Indoor Plants

The indoor plants (interior plants) Good Earth Plant Company will select, deliver, and install at your office or home come from the best nurseries. Our suppliers focus on plants known to survive and thrive in the relatively low light levels they will experience inside. You can be assured they are acclimated, pest free and clean on the day they arrive. Your plants will be kept that way by our gifted horticultural technicians.

The “right” plants aren’t the most popular or trendy. They’re the ones best suited to the conditions in your indoor environment. We set them up for success by matching them with the right amount of light, humidity, and temperatures.

It’s in our mission statement and it’s the entire reason for Good Earth Plant Company’s existence. We enrich peoples’ lives with plants. Research gets published almost daily reporting on the ways plants improve our physical health, our mental health, our productivity and focus, and our overall quality of life. They improve the air we breathe, improve our mood, and reduce stress.

It’s not a coincidence people added indoor plants to their homes in record numbers during the coronavirus pandemic. It was driven by our instinctual bond with nature to find ways to make ourselves feel better during very anxious times. One year later, there is still a nationwide shortage of certain favorites in the U.S. True!

We hope these ten reminders spark new enthusiasm for plants. It’s spring and it’s the perfect time to add plants to your environment both indoors and outdoors. Gardening is good for your own health and for the rest of the planet,

 

How to Water Your Plants Using Sub-Irrigation

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

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

Happy Hour: What Do Indoor Plants Like To Drink?

Drink up! Plants need water - but do our plants like to drink anything else? Photo: Pexels
After 40 years in business, we’ve learned a lot about plant care at Good Earth Plant Company, and we love to share our best tips with you. One topic never seems to get old: how much should you water your plants? More people are guilty of overwatering their plants, not underwatering them. It’s important to get this right by monitoring your plants and checking the soil. Have you ever wondered if your plants would ever like something besides water to drink? Some people use commercial liquid plant food. But what about some of the common liquids in your home?  Believe or not, the answer is – yes, sometimes!… Read More

Indoor Plants and Living Walls Are Essential Workers Too

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

Let Parks Plant the Seeds for Social Equity

Everyone needs a safe place to play in nature, especially our kids. Photo: Pexels
When I first started writing this blog 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 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. I’m now giving thought to the social equity issues surrounding nature in these times. July is National Park and Recreation Month, an initiative of the National Recreation and Park Association (NRPA). Park and recreation professionals promote a community’s health and well being through access to nature, green space, recreation, and fitness to create a lasting and positive impact on a community’s health and wellness.… Read More

Hot Tip: Add Humidity For A Healthier Office Space 

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

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

Tips for New Plant Parents

Plenty of people have brought new plants home to keep them company during the pandemic shutdown. Photo: Valeria Ushakova / Pexels
First it was toilet paper and alcohol wipes. Then it was hair color, followed by flour and yeast. During the coronavirus pandemic, people cleared the shelves of basic items they were desperate to find. Next, it was things they needed to entertain themselves, Who knew there would be a rush on baking bread at home? In the third wave, people looked around at their homes which were now also their offices and their kids’ schools and realized something important was missing. House plants! They are flying off the shelves and out of the garden centers. The National Gardening Association is fielding half a million questions a week from gardeners.… Read More

Nature Is Still Open

The South American Clivia plant in my yard is in full bloom! Photo: Jim Mumford
Has it only been a week since my last blog post? Since then, schools, stores, restaurants, bars, gyms, and many workplaces have closed down to try and stop the coronavirus pandemic from spreading. California residents like me and many other Americans are being asked to shelter in place. We are asked to stay at home except to “provide or receive essential services or engage in certain essential activities and work for essential business or government services.” For those few clients that allow us, we consider their plants and asset worth protecting and we are watering them. You can pick up groceries and prescriptions, take your dog to the vet, or put your trash out for collection.… Read More

Let’s Clear the Air

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