Aug 6, 2026 · 58 min · 10 segments
Molly Sedlacek is the founder of ORCA, a female-founded landscape design and product studio based in Los Angeles. In this episode, she shares how her upbringing with a landscape-designer mother and…
Brit SastrawidjayaHost
Bethany RydmarkHostYeah, and I think something that we're trying to do with both the design work and the product is how to encourage others to design for visible time versus feeling like something needs to be done day one and then stay in a preserved state and I mean, to me, the whole notion of the garden is that the garden is a calendar and we grow with it and it grows with us.
And that's why we design using untreated wood, because wood is one of the most incredible ways to actually see seasons or why we love using untreated deciduous trees, even though a lot of times and where we practice in Los Angeles, we'll say, I want four mature olive trees that look, you know, picture perfect day one.
What happens to starting with a tree when you have your first child and watching that tree grow up with a family member or planting something symbolic.
I grew up where we would plant a dogwood when a pet died and then the pet went under the dogwood.
And I think it's even asking fellow designers, can you design something that's left undone? So then it allows your client to engage with their garden and to be a participant.
And I think participant doesn't necessarily mean they need to maintain a garden.
It can just mean that they're simply in the garden and feeling like they're a part of it
And I think that's a bigger societal issue of time and what has happened to time in the last 20 years.
And to me, gardens are one of the lowest hanging fruit opportunities for us on an individual level to be more connected back to time.
And when I think about what you've made in product, I think about how that fall, if you're on the West coast, how that falls in line with being a participant of earth, because so much material moves around the world.
And I stone from other countries and other States and, um, The thing that really drew me to beginning to work with your paver line, which we've installed twice now and about to do a third one, is that we...
And then talking to you, I was like, why is there all these different colors? And you're like, because they come from different mountains and different quarries.
Yeah, and I think something that we're trying to do with both the design work and the product is how to encourage others to design for visible time versus feeling like something needs to be done day one and then stay in a preserved state and I mean, to me, the whole notion of the garden is that the garden is a calendar and we grow with it and it grows with us.
And that's why we design using untreated wood, because wood is one of the most incredible ways to actually see seasons or why we love using untreated deciduous trees, even though a lot of times and where we practice in Los Angeles, we'll say, I want four mature olive trees that look, you know, picture perfect day one.
What happens to starting with a tree when you have your first child and watching that tree grow up with a family member or planting something symbolic.
I grew up where we would plant a dogwood when a pet died and then the pet went under the dogwood.
And I think it's even asking fellow designers, can you design something that's left undone? So then it allows your client to engage with their garden and to be a participant.
And I think participant doesn't necessarily mean they need to maintain a garden.
It can just mean that they're simply in the garden and feeling like they're a part of it
And I think that's a bigger societal issue of time and what has happened to time in the last 20 years.
And to me, gardens are one of the lowest hanging fruit opportunities for us on an individual level to be more connected back to time.
And when I think about what you've made in product, I think about how that fall, if you're on the West coast, how that falls in line with being a participant of earth, because so much material moves around the world.
And I stone from other countries and other States and, um, The thing that really drew me to beginning to work with your paver line, which we've installed twice now and about to do a third one, is that we...
And then talking to you, I was like, why is there all these different colors? And you're like, because they come from different mountains and different quarries.
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