Marloes:

As I sit in the garden, I realise how happy this office makes me, and the secret happiness factor is the garden. Over the last three months we have been working on the garden and it is hopefully the beginning of a peaceful heaven that can be used as a stress reliever in hectic times. The garden was pretty much hammered by the ongoing construction and, with the main office building now finished, we are finally regenerating the garden. Starting off with taking stock of what was there – an orange tree and plum tree mainly – and reusing some of the potted plants from our old office’s balcony. The main idea was to plan only plants that are either indigenous, medicinal, or edible. We called in help from Ryo to assist with the design and planting of our garden. We might know a lot about green, but we are not so well versed in landscaping.

One of the important things for me was that we could use the garden to relax, reflect, but also to potentially work – how nice would it be if we can take project meetings outside in the garden? In my experience, being outside reduces stress immediately and makes you feel much calmer. I also love the large sliding doors of the office that open onto the garden and offer a connection to nature even in our urban setting.

Ryoko:

Marloes’s request was very much in her style – thoughtful, inclusive, connected, recycled and sustainable. The design brief was to use ‘useful’ or ‘meaningful’ plants which were to the greatest extent possible, indigenous, with a style that is informal, soft and natural. It turns out that even many plants that we commonly see in our built green environment surprisingly do have some kind of medicinal/edible properties according to sources such as Indigenous Healing Plants by Margaret Roberts (Halfway House Publishers), and we were able to source many of them through Random Harvest Nursery in Muldersdrift.

The edible plants were selected by Marloes based on the vegetables that she felt would be useful to her team. She was insistent on including plants that had been suggested by her team members.

What were the biggest challenges?

Ryoko:

After two long years of construction, when we started the garden, the soil was heavily compacted in its worst sections and, in its best areas, ran its own course, as many transition properties must have during lockdown. Another big challenge that we have had is in finding a lawn replacement ground cover that is simultaneously walkable, useful/indigenous and meets the stark sun/shade conditions.

What is your favourite part of the garden?

Marloes:

The veggie and herb patch is my favourite section and we have a good harvest of spinach and kale already, it is growing madly. It also has the necessary garnish ingredients for G&Ts, different types of mint, rosemary and sage – which is crucial for good office parties. We have also added a grapevine, granadilla vine and an almond tree.

We have hung up two bee hotels, and we are taking part in the Jozi Bee Hotel Project, which aims to ensure equitable access to biodiversity for all city residents. Our worm farm is also back in full swing. I cannot believe the worms survived the move after being neglected for a while, but they seem to be happy again in our new home. All their produce from the last couple of years was used to improve the soil quality.

What were the unexpected successes?

Ryoko:

The hardscape and topsoil were sourced from Parkhurst residents as we rang the door bells of homes that had piles of used bricks and topsoil in front of their houses for disposal. The homeowners were often grateful to have the materials removed, and we were able to create a garden path, patio and driveway entirely from free recycled materials.

Marloes had also lovingly saved all the plants from her previous office and, miraculously, they had survived being left outdoors during lockdown. They also had to find space in the new office garden. Connie, a staff member whose ‘adoption’ of the garden was to become critical in its daily care, would often shake her head smiling and say, ‘Marloes loves green too much.’

Any garden that is planted from an empty lot, especially informal in style, is a challenge as it does not have existing mature plants or a geometric pattern to fall back on for ‘structure’ and backbone. However, Marloes and her team have started an exciting living garden process that will take shape and become layered in the passing of time and, hopefully, give great pleasure to everyone who works in the inspiring environment at the new office.

The post Our new office – Chapter 8: The Garden appeared first on Solid Green Consulting.

Quite a lot has changed since our last update in May. We have installed glass window and door panes to reduce noise nuisance from the road, and to keep the winter chill out. The floor was also still unfinished and, as it was getting colder, we had to do something quickly as the concrete was not very comfortable. With tight budgets, we looked for options.

I had done some research into green flooring options and the ultimate green option would be linoleum (not to be confused with vinyl). Linoleum is made of linseed oil and is therefore a renewable material. This product has a bad branding as hospital flooring but a lot has changed over the years and there are some attractive linoleum products available on the market including a liquid version! However, we decided on a more budget-wise option with the intention of installing our linoleum floor sometime in the future.

We opted for a B-grade carpet option (a carpet which has some manufacturing faults and cannot be sold). We worked with the Belgotex Foundation to find a woman-owned business to install the carpet in our office, thus contributing to the development of a women entrepreneur. Theresa Noluthando of Tamto Dimazana Investments was great and it was a pleasure to work with her. We were obliged to work with the available faulty carpet, but are now happy with our new black, red and blue flooring tiles. Something different from our standard approach to green.

The large sliding doors on the office’s north side open onto a sizeable garden area, and this really does make a huge difference. There is one big evergreen tree which gives shade throughout the year – great in summer! And a porch that receives the winter sun and warms you up in between meetings. We are working on a WIFI extender, which will allow us to take conference calls in the garden, as it is usually so much nicer to sit outside. In the medium- to long-term, we will need to think of a heating solution in the office for winter. Although, at the moment, it’s not an issue as there are not many people in the office at any given time and we have placed desks next to the windows – the sun is the greenest heater.

We are currently working on making the garden “spring” ready by getting rid of building rubble that had mixed with the soil, and enhancing the soil with compost. We are creating a summer hangout spot and a winter sunspot, so we can move through the garden as the seasons change. Obviously, there is going to be a veggie patch and some fruit trees. We discovered a beautiful orange tree in the garden. However, the tree did not get enough sunlight to produce sweet oranges but, by trimming the larger tree, we created more sunlight for it.

I cannot wait till spring comes and life becomes a bit more green again!

The post OUR NEW OFFICE: CHAPTER 7! appeared first on Solid Green Consulting.