plants

World Naked Gardening Day 2021 is Here!

| April 28, 2021 | Categories: Biophilia, Environment, Gardening, Good Earth Plant Company Tips, Nature and Wellbeing
Grab your tools and get outside for World Naked Gardening Day 2021 this Saturday, May 1. Photo: Jim Mumford
Thank you, Mother Nature. Summer temperatures are ahead for Southern California this weekend, just in time for one of our favorite days all year. Yes, Saturday is the 17th annual World Naked Gardening Day! More good timing: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) revised its guidance this week on COVID-19 mask guidelines. Fully vaccinated people don’t need to wear a mask outdoors. At home, you don’t need a mask outside, of course. Great news for the 30% of us who are fully vaccinated. When we first found out about WNGD several years ago at Good Earth Plant Company, we got a big laugh out of it.… Read More

Plants Matter: Our Ten Reasons Why

| April 7, 2021 | Categories: Architecture and Design, Biophilia, Indoor Plants, Nature and Wellbeing, Plantscaping
From avocados to zucchini, plants are the basis for all foods humans consume. Photo: Any Lane/Pexels Plants Matter
Food Are you reading this over a meal or snack? Without plants, forget having anything to eat. Every single one of the calories in proteins, fats, and carbohydrates we consume comes from plants. Yes, this includes meat, because animals we consume as food eat plants. Plants use the energy created from photosynthesis to convert carbon-dioxide to complex molecules animals including people eat for food. It hardly gets more basic than this! But we have nine more reasons to go. Oxygen Hold your breath. You probably can’t do it for more than a few minutes. Life on Earth depends on oxygen, and that oxygen comes mostly from plants, which generate oxygen as a byproduct of photosynthesis.… Read More

Heart Shaped Plants for Valentine’s Day

| February 10, 2021 | Categories: Gardening, Good Earth Plant Company Tips, Indoor Plants, Plantscaping
At Good Earth Plant Company, we love flowers any time of year. But TBH, we love them even more if they aren’t cut flowers. Flowers are renewable at least, but they don’t last. It’s also true I’m still a little traumatized 40 years later after the early years when Good Earth Plants & Flowers went a little crazy this week. And with only two helpers, we did over three months’ business in two days. Instead, lean into the pandemic craze for indoor plants and support your favorite local nursery by purchasing a heart-shaped plant. You know it will fit, it’s perfect at any age, it suits everyone’s diet, and your recipient is guaranteed to love it.… Read More

Planting Seeds During Black History Month

| February 3, 2021 | Categories: Agriculture and Farming, Architecture and Design, Awards & Achievements, Environment, Nature and Wellbeing, Sustainable Living
Mother Nature is diverse, inclusive, and accessible. It’s only when human beings get involved that we put up barriers due to systemic racism. It’s important to us at Good Earth Plant Company to use our platform to celebrate the contributions of Black Americans to horticulture and gardening during Black History Month 2021. Here are some of our favorite resources for you to explore this topic with us, and we know you’ll be inspired as much as we are. Black agriculture pioneers: Most people know the name George Washington Carver. Dr. Carver was an agricultural scientist at Tuskegee University in Alabama. By the time of his death in 1943 he was the single most important Black scientist of the 20th Century.… Read More

You Can’t Get a Good Plant Stylist Down: 2021’s Top Design Trends

| January 20, 2021 | Categories: Architecture and Design, Biophilic Design, Case Studies, Indoor Plants, Plantscaping
The post pandemic office will be filled with light and plants when employees return in 2021. Phjoto: Valeria Boltneva plant stylist
Can you think back to this same time in 2020? It’s easy for me. It’s the week of my favorite New Year tradition, even if it’s three weeks late. Normally I’m traveling across the country to join my Plantscaping industry colleagues from 45 states and 37 different Florida countries at the Tropical Plants International Expo, AKA TPIE. Seeing all the new concepts and trends in indoor plant production, presentation, and design gets everyone at Good Earth Plant Company energized for the year ahead. When the show is over, I can’t wait to get back to work for our clients. Even after four decades in business, it doesn’t get old.… Read More

