This is a picture of the boss at UGArden holding a broad fork. In the foreground are some raised beds with various plants in them. In the background is an old compost sifter.

One thing I notice in this picture is the raised beds. At my house in Memphis, we have a large garden in which we grow all kinds of vegetables. Quite a few years ago, my dad noticed we were having trouble retaining the good soil that we worked hard to create. We had drainage problems in the area that the garden was, so my dad decided that we would construct raised beds in order to retain and maintain the soil that we created.

This picture makes me think about my summer working on an organic vegetable farm in Tennessee. We would do a lot of the same things that the man in the picture described. We operated on a similar scale as this farm and we grew a lot of the same crops, so we had a lot of the same problems that they have. I think someone would interpret this photo as a man giving a lecture about gardening at first, and that person would be right.

When I look at this picture, I feel happy. It reminds me of working on a garden and using a broad fork to loosen up the soil without tilling. In high school, my friend and I built a high tunnel similar to the one that he showed us and we didn’t have enough resources to buy a tiller, so we used a broad fork to essentially till the soil in between plantings.

I think this picture is about how we can do small things to positively affect the world around us. At UGArden, they are conscious of the impact they have on the environment. Because of this, they do everything they can to be as sustainable as possible, reducing their collective carbon footprint, and leaving the world better than they found it.                     – John Kutteh