post we’ve ever published. After blogging weekly (almost) for five years (holy cow), we have a pretty good idea of what you like to read, for whatever reason. But once in a while you still surprise us. We love it.

Here’s our list of the Top Ten Most Read Good Earth Plant Company Blog Posts of 2016, in order:
Prove It: Plants in The Workplace Show Major Benefits
Halloween: Our Favorite Biophilic Holiday
Getting Rid of the Fungus Gnats Among Us
Helping Homeless San Diegans One Plant at a Time
Cool Moss Walls are the Hot Trend in Green Living
Healing and Growing with Horticultural Therapy
Water Your Trees Like Mother Nature Would Water Them
Bringing Nature Into the Workplace Top Trend for 2016
Living Walls With An International Twist
Don’t Read This Blog Post and You’ll Be Happier

Five of our top posts including two of the top three were also on the Top Ten List in 2015. The most popular article this year has been consistently in our top five since it was first written in March 2014. It was the first time we made the strong scientific case for incorporating nature through plants into the workplace, and the many benefits human beings gain from this simple effort. Over the last three years, if anything the evidence is growing stronger. People are interested and they are looking for information on this topic. We’re happy you found it on our website, and this is something we promise we will continue to write about (and talk about) in 2017.

Drop down to the eighth most popular post, which reinforces my observation that people are hungry for this information. This was our “Workplace Trends” blog post for 2016, and we identified your interest in bringing nature into the workplace as the number one trend in workplace design. It’s nice to know we were right, and it shows no signs of stopping which makes us very happy at Good Earth Plant Company.

The other top returning blog post from last year is one of the two posts providing good advice for some common plant care challenges. Who knew when we wrote a blog post in response to an exasperated reader question about fighting the fungus gnat that it would be so useful to so many people? It seems like the fungus gnat war is still raging.

Although we’ve welcomed rain in the San Diego region lately, we are still facing ongoing drought in California. So our blog post about the most efficient way to water your trees hit out Top Ten for the second year in a row.

The top new blog post for 2016 is a surprise to me. It caught fire via the social media website “Stumble Upon,” where people find and share articles and blog posts they like. It was our post about Halloween’s origins as a holiday from nature. We have a lot of fun with pumpkins in October. Good Earth Plant Company wanted to encourage you to also take a minute to recognize the importance of the humble pumpkin as a symbol of how deeply human beings still relate to nature and still need their dose of nature in our everyday lives. And you did!

We also received an outpouring of interest in our work with the Alpha Project, and our donation of plants to the organization’s homeless clients being provided services to help them leave the streets. It made such an impact on all of us to see how much our very small gesture meant to these grateful, smiling people eager to pick up an orchid and care for it, a tiny bit of nature just for themselves. I’m glad our blog post and the photos of our recipients impacted you in a positive way, too. Stay tuned; we intend to make this program a regular effort by Good Earth Plant Company in 2017.

We wrote about moss walls, the hottest trend right now in Plantscaping and workplace design, and believe me it is not slowing down one bit. We’ll share our latest projects with you and hope they inspire you in some way, or just bring a bright note to your day.

We shared the story of our friend and colleague Laura Eubanks, who has turned her own personal experience with horticultural therapy into a thriving landscape design business. She won an award recognizing her success and we could not be happier for Laura.

Rounding out our Top Ten is another old favorite, photos of spectacular living wall projects from around the world. These dazzling pictures never get old.

Finally, I admit the last blog post making our Top Ten participated in a little bit of clickbait with our headline. We had a serious point when we told people “not” to read our blog post. It was all about the need for connection, and too many times we think clicking “like” on someone’s social media post substitutes for the real connection we need with people and places too, where we derive our highest best happiness and selves.

So now we have a little bit of a road map for 2017 by looking back. We promise to keep filling our blog with information and entertainment, and a little bit of humor and fun every once in a while.

We would love to hear from you. We take requests so email us! Remember, our fungus gnats advice was a response to a reader question. If our posts are useful or entertaining to you, please share them on your own social media channels with friends and family.