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What are the pain points in home gardening?
Hello and thank you for your question on the pain points of home gardening! In short, three main reasons seem to prevent people from home gardening: a lack of time, lack of space, or lack of knowledge. However, other factors include the perceived cost and mindset. Below you will find a deep dive of my findings.
METHODOLOGY
My initial research uncovered information on a marketing research study performed by college seniors at Manchester University. With the absence of varying academic sources on the reasons people don't garden, I used this as the foundation for my research. Then, I looked for news articles, blog posts, and other qualitative information to highlight the main reasons that prevent people from choosing to garden in greater depth. As the study mentions, there are three main reasons people don't garden. Those main reasons include a lack of time, lack of space, and lack of knowledge. I have detailed these points in the sections below.
LACK OF TIME
Most participants in the market research study stated that they lack the time to start a home garden due to work, family, and other extracurricular responsibilities. Not only did this prevent participants from starting gardens, but it also prevented them from maintaining gardens they had already started. Of the respondents, those in the younger demographics (ages 21-30) were much more likely to start a garden if they had more time.
Many people consider gardening to be labor-intensive and very time-consuming. Not only do you have to take the time to plant everything, but you have to take precautions against critters, small and large. People want the ability to garden without the extensive responsibility of difficult upkeep. There is also the inevitable learning curve, which takes additional time.
LACK OF KNOWLEDGE
Another major reason people don't garden at home is a lack of knowledge and often the misinterpretation of information regarding gardening. The study found that it wasn't just home gardeners who lacked the knowledge, but that employees of garden centers in major retailers lack the in-depth knowledge and training to be of assistance to those gardeners. Market research also suggests that information regarding gardening "such as pamphlets or flyers, tends to be unappealing and intimidating" to potential gardeners.
Part of the problem with this "lack of knowledge" is that gardening goes beyond just putting seeds and bulbs into the ground. Gardeners also have to know how to deal with problems that arise, such as pests and plant diseases. Even at a basic level, a gardener must know what to do if seedlings don't emerge, if flowers start to wilt, or how to troubleshoot possible problems with their garden. While there are some common symptoms of potential problems, new gardeners don't often have the knowledge to look for them. New gardeners often over-water their plants, which causes them to wilt and die. That, and different plants have different care instructions, such has requiring different levels of watering, temperature and sunlight conditions, as well as pruning and other maintenance practices.
With regards to planting vegetables, new gardeners often don't know how to maintain a vegetable garden. Often there are certain plants that should be isolated because they are invasive and will kill other plants around them. Vegetable gardens also require rotated plantings to continue to thrive over the years.
Another thing people don't seem to understand is the medical benefits of gardening. People think of joint pain and other physical limitations, when it is actually used as a form of physical and mental therapy "including cancer patients, those with dementia, limited sight, those trying to assimilate into our local culture and environment." While it's true that physical limitations can be a barrier to certain types of gardening, there are a variety of ways to garden that don't required the physical exertion of extensive yard gardens.
Of course, these are just some of the topics people feel they need to be knowledgable about in order to garden. Based on my findings, this is the most robust barrier to gardening. As with any industry, there are time and space-saving solutions for gardening, but people don't necessarily know that they exist, or perhaps do not have the interest to go searching for them.
LACK OF SPACE
Many of the respondents lived in cities or highly populated areas where the space to garden was limited. This fact seems to deter potential gardeners from looking into alternative, space-saving forms such as community or vertical gardening. With continued population growth, this pain point is likely to become more prevalent in the future.
While this is a bit harder to fix than a lack of knowledge, there are forms of gardening that require very little space. There are patio, vertical, and windowsill gardens for those who lack space.
MINDSET PLAYS A BIG ROLE
Of the research available, mindset also plays a huge role in a person's ability to garden. Commonly, people cite the reasons for not gardening as:
-having a black thumb, or killing every plant they've owned.
-not wanting to get sweaty or dirty.
-fear of hurting oneself, or agitating a pre-existing condition (such as bad knees)
-lack of motivation or interest, since they can get vegetables and plants at the grocery or from a florist.
Many of these mindsets point back to the "lack of knowledge" pain point. Many gardening blogs suggest that learning more about gardening and trying different types can curb these mindsets, insisting there is a type of gardening for everyone.
THE COST
One gardening expert cited money as a major barrier to gardening as a commonly heard excuse for not beginning to garden. Many people fear investing the money into creating a garden only to have everything die, thus wasting their money. Since there are many programs and nonprofits that help new gardeners obtain free seeds and gardening support, that notion may once again lead back to the inherent lack of knowledge on the subject.
CONCLUSION
While there seems to be three main reasons people don't garden, there are other factors at play. Mindset seems to play a huge role in whether or not someone chooses to garden. In addition to a lack of time, knowledge, or space to garden, money also seems to be a concern. However, of the evidence I found in my research, lack of knowledge seems to be the biggest contributor to frustration with home gardening.
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