COLUMN: I guess we’re farmers now?

By Kyle Roberts

Okay, the headline is a stretch.

But full disclosure, as the world at large appears to be on fire right now, I figured now is as good of a time as ever to consider if our family has a green (or black) thumb when it comes to growing some of our own food.

(Before we continue, let me be clear: to the real farmers and gardeners out there, I have nothing but respect for you. I won’t be pretending that I’ll ever be on your level, and this is not my attempt to start a side hustle selling kale and rhubarb. But I believe there are some good life lessons ahead for my girls and for me. So consider this the first of a few parts that will either be educational (if it goes well) or pure comedy (whenever it inevitably goes wrong).)

To start, we purchased an 8′ x 4′ x 1 metal raised bed, which can hold 32 cubit feet of soil. After we assembled the bed, Judith and I spent a morning making a compost layer, mostly with leaves and limbs about a halfway up. Since storms were in the forecast that night, we left the layer to soak in the rain and brought in soil the next day. Twenty-four bags of soil later, we now had a fairly full bed for planting.

We also had purchased a “Seed Square,” which helps novice farmers figure out where and how far apart to plant seeds and measures 12″ x 12″. And as you’ll see below, we were able to map out our raised bed and planted various seeds just over a week ago and made a spreadsheet of what was planted where, as you’ll see below.

Truth be told, this was the most exhausting part of all, and every joint from my hips to my ankles were barking for the remainder of last week. I was adamant that I’d plant all the seeds, but by the time I got through my third square of green onions, I naturally tagged in the kids to help.

A couple of days of rain, a reasonable amount of watering, and two weeks later…. nothing yet. No surprise though, as unfortunately we timed our first seeding seven days before an unexpected freeze in North Louisiana. There’s a good chance our first go-round was a bust.

That’s okay, though. A big part of this journey is trial and error (it’s the main reason we only have one raised bed and not, you know, a full backyard farm). We’ll make mistakes. But the real magic is in the trying.

And doing it as a family.