Gardener interviews/Isaac

Demographics
Age:


 * 18-29

Gender: male

Where do you live? (general area ok) Inner west of Sydney

Do you live in a house, flat, ??? 4 bedroom house (share house)

Do you rent or own? rent

Your garden
Tell me about your garden?


 * Probably about 5m x 5m, we've got a 2 car carport out the back and it's just a corner between the courtyard and the carport. Straight in the ground, used to have a half-pipe but it rotted away so we pulled it down and put the garden in.  Currently growing: a killer corn crop, herbs, lots of basil, parsley, rosemary, a wall with vines (non-edible) and beans, just had carrots, eggplant, strawberries, tomatoes.

How long have you been growing food?


 * about 9-10 months ago we started it, it took us a while to clear it out and we needed a lot more soil -- we spent every weekend for am onth getting soil and filling it. 10 full ute loads of soil.  Parent's place in the country always had a big vegie garden at home: plums, apricots, apples, etc.

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


 * Having fresh produce. It's a lot cheaper than buying. Mainly just to do something with the unused plot in the backyard that looked like shit, then we began to enjoy it.

Do you buy fruit/veg from other places? Where? Why do you shop there?


 * Just the local IGA, occasionally the farmers markets, at Eveleigh in the carriage works. Also Marrickville markets.

Do you garden with anyone else/does anyone help you with the garden?


 * Yeah, with one of my other housemates, just the two of us. Another guy, 25 yo.

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


 * We had a party to launch the garden where everyone came round to plant their own things, so we got everyone else to fill it for us. The first 5 ute-fuls of soil were free but we had to shovel itself, the rest from the soil place in St Peters. Not sure of the cost, don't think it was too bad.  3 loads of the high quality stuff.

Where do you buy garden supplies etc?


 * Bunnings (compost, seedlings), local KMart has a fair range of seedlings etc in teh outdoor area

Where do you get information/help about gardening?


 * One of the girls who used to live here, her dad was a really good gardener so we'd call him. Or my parents who always have vegie gardens.  We never really researched.  Sometimes we google for things, eg. what to plant coming into winter.  DIdn't really do it in depth, didn't find much.  We were discussing buying a gardening magazine too.  Don't really use the info on the seedling labels.

What are the *best* sources of information?


 * Probably my old man.

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


 * as above

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


 * nope

If no: Would you consider keeping a garden journal? What might inspire or motivate you to do so?


 * if I could be bothered filling it out. probably to track how much we're saving on food costs.

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


 * there's a really cool cafe locally that trades fresh produce for coffee -- Corner Smith in Marrickville -- rotating menu that uses fresh produce. They're featured on Sydney Broadsheet this week, they're on the good food blogs and stuff.  They've got beehives on their roof.

Online behaviour
Do you have high-speed Internet at home? What do you mostly use it for?


 * yes, downloading pirate tv shows, also work from home

Do you have a smart phone? What kind? What do you mostly use it for?


 * iPhone 4S, texting, checking email if i'm out and about, social media. Sometimes download apps -- not as much as I used to.

Do you use social networks? Which? What for? How much time do you spend?


 * Twitter, Facebook, Instagram. Yeah, I run social media for my job too.

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


 * Invited everyone to garden launch on Facebook, track most of the progress with Instagram.

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


 * don't think so, mostly the stuff you want you can find for free.

For each service, what makes it worth paying for?

Do you use any gardening websites or apps? For instance garden planners, trackers, planting guides/reminders, forums, or wikis/encyclopedias of plants?


 * no, had a quick look but not something i regularly go to

What do you like best about them?

What do you dislike about them?

Growstuff
We're building a website for food gardeners. It's called Growstuff. It's free to use. It lets you:


 * track what you're growing (like a garden journal)
 * post updates and pictures of your garden and share them via social networks
 * research and learn about things to grow, how to grow things, get help with problems, etc
 * see what other people in your local area are growing/talking about, and connect with the local community
 * swap/trade (or potentially buy/sell) produce, seeds, gardening supplies, etc from people near you

Would you consider using a website like this? Again, reiterate: it's free to use.


 * yeah, for sure

What part of it sounds interesting or useful to you?


 * knowing what's good in your area, social media apsect, connecting with people around you, we probably made 3kg of pesto on sunday so it would be good to share it.

We're also thinking of offering a paid upgrade to provide premium features. These might include things like:


 * managing multiple gardens
 * sharing your garden with co-gardeners
 * planning future garden activities and setting reminders

Would you consider paying for something like that?


 * probably not

Which of those features sounded interesting to you?


 * co-gardening, but we'd just share the same login; would definitely use reminders etc

Are there any other features that might be cool enough to make you want to buy a premium account?


 * no not really... maybe once it's live I'd think of something

How much do you think would be a reasonable price? (Feel free to compare to other online services, if it helps you think about what are normal sorts of prices.)

Growstuff works towards social good in a number of ways. For instance:


 * we choose ethical and sustainable providers wherever possible
 * we'll offer free accounts to non-profits/community gardens
 * we make an effort to be accessible and inclusive to all, to respect our members' privacy and self-identity, and to always act ethically in the way we run our online service
 * our software is developed in a collaborative model, working closely with our community
 * we mentor volunteers who want to learn how to code, especially women and people from non-traditional IT backgrounds
 * our software is released under an open source license, meaning greater transparency and trust between us and our community
 * the aggregate data we gather from members is provided under a free/open license for people who are researching or building other tools for food gardeners

Knowing this, would you be more or less likely to pay for a premium account on Growstuff?


 * especially interested in the coding side of it -- I use open source when I can. is a graphic designer but studied IT before that.

Does this change the amount you'd be willing to pay?


 * no... as a recent graduate, has been too flat out with things to get involved in open source or really commit to things

Other
Anything else you'd like to tell us that we didn't cover in the questions?


 * that's pretty much it... when we first did our garden there are some girls next door and we wanted to do a competition with them, get two gardens going, but they never started like they said they would.

Can you put us in touch with anyone else who might like to be interviewed?

Would you like to receive our newsletter? (fortnightly, gives updates on our progress and will tell you when Growstuff is launched)


 * yes, added