Gardener interviews/Bob

Interview date: March 5th, 2013

Location: RMIT

Demographics
Age:


 * 55+

Gender: male

Where do you live? South-western suburbs of melbourne

Do you live in a house, flat, ??? House

Do you rent or own? rented (actually a barter deal, in return for maintaining his landlady's garden)

Your garden
Tell me about your garden?


 * Twice the size of the NEIS room, but he maintains his neighbour's garden as well, which is about the same size (i.e. 2 x 1/4 acre standard suburban blocks).


 * grows: lettuces, mints, onions, tomatoes, lemons, limes


 * trad garden, not permaculture or anything. has water tanks (mini plastic tank, 4 x 1000L on each house).

How long have you been growing food?


 * 3 years at this place, 20 years before that

What got you started?


 * like the taste of my own food

Why do you grow your own food? What do you like best about it?


 * as above

Do you know how much you spend on your garden? Supplies, seeds, plants, etc?


 * generally doesn't buy seeds (swaps with ppl he knows), composts for himself. water tanks are an expense but landlady paid for them.

Where do you buy garden supplies etc?


 * swap seeds with people he knows, people he knows from rural area (woodend)

Where do you get information/help about gardening?


 * don't have too many problems, but would ask people you know (phone). doesn't experiment too much, but earlier on did more like that.  Now sticks to what he knows and what he uses.


 * doesn't use information from seed suppliers because it wasn't relevant to Woodend where he lived (cooler climate), and now doesn't really need it

What are the *best* sources of information?


 * n/a

Do any of your family members or close friends have veggie gardens?


 * father did grow vegies but is no longer living. kids can't be bothered. don't have time or inclination, travelling overseas, etc.

Do you keep a garden journal or otherwise keep track of what you plant? Tell us about it.


 * no. used to use physical diary with dates and pages, write down what planted, how long the crop would run for, weather conditions, etc. (would note fruiting as it happened, didn't look up cropping times on seed packs etc).

Online behaviour
Do you have internet connection at home?


 * yes

Smartphone?


 * iPhone

Do you use any gardening websites?


 * none

What do you like best about them?

What do you dislike about them?

Do you use social networks? Which?


 * no (has a facebook account but don't use)

Do you talk about your veggie garden on social networks? Why or why not?

Do you pay for any online services/subscriptions? Which and how much?


 * no

Do you buy apps on your phone? how much?


 * sometimes, a dollar or two, not that often... maybe one or two a month, that would be a lot.

For each service, what makes it worth paying for?


 * gotta be able to use it, looks at description of the app on his phone, might try out a free version but not necessarily.

Other
Are you involved in any community groups or organisations related to gardening?


 * Nope.

Would you like to receive our newsletter?


 * Yes, added!