Blog

Two decades after Jim Mumford opened Good Earth Plant Company in 1977, something called “the internet” would change how business was done.

Mumford has always been eager to share his experience with plants and advocate for enriching peoples’ lives with plants and with nature. With the help of his first company website, Mumford began a blog. At first, there were only a handful of posts. Often they were about speaking engagements or media appearances. But by 2012, Mumford began regular weekly posts, and with just a few exceptions hasn’t missed a week since then.

Mumford’s advocacy for bringing nature closer and enriching peoples’ lives with plants is central to his business and personal success and his blog is one of his most important outreach and educational tools.

His weekly blog has been named the “Best Topic-Based Blog” by the San Diego Press Club for five years (2018 through 2022) in competition with full-time professional journalists.

 

Sustainable Design Ideas for San Diego Stormwater

Green Roof Salesforce Park in San Francisco. Photo: Greenroofs.com
  Amid the megadrought, the worst drought to hit California in 1200+ years, we are now experiencing a Pacific storm with the terrifying name of a bomb cyclone. And while the atmospheric river it’s bringing with it sounds poetic, it’s anything but. This brutal storm is bringing heavy rains, damaging winds and subsequent flooding to parts of California. In San Diego County, we’re experiencing rains and winds that may lead to major flood events in some areas. Over the last decade, flooding has caused millions of dollars in property damage, even in times of average seasonal rainstorms. (source: San Diego Co Public Works) San Diego is a coastal desert.… Read More

Golf and Nature: A Winning Partnership

We know San Diego's own Phil Mickelson gives Nature a thumbs up. Golf and Nature
San Diego enjoyed a red hot day for sports last Sunday. Between Fernando Tatis Jr. of the Padres smoking another grand slam out of the stands and golfer Phil Mickelson winning the US Open, it was a good day to be on the couch enjoying their accomplishments. You don’t have to be a big fan of professional golf to know and like Phil Mickelson, who’s from San Diego. He didn’t escape to Texas or Florida like most other golfers to evade California taxes. He and his family still call Rancho Santa Fe home. His win last week made history. He is the oldest person to win a major golf tournament at age 50.… Read More

It’s Natural to Love St. Patrick’s Day

You don’t have to be Irish (or part Irish like me) to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day on Friday, March 17. We love any occasion focusing on things that are green! March 17 is the date of St. Patrick’s death. Yes, he was a real person. For many years St. Patrick’s Day was a serious religious holiday in Ireland, honoring the man who converted Ireland to Catholicism and who also reportedly “drove the snakes out of Ireland.” This is a historical headscratcher, because there are no snakes native to Ireland. Some historians now believe “snakes” refers to the ancient Pagans, especially the Druids who practiced the dominant spiritual belief in Ireland before the arrival of Christianity.… Read More

Catch Up With Top Reader Recommended Blog Posts

Catch up with our top blog posts so far for 2016 on topics including stormwater pollution, nature and well-being, and how to recognize and treat seasonal affective disorder (SAD). If you aren’t receiving our newsletter, sign up here on our home page. We don’t sell your information or spam you, and you can unsubscribe anytime. We don’t like spam either!  

Good Earth Plants’ Ten Most Popular Blog Topics

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

It’s a Picnic Working at Good Earth Plants & GreenScaped Buildings

The Frisbee golfers of Good Earth Plants & GreenScaped Buildings.
At Good Earth Plants and GreenScaped Buildings we know that you can’t have a great company without great employees. It is part of our value statement to have fun working together. At our annual company picnic this year, we took a little time off to enjoy each other’s company and celebrate what a great year it has been thanks to you, our customers. When we aren’t providing our clients with beautiful plants, living walls, and green roofs, we are all taking a break to refresh and regenerate, just as Nature intended. Morley Field in beautiful Balboa Park was the natural setting for our company picnic this year.… Read More

Joan Rivers, My Tree, and Remembering A Class Act

Joan Rivers publicity photo, 1980s.
The world said goodbye to Joan Rivers at a memorial service in New York this weekend.  Famous names like Howard Stern Whoopi Goldberg, Rosie O’Donnell, Dr. Mehmet Oz, Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick, Diane Sawyer, Donald J. Trump and Barbara Walters remembered Joan and paid their respects. I would like to remember Joan Rivers and pay my respects, too. Very early in my career, about 1980, I got a call from concert promoter Avalon Attractions. Joan Rivers was coming to San Diego to perform a couple of shows at Golden Hall downtown. Avalon staff wanted to rent some larger trees as stage decor, along with purchasing small ferns and flowering mum plants.… Read More

What do you think of our new look? GEP/GSB New Website!

New Good Earth Plant Company and GreenScaped Buildings website
  What do you think of our new look? Good Earth Plant Company and GreenScaped Buildings launched a new combined version of our website this weekend. Since we designed our original websites for each company, we’re into a lot of new things and there is new technology letting us share it with you. The timing was just right. The new website also allows us to bring together our two branches in one place: Good Earth Plant Company and GreenScaped Buildings. The businesses will continue to focus on their specific areas of expertise, but our clients can find all the information they need about every aspect of what we do in one place.… Read More