Table 2.
Frequency of participant comments ranked by the percentage of total comments for Never Gardeners (NG) and Ever Gardeners (EG) organized by the capability, opportunity, motivation, and behavior (COM-B) model, and linked to the Behavior Change Wheel intervention functions from Michie et al [32].
| Participant response summary and illustrative comments | NG,a Rank | NG, n (%) | EG,a Rank | EG, n (%) | |
| Capability: Education and Trainingb | |||||
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The garden maintenance basics: “Start with very basic things like mulching, weeding, manuring or fertilizing, and watering.” | 1 | 85 (26.0) | 1 | 93 (18.1) |
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How and when to start seeds, plant, and harvest: “I would like to see how to plant common veggies and when to plant them and when to harvest them.” | 2 | 55 (16.8) | 2 | 91 (17.7) |
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Preparing the soil and fertilizer: “Information on the best vegetables to use with the soil in my location”; “Using the right fertilizer.” | 3 | 35 (10.7) | 3 | 82 (15.9) |
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Choosing seeds/plants for your location: “How to pick appropriate plants for your area” | 4 | 28 (8.6) | 4 | 51 (9.9) |
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Specialty gardening (indoor gardens, small spaces): “Small space gardening, especially with pots”; “I'd like to see indoor gardening for small spaces” | 5 | 21 (6.4) | 7 | 31 (6.0) |
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Tools and supplies:“What tools and supplies you need”; “I would like to see how to get started with basic tools.” | 7 | 18 (5.5) | 12 | 10 (1.9) |
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How to use produce/cooking: “Tips on how to cook certain veggies, easy meal plans, easy recipes that are kid friendly”; “What parts of the plant are edible.” | 8 | 16 (4.9) | 6 | 35 (6.8) |
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Pest control (including disease, insects, animals): “…Keeping animals out of the plants”; “How to control pests organically.” | 9 | 13 (4.0) | 5 | 44 (8.5) |
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Money saving/tips for high yields:“Which vegetables or fruit are easiest and most cost saving”; “Low cost and effective ways to garden with easy to follow instructions.” | 11 | 9 (2.8) | 10 | 15 (2.9) |
| Opportunity: Enablement | |||||
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Provide gardening items (seeds, space, supplies): “I would like to see gardening equipment provided and a variety of different vegetables to grow.” | 14 | 3 (1.0) | 14 | 0 (0) |
| Opportunity: Environmental Restructuring (Social) | |||||
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Facilitate group interaction and activities: “Families being welcomed and encouraged to join in”; “Group projects”; “Open discussions with the community members”; “Discussion forums for help” | 6 | 19 (5.8) | 9 | 21 (4.1) |
| Motivation: Persuasion | |||||
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Offer encouragement and highlight the benefits of gardening (including personal satisfaction): “Have patience”; “Benefits of having a garden”; “How nice it is when [it is] all grown and you get to pick the vegetables that you have put all the work into.” | 10 | 12 (3.7) | 8 | 25 (4.9) |
| Motivation: Modeling | |||||
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Use content experts: “Use experts in your program”; “Nice professionals who know about gardening.” | 12 | 9 (2.8) | 11 | 13 (2.5) |
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Testimonials or garden tours: “People that actually did it from home and show results”; “We can show off our progress on our own gardens”; “Before and after photos”; “show and tell” | 13 | 4 (1.2) | 13 | 4 (0.8) |
aA total 398 participants who provided 871 comments (346 NG and 525 EG).
bEducation and training have distinct functions but they are presented together because participant comments were unclear as to which category they were referring.