By Neo Kolane
Thirty-year old nature freak, Tekenya Letsatsi has built great interest in making flower pots as a gateway to landscaping.
He says making flower pots is currently a hobby, until he becomes good enough to go at it in a fully professional and commercial manner.
The Maputsoe, Leribe, resident indicated that he uses cloth and cement. He is currently using his old T-shirts to make flower pots. This he does at the comfort of his own home.
The unemployed Letsatsi loves making flower pots, something that all started from his love of working the soil. He loved working in his home garden.
“I love plants and mostly flowers. For me, seeing them grow brings a lovely feeling to me. it’s just something I have always loved.
“In 2016, I was part of the phase two of the Bacha Entrepreneurship Project and if there is one thing I learnt from the project, it is that I should do things that I love most and innovate,” he said.
Letsatsi said it was for that reason that he decided to work as a garden boy from 2016 to 2018.
At one point, he had gone to buy flowers at a garden centre in Ficksburg in South Africa. There and then, he was attracted to the designs he saw; such as the ornamental features, planted trees and shrubs
“As an economics student, I saw there is chance for business with landscaping.,” he briefly remembered.
He started to do flower pots with planks but it “failed because of not putting all the effort in it as and doing thorough research.”
“My second attempt was when I did a research on YouTube and I opted for clay but it would break after it got burned. I then gave up.
“In 2020 around September, my sister had just recently saw a video of someone doing flower pots, my cousin and I had gone to make paving blocks to fit in her yard.
“We were talking about how lovely the paving blocks were and she showed us the video. And that’s how it all started, I fell in love right there and then,” he said.
Letsatsi says he is planning to register his hobby as a business called LEFA which will be a start-up company that produces hand-made decorating materials for households.
But for now, he added, LEFA is just a hobby which might grow in the next three to four years.
His wish is to own a farm house in the future.
