Story By Diana Valette • Photos By Lindsey Janies
I have a green thumb … with my house plants.
I’m going to be brutally honest with you. When Lori Richard invited me to take her gardening class, I wasn’t exactly jumping for joy. The class took place on a Saturday at 9 am, and my favorite Friday night activity is copious wine plus plenty of food, which usually equals late night. I walked into the class tired and a little cranky and walked out ready to grow tomatoes.
Am I a farmer now?
I arrived at Richard’s beautiful home right as the class was set to begin and found five other women who were also taking the class, but excited about it. “I love the Lagniappe,” one of the women told me. It’s always nice to hear when people enjoy the magazine; my mood immediately kicked up a notch.
Lori took us all on a walking tour of her garden. It was one of the most beautiful, vibrant, impressive things I’ve ever seen. The Richard home is in central Lake Charles on Contraband Bayou, across the water from Shucks. In the vacant space that butts up to the water, Lori plans to plant Lake Charles’ first sunflower field.
Lori’s Garden
In her garden, you’ll find butterflies, bees, beautiful flowers and tons of vegetables. “During this time of year, I don’t like to spend my days outside because it’s too hot. So, I only plant things that do well on their own.”
Lori proudly showed off a massive spider with eggs ready to hatch at any moment, as well as a grasshopper – no exaggeration – as big as my index finger. “I want as many bugs, bees and critters as possible. I don’t even mind stink bugs,” she says.
According to Lori, insects are a sign of a thriving garden. It means your garden is alive. And since the bugs take care of eating each other, it’s manageable.
Lori likes to work with the natural order of things. She plants sunflowers with her tomatoes as a distraction because “the bugs prefer sunflowers.” It was one of the main lessons I learned during her two-hour class: work with nature, not against it. She raises about 80 chickens, collects two to three dozen eggs a day, doesn’t water her garden daily and has no automatic watering system.
Listening to Lori speak and watching how she manages it all makes you feel like you could do it, too. “If you plant strawberries just once and make sure they get afternoon shade, you’ll never have to buy them again,” she says. “These plants are three years old.”
“This is my favorite thing in the yard,” she says pointing to a corner with overgrowing vines, leaves and a few massive objects I can’t quite place. “From two seeds these African gourd bowls were born,” she says. The gourds are traditionally dried out in various African cultures and used as decoration, to hold and store food and water, or to make musical instruments.
“I only grow citrus in containers because I know I’m going to lose them every year,” she says matter-of-factly. Lori leans into gardening. She claims you don’t need a green thumb and that even having one is a myth. That’s easy for Lori Richard to say — her entire hand is green.
Sprout Savvy
Lori decided to create Sprout Savvy Garden Coaching for those who want to learn, improve or troubleshoot their gardens. Her classes are affordable and jam-packed with information, and they’ve filled a gap within the community.
“One thing I’ve learned is that gardening is regionally specific. Even what happens here is a little different than what’s happening in Baton Rouge,” she says. Lori specializes in gardening in Southwest Louisiana, and through the years she’s become quite the expert.
When purchasing seeds, Lori suggests you always prioritize a stop at a local nursery over a big box store. Local nurseries sell varieties that’ll thrive in our climate, and that isn’t always the case with bigger businesses.
“It’s important to note,” she says, “(that) I’ve only been not killing things since 2018. Before then? I was killing aloe vera, snake plants, fake plants. You name it; I killed it.”
Gardening began for her when her son, Remy, was born. Remy has special needs that required Lori to retire early from her career and stay home to care for him. She wanted to use her time wisely — to learn something new, do something productive. “It took me many years,” she says. “I had to fail at a few things. I didn’t start out understanding how important timing was, for example, or how large brussels were. It took me many years”
She began really fine tuning her skills and now believes everyone can do it. “All you need is good timing and good soil,” she says.
The most important lesson I learned in the class is that it all begins and ends with soil. It’s alive. “Soil is the most important component to yielding vegetables, and yet no one has perfect soil,” she says. “There are a lot of ways to do things. I’m not the type to say my way is the only way. I’m just saying the way I do it works for me.”
Lori says you can’t change a soil’s texture, but you can change its structure. How? Compost. She says compost is the answer to virtually every gardening problem. When in doubt, compost it out, she says. Just make sure it’s quality compost.
Soil
Each student in the class was asked to bring a soil sample along with us. Since I already outed myself as very much not a gardener, I’ll be honest with you: I used a plastic cup to fish a couple cups of soil from my boyfriend’s landscaping beds. That was my best effort.
Lori’s theory is you shouldn’t spend a ton of money or time to have your soil analyzed. So, if soil is so important, how do you get it right? A touch test. A mason jar test. And, at the very most: a quick strip test.
While in class, Lori directed us to pour a portion of our soil into an empty container she provided. She came around and watered everyone’s soil a bit and had us feel the soil and describe what we felt. There were three classifications of soil: silt, sand and clay.
My soil was silty, which meant it had a smooth texture and tends to retain moisture well. After we determined our soil type, she directed us to squeeze the water from our soil, form a log and make observations about the log. Was it holding together or falling apart? The observations we made could give us important data on why our gardens weren’t producing. An overly clay soil could lead to drainage issues, for example.
The goal with soil? Loam. A word I’d never heard before. Loam soil is equal parts silt, sand and clay. “Should you want to gather more precise information about your soil, all you need to do is pour your soil into a mason jar, add tap water, fill it to the top, shake and allow the jar to sit for one to two weeks,” she says. In the goodie bag she gave to each of us was a folder with important information, including a page which could help us map out exactly what type of soil we had.
“People are overly concerned with pH. It’s generally not a huge issue, but if you want to test your pH, I like the inexpensive, rapid tests best.”
Lori walked us through using the rapid tests on our soil samples. We poured a pinch of our soil into the small container, emptied the capsule’s contents on top, added water, shook the whole thing and waited to compare the color of our soil with the adjacent guide. Turns out my soil was no good for growing vegetables; makes sense, as it was sourced from a flower bed.
“Don’t live and die by anything,” Lori says just as you start to worry. “It’s all just useful information.” It was really refreshing to see that someone who has had as much success as she has doesn’t abide by many hard or fast rules.
Sprout Savvy classes take place outside Lori’s beautiful home. Her classroom has a long table for the students, a coffee machine, a screen for her power point, shade, and fans blowing, which made the setup incredibly comfortable. That’s hard to do on an August morning in Southwest Louisiana.
Lori is energetic, friendly and down to earth, and her class was run incredibly efficiently. She’s teaching one garden topic per month, with several dates and time slots available. Class topics will coincide with respective time of the season. She offers classes on soil and fertilizer; seed starting (where she provides students with seeds); pollinator and companion planting; managing insects and pests; raised bed/container gardening; and more. Classes range from $35 to $50.
Lori, who co-owns Lake Breeze Realty, LLC, where she’s the broker, says she wants gardeners to feel encouraged. “Whether you’re a brand-new gardener or you have experience, I want people to enjoy their time and learn new things without feeling overwhelmed.” Taking part in her Sprout Savvy classes permits you entry into her private Facebook group where you can ask questions, share wins and continue learning.
For more information or to sign up for a class, visit sproutsavvygarden-coaching.com.
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