OTHELLO — Picking up new hobbies this summer was not an uncommon thing with people spending more time indoors, and around the house, due to restrictions from COVID-19.

Othello High School graduate Jaxon Rocha found himself having a lot more free time this spring after his senior baseball season was cancelled. An idea at the dinner table and a quick trip to Lowe’s found him discovering a new project to pass the time.

Rocha built his first planter box around May for his own family, and almost immediately saw requests coming in from friends and family. A woodworking class he took as a freshman helped give him the background for getting the project started.

Heading off to college this fall with a little extra money wasn’t too bad either, he said.

“I just figured I could make some pretty decent money if I kept doing this, so it just turned into a fun little project,” Rocha said. “I made a few for some people, and made pretty decent money.”

He finished about 10 planter boxes over the summer, and said it was a progression from one box to the next. He started off with a simple 5x6 foot box design before starting to add a little bit more design to some of the later pieces.

The transition into more intricate designs was a learning process, Rocha said.

“I would build one, and I wouldn’t like how it turned out so I would have to improvise on some things,” Rocha said. ‘So, for me, it was kind of a learning process. I’d have to start over on a couple of things, but after I messed up, I’d know what I was doing.”

Rocha said he worked on the projects by himself, picking up supplies one day, and measuring and cutting pieces the next. Working on the project alone was difficult, but he said it honestly made it more fun.

The experience of being an entrepreneur is something Rocha said he was glad to pick up, learning how to get a business started from the ground up. His experience as a former high school, now college, athlete has taught him to not give up even when the process becomes difficult.

He said he wasn’t sure if people would be as interested because he had started the project later in the summer after the growing season had begun.

“Usually, you’d want to plant in May, and harvest in July or August,” Rocha said. “But a lot of people liked them for flowers, keeping them on their front porch, or in their front yard.”

Each planter box took about six to seven hours of work from start to finish. Being stuck at home when the pandemic first began, Rocha said, he was glad to have something to pass the time.

As much as he enjoyed picking up the planter box projects this summer, Rocha said, he’d like to pursue it further in the future. He added it’s too soon to know if it will grow into anything bigger right now.