Nature Naturally Leads 2021 Top Design Trends

| January 13, 2021 | Categories: Architecture and Design, Biophilic Design, Good Earth Plant Company Tips, Nature and Wellbeing, Plantscaping
Our project for Deloitte features indoor plants as design elements. Photo: Jim Mumford
Nature lets us know it’s the start of a new year, even without a paper calendar. Our journey toward spring begins as the days slowly grow longer and warmer, although it’s a pretty subtle change at our home base in San Diego. It only makes you look a little harder and become more aware. It also means it’s time for the Eco Warriors at Good Earth Plant Company to predict the 2021 top trends in plant styling and biophilic design trends for the year ahead. But this year isn’t like any other year. We are still reeling from a year like no other we’ve experienced going into our 44th (WOW!)… Read More

Top Plant Care Tips From Good Earth Pros

| December 2, 2020 | Categories: Good Earth Plant Company Tips, Indoor Plants, Plantscaping
Our horticultural technicians at Good Earth Plant Company are smarter than a fifth grader when it comes to taking care of plants. Photo: Anna Shvets plant care tips
Call us biased, but we believe the best horticultural technicians (friendly, reliable, and knowledgeable) anywhere in the world work at Good Earth Plant Company. We have the results – and the glowing client reviews – to prove it! Many of our reviews compliment our horticultural technicians’ ability to keep our clients’ plants looking healthy and beautiful. Many times we help our clients with advice on how to take care of their plants at home. They are so good, I decided to turn the blog over to them this week. I asked them for the best plant care tip they have learned while working for Good Earth Plant Company.… Read More

Lighten Up: Good News In A Dark World

| November 4, 2020 | Categories: Biophilia, Environment, Nature and Wellbeing
Increasing expsure to sunlight during the shorter days can improve your health. Photo: Pixabay daylight
Are you feeling a little disheartened? This week’s contentious presidential election is hard on everyone whether you voted red OR blue. Coming on top of an especially rough year, it’s not a surprise if your mental health isn’t what it used to be. But don’t go blaming 2020 for your problems just yet. It might not be the only reason you aren’t your usual cheerful self. The weekend before Election Day, we went through our annual change back from Daylight Time to Standard Time in the United States. The 60 minutes we adjusted our clocks suddenly makes us aware we are slowly losing daylight.… Read More

Chilling Out With Your Container Plants This Winter

| October 21, 2020 | Categories: Gardening, Good Earth Plant Company Tips, Indoor Plants, Plantscaping
It's a good idea to bring your tropical container plants inside when temperatures drop. Photo: Cottonbro / Pexels
In some parts of the country like San Diego, the transition from summer to fall to winter is subtle. There are no obvious signs like colorful fall leaves – unless you take the time to look. Liquid Ambar trees are starting to turn red, and both sycamores and cottonwoods in the valleys and canyons are turning yellow right now. But you can still feel the steeper temperature drops from daytime highs to nighttime lows and the steady cooling trend. Your container plants living outside feel it too. Some of them need protection from the coldest winter weather. In San Diego County, we have four climate zones – coastal, inland, mountains, and desert.… Read More

Resimercial Movement: Real and Here to Stay

| October 15, 2020 | Categories: Architecture and Design, Biophilic Design, Case Studies, Indoor Plants, Living Walls, Nature and Wellbeing, Plantscaping
The resimercial workplace of the future is likely to look more like this than the open office or cubicle farm. Photo: Iva Balk/Pixabay
I have always wanted to start a blog post this way. “Don’t you hate it when…” Don’t you hate it when people smash two words together to make another new word? It’s lazy. The words are always awkward. Athleisure. Brangelina. Resimercial. You probably know the first two words, but I bet “resimercial” is new to you. Resimercial is catching hold and it looks like it’s going to stick just like athleisure for a lot of the same reasons. It’s comfortable, and it fits. FYI: for those who don’t know it, “athleisure” is traditional athletic clothing like yoga pants which are now acceptable leisure wear.… Read More