Hello,

I am studying an engineering design degree with the Open University and I have an assignment to design a product to 'encourage & enable people living in towns cities to grow their own vegetables'.

Obviously the options are endless, so I have refined it to something that can help with the transportation of heavy/bulky gardening items from markets and shops etc. to the humble city garden (as I imagine this can present a challenge to the inner-city gardener). Therefore, to help my research I was wondering whether you could answer a few simple questions?

1. What gardening items cause you the biggest and/or most frequent problem in terms of transporting them from shops etc. to your city garden?

2. Are there certain times of the year when the problem is worse, and if so when and why?

3. Does the range of typical gardening materials (e.g. compost bags, fertiliser and tools) pose particular logistical problems when getting them to/from small city garden areas?

4. How do you transport heavy/bulky gardening items to high-rise garden areas that only have small elevators or multiple stairs?

5. What would your ideal product be to help overcome such logistical problems?

Thank you in advance. Your participation is very much appreciated.
Charles Hiney