Oasis Gardenscapes
Seth Stottlemyer took a circuitous route to find his calling as owner of Oasis Gardenscapes. The name Stottlemyer is synonymous with smoked meats and live music here in Sarasota, thanks to Seth’s father, Steve Stottlemyer, and his restaurant, Stottlemyer’s Smokehouse. Seth attended both Pineview and Riverview during high school before he graduated from Appalachian State University in 1998 with a degree in communications and advertising and a minor in business. He refers to his college education as “a well-rounded liberal arts education,” citing additional classes in Latin American studies and Spanish.
Straight out of college, Seth helped his dad run the Texaco Station on Fruitville Road. Things were moving along smoothly and Seth enjoyed being a part of the family business. Then, one day, thanks to the magical properties of Facebook, Seth reconnected with an old friend, Alison. Alison commented on an album of ski trip pictures from her apartment in New York City and the two began a dialogue that led to cocktails, long-distance dating, and then marriage.
By January 2010, Seth found himself in the West Village in Manhattan. Seth’s mother, Juliana, owns an antique store in Highlands, North Carolina, but she is also a master gardener and Seth remembers helping her in the garden as a child. This early interest in gardening led Seth to begin studying energy efficiency and sustainability and soon he became an account manager for the Association for Energy Afford-ability in the Bronx
His three-year tenure at the AEA led Seth to become interested in the concepts of green roofs and living walls and he journeyed to Toronto to become certified as a Green Roof Professional by Green Roofs for Healthy Cities (GRHC). There are myriad environmental, social, and economic benefits to living architecture and Seth is a staunch advocate for the program. Seth found himself working for the premier landscape gardening firm in New York City, designing and tending to rooftop gardens for celebrities and celebrated corporations. Seth helped to design and install the largest green roof in New York City but he longed to start his own company—the legacy of having entrepreneurial parents.
Both Seth and Alison wanted to move closer to their families here in Sarasota and so Seth opened Oasis Gardenscapes and began the process of transforming Sarasota into a lush and verdant oasis, one garden at a time. Seth’s green roofs and living walls range from intricate concrete installations to backyard fence herb gardens. You can even grow strawberries and lettuces on the walls in your kitchen or restaurant, as long as you have plenty of direct sunlight and Seth’s expertise to guide you.
Oasis Gardenscapes: 19 East Rd, Sarasota;
941-724-4837; oasisgardenscapes.com
