Welcome

The Good Earth, LLC (TGE) was founded on three tenets:

FAMILY INVOLVEMENT

Green burial ties in with home funerals where family’s care for their loved one from time of death to final disposition. Some may choose to use a funeral home while others do everything themselves. Instead of the mystery surrounding a body being swept away to a funeral home and following the funeral home’s schedule families have been given the right to not use a funeral home since 2017. I believe this involvement helps with the grieving process.

CONTROLLING COST

By caring for your own you can have better control over the cost of a funeral. You decide when to have the burial and how much you want to participate. Keeping your loved one’s body at home negates the expense of a funeral home. Many transport their own loved one to the burial ground. TGE does not allow vaults or embalming.

HELPING THE ENVIRONMENT

TGE was begun by having an Associate Professor of Biology from UAH testing the soil in the meadow area, prescribing necessary nutrients, and suggesting native plants. The native plants help with the preservation of pollinators among them the Monarch butterflies which are endangered. A stand of milkweed is planted to hopefully benefit their population.

By not allowing vaults, embalming fluid or traditional caskets of metal or treated wood we are also keeping the soil healthier. Bodies decompose as they are meant to; the way it was done before the Civil War.

Monarch caterpillar. Sightings have increased from one to five in the last few years.

Milkweed

Shelia Champion owner of TGE

Green burial at TGE means: no embalming, no vault, natural fabrics, only biodegradable vessels with no harmful paint or stains, and no artificial flowers and plants. Families lead the burial of their loved one with or without using a funeral home.