A Garden Visit

I visited a garden to carry out some field research. It was a really good experience and I feel like I now have a much better understanding of some of the problems facing gardeners growing their own food. Here's a summary of a few interesting things I saw:

Seeds: The way seeds are packaged and planted is an important aspect. Seed packets are quite fiddly, and not ideal for storing leftover seeds. Perhaps an opportunity to design a more efficient way of packaging and planting. A new product on the market are seed tapes. These are much simpler to use for the beginner or time pressed gardener.

Protection from the elements: I found out that one of the main problems with growing your own food in Scotland is the unpredictable, often cold, weather. To grow a good range of different vegetables is difficult and so there's a variety of different ways of covering plants. Some of these seemed quite simple and effective, such as the dome planter. Others such as cold frames were more of an investment. Possibly a opportunity to design a large portable cover, that bridged the gap between the small but practical dome and the larger, but more useful cold frame? Could perhaps be a fold away design or similar.

Easy Planting: There were lots of products aimed at making growing your own an easier and less time consuming job. A few good products I saw were seed rulers, used to take the hassle out of measuring were you should plant your seeds. I found out that when growing larger plants it's often necessary to start them off a seedlings before planting them out. There were handy seedling planters which allowed individual seedlings to be easily planted out.

The garden visit was a really useful experience and gave me lots of ideas for products that the more experienced gardener might use to help them grow their own food. I still think I might focus on developing a product for the urban gardener though, as I feel that would be a more interesting area for me.