Gardening motivation survey - will you help?

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Thank you, I had contacted Aesculus, but had not received any reply yet, so thank you!

 

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Done.
I have arthritis so my answers may differ from others. The biggest thing that affects when I do any gardening is the amount of pain in my joints at the time. This varies from day to day and is heavily influenced by the weather. Cold and wet, or hot and humid weather causes most pain and on those days, I can't do any gardening at all. Other than that, depending on how mild or severe my joint pain is on any given day, I can manage no more than half an hour on bad days and a couple of hours on good days.
I struggle with heavier tools so tend to use my hand fork and hand cultivator most. Kneeling down is tricky and I have to wear knee pads then kneel on a thick mat. Getting up is difficult.
If I overdo the gardening, e.g. on a good day when I don't notice the time, I suffer from excruciating joint pain for several days to two weeks afterwards.
The joints affected are - my spine and sacroiliac joints with osteoarthritis. My hands, elbows, hips, knees and feet with rheumatoid arthritis. I also have degenerative disc disease and a condition in my feet called Morton's neuroma.
My answers to your survey would have been very, very different if I didn't have these health problems.
Regarding the tools I use, I like tools with a handle that's comfortable to hold in my arthritic hands. No particular brand or model, just something I can hold comfortably with my sore, often swollen fingers.
Good luck with your dissertation

 

Excellent post there, Creaky Joints.

One thing that irritates me is the fact that virtually every tool used in garedning could be vastly improved ergonomically. It seems that the manufacturers are rather neglectful of the fact that older or somewhat infirm people would be able to enjoy gardening more if it was their various implements were designed as easier to use.

 

Your posts confirm what is shown in ergonomics research as well: tools like the shears with the finger grips are sometimes marketed as 'ergonomic', whilst putting them to the test often shows they are not any more ergonomic (and often cause other issues) than other tools. Finger grips are known to be problematic, hand sizes are quite different between people, especially considering some people will handle garden tools whilst wearing their gloves and others won't, so making a handle like that and expecting that most people will find it comfortable is just a wrong assumption.. And still you can see them everywhere on gardening tools!

Thank you for this input outside of the survey, I do hope that through the research I will be able to make some difference and provide industry with new ideas and information so the gardening experience can be improved for everyone, but especially for those that are currently feeling restricted in their options.

Gosh that last bit feels like a speech for Miss World haha, World Peace for all!

 

I hope also that your research can make a diffence, as I'm sure other members do.

I personally would have loved the opportunity to take part.

 

Eline, I can't do the survey, as I live outside the UK. Would it be ok for me to look though the survey, without entering it, and see if I have any thoughts or comments?

 

Thank you for the enthusiasm and wanting to help out, but I think for the research it is not a good idea for me to allow this.. It will mean I have to manually take your result out (it will save results with every page when you click next, even if you weren't to fill out the whole thing) and I'd have trouble identifying you.. And unfortunately there isn't any way to look through the survey without filling it out completely (and you'd have to lie about being a UK resident to even get into it). I'm sorry to have to let you down, but I'd rather avoid running into trouble because of it.

The survey asks about both what motivates you (watching things grow, keeping it neat, being outside, etc.) and what demotivates you to do gardening (weather conditions, how hard the task is, whether the tools are comfortable to use, etc.) and which tasks you do and don't and why. That's the very short summary of it, I don't want to give too much away to other people that might still fill it out

But if you have any thoughts on where you see room for improvement for your gardening experience, feel free to share on the forum (but you don't have to!). I see the comments here as inspiration and things to keep in the back of my mind during the project, so any comments might indirectly still influence the research direction!

 

Best thought out gardening survey I've ever participated in.