Landscaping goes virtual

During the covid19 stay-at-home period, many people turned to gardening and cultivating to make ends meet. One company that assisted those who were trying to do this was landscape design company La Souce Environmental Designs.

Before lockdown, the company hosted monthly landscaping and gardening workshops for beginners, offered landscaping services, and rented plants and water features for events. They had to cancel their planned workshops because of the covid19 stay-at-home measures, so found a way to pivot their business towards those who were also forced to stay at home.

Manager Indira Jagoo-Teloka said the company offered a gardening service for those who could not leave their homes, sourcing seedlings, soil and pots, as well as providing delivery. She said this was due to the upsurge of home gardening that was taking place. Another initiative was doing virtual site visits by having clients send them pictures and videos of their properties.

Another measure put in place was the conversion of in-person workshops to online workshops.

“Our first workshop was held on June 13 using Zoom. We had two sessions from 9 am to 12 noon and from 2 pm to 5 pm. It was well attended and the feedback was very positive. Our next workshop is on July 18 and will be on Introduction to Landscaping, for those people who are still at home and would like to spruce up their yard. On August 16, we will be having a virtual orchids and bromeliads workshop.”

The company is now offering one-on-one sessions using Zoom, Webex, Google Chats or Whatsapp video chat for people wanting additional information on anything gardening/landscaping, geared especially towards people who may have missed previous workshops.

Jagoo-Teloka said La Souce is now offering gardening sessions for children at home. The topics will include how to propagate plants, organic gardening, grow boxes, hydroponics, types of soils, potting plants, et cetera. She said the prices will vary depending on the ages and number of children, the topics being taught and duration of the session.

La Souce Environmental Designs was started by owner and landscaper Carlson Teloka, who originally spent over 15 years working in the food manufacturing sector as a maintenance technician.

Teloka has been rearing fish since his childhood and has built many water features for his koi ponds over the years. It was his love and passion for this hobby that made him turn it into a business. Soon the number of jobs from friends and family grew and before long, clients started asking about getting their property landscaped. It was then that this self-taught entrepreneur decided to attend UWI’s Landscaping for Entrepreneur Beginners and advanced courses lectured by Wendy Lee Yuen.

Once Teloka began offering landscaping services, the business really took off. He has gathered over ten years' experience landscaping various properties as well as maintaining estates. Taking his inspiration from the natural surroundings of the La Souce estate in St Ann's on which he currently resides, Carlson designs, builds and installs one-of-a-kind water features to meet his clients’ needs.

For more information on La Souce Environmental Designs, find them on Facebook, email lasouceworkshops@gmail.com, call 303-1423 or 685-3018 and go to www.lasoucett.com.