Subject/Object: School Garden Workshop Soil Blocker

Story by: Teddy Carolan

Summer 2026

An image of a silver soil blocker against a black background. — Chris Richards

In most nurseries, this soil blocker would be a relic of pre-plastic propagation, too slow and fussy for commercial scale. At the University of Arizona’s School Garden Workshop, such inefficiency is part of the point. Rather than dumping soil into plastic trays, the workshop’s K-12 learners have a hand in each stage of the process, thanks to this sturdy contraption. Soil is packed, pressed and released into a neat grid of self-contained earthy cubes resembling brownie bites set for the oven. A dimple in the center — formed by a nub inside the press — marks where a seed will go.

“When we’re working with kids in gardens, we want things to be a little inefficient so that more kids can participate,” says School Garden Workshop Director Moses Thompson. “We want hands in the dirt. We want the tactile. We want students to feel it.” Naturally, not all seeds they plant will germinate. The goal lies largely in the process: to reveal how deliberate and delicate the journey is for the plants that end up on their plate.

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