Research Outline

Motivations for Gardening

Goals

To provide a list of 5-10 consumer motivations for gardening. This information will help better understand the motivations of the target audience.

Early Findings

Motivation Study # 1

  • This article is focused on community gardening but provides insight into the motivations of why people in Austin, Texas garden:
  • Twenty randomly selected gardeners were asked what their functional motivations were for gardening. The most frequent answers were: "enjoying being outdoors (20.55%) followed by accessing fresh food (17.81%), connecting with nature (16.44%), improving psychological well-being (16.44%), enhancing bodily health (13.70%), socializing with other gardeners (8.22%), and participating in social activities (6.85%)." "The desires of gardeners for accessing food, seeking health, and enjoying being outdoors were common motivational factors attracting gardeners to be involved in gardening regardless of their experience in gardening."
  • The study also "revealed that long-term gardening is associated with emotional attachment to gardens rather than functional motivations."

Motivation Study # 2

  • In this study, the motivations for gardening among high-income and low-income persons are determined. The motivations among low-income persons for gardening are: growing one's own food is cheaper than purchasing it (33%), they enjoy gardening (26%), they enjoy being outside (21%), gardening makes one feel more connected to God (18%), the quality is better than what can be bought at the grocery store (18%), one can control what goes into their food (18%), gardening is good exercise (15%), it’s relaxing (15%).
  • The motivations among high-income persons for gardening are: they enjoy being outside (33%), the quality is better than what can be bought at the grocery store (33%), it’s relaxing (30%), they enjoy gardening (26%), it’s better for the environment (22%), gardening is good exercise (19%), they can control what goes into their food (19%), and their family gardened when they were a child (19%).

Summary of Findings

  • During the initial hour of research, we focused on finding consumer motivations for gardening.
  • We were able to find these motivations in two academic studies that were focused on differing groups.
  • There are a couple of common motivations: being outside and connecting with nature; eating quality, safe, wholesome foods; physical and mental health

Proprietary Database

  • In addition to this public search, we scanned our proprietary research database of over 1 million sources and were unable to find any specific research reports that address your goals.