Edible Garden with a View

What do you get when you combine the speed of a Formula One race, the intensity of a Las Vegas roulette table, with the stress of a nasty divorce.  

A slow day at the office for a financial trader.

And finance workers that can thrive under this kind of high pressure? Well, they’re worth their weight in diamonds. You want to take good care of them, so they stick around and keep on thriving.

So, is it any surprise that Dimensional Plaza in Charlotte’s South End, makes sure that when it’s time for their staff to break for lunch, these finance industry all-stars can really unwind and relax?

 

Where would such a stable of champion pedigree finance traders even take a meal? Certainly not in a cafeteria or a food court. Dimensional Plaza’s well-appointed and upscale dining area would rival any fancy steakhouse in Charlotte. Gourmet chefs - their mesmerizing artistry on display through large plate glass windows -  prepare the day’s avant-garde menu. Just outside the kitchen and indoor dining area, a sprawling green roof - four stories high, with panoramic views of Charlotte - invites staff to come on outside, and enjoy lunch. The walking path that winds between delightfully placed ornamental plantings would lower the Incredible Hulk’s blood pressure. 

Now that’s taking care of your employees.

 

So how could such a low-tech, overalls-wearing, sawdust covered bunch like team Microfarm make this utopian employee amenity any better.

With five 4’x8’ cedar garden beds  - placed just behind the kitchen, where head chef David Quintana can grow edible varieties to use in his menu. 

Will Dimensional Plaza’s organic garden get enough sunlight to grow edible varieties. More than enough.

Are the raised beds convenient to the kitchen? Just a few paces away, actually. 

 

How about water supply to the five raised garden beds? After all, this has to be one of THE most exposed garden designs we’ve ever installed ;  with both intense sun and high wind exposure placing extra importance on the garden’s watering requirements. 

No problem. We can simply connect the drip line grids in the five raised beds to the irrigation system that’s already in place on the green roof.

Will Dimensional Plaza’s organic garden be safe from deer, squirrels and rabbits. 

At four stories, high, we sure hope so.

Will this edible garden design get the required airflow and ventilation? Surely so. This is one breezy organic garden site, and we have to confess ; we were a little more careful installing that last raised bed - the one right beside the railing.

With the garden site and raised bed sizes selected, the next step was getting the garden beds up to the green roof and into position, behind the kitchen. 

Now, building the raised beds on site definitely wasn’t an option here. After all, how would our noisy miter saws, ratchet drivers, and cedar sawdust wouldn’t add anything to such a peaceful locale, designed for relaxation.

We had to build the cedar garden beds in our Charlotte workshop, then deliver the five raised beds fully assembled - our standard practice. Then, we carefully brought the raised beds up on the building’s freight elevator, one at a time ; a process that took more time than our typical organic garden installation, but was ultimately successful.

 

How about the ten cubic yards of organic soil required to fill all five of the cedar garden beds?

These were brought up the same way ; in the freight elevator, one bagged and palleted cubic yard of soil at a time.

When the installation was complete, Chef Quintana came out to say goodbye, and he seemed to survey his new organic garden with satisfaction, before a quick pivot back inside to his busy kitchen.

And with Dimensional Plaza’s new cedar raised beds in place, - and another happy customer - we retraced our steps back to the truck, carefully tidying up along the way, and trying to leave the place a little better than we found it. And we might have paused for just a minute or two in front of one of those big plate-glass windows to admire a chef skillfully icing a chocolate cake masterpiece.