Activity analysis Blog

Landscaping as a creative exercise.  My history of landscaping started as a child as I would build a garden on an island in the middle of a river close to where I lived. As the river would flood on an annual basis this would start with the importation of the soil. Here I learned about the different qualities of river silt, clay, and humus. I learned how to plant and tend plants and seeds, and how to shape the landscape, With my island garden I would create smaller streams often unsuccessfully with the view of watering the plants, which eventually eroded the soil around the root mass and eventually killed the plant. This illustrates A lifetime obsession with plants-manship and changing  the landscape to suit my needs.

Why this occupation holds meaning for me lays squarely on my upbringing. I remember going to a family owned nursery as a kid that was in the centre of town, close to my bus stop. I would regularly buy primroses that had edged petals and plant them in my island garden. My paternal grandparents were nurserymen who specialised in primroses and polyanthus back in England prior to immigration to New Zealand, and once here worked as gardeners in some of the stately homes in the region where they settled.

The habits and routines held by my family, reinforced how individual members within it spend there time.  John Bargh notion of "automaticity" within Christiansen & Townsend's introductory paragraph suggest that behaviour and choices are triggered by subconscious mechanisms reacting to features in the environment (2010). For me this activity holds a strong familial tradition, and is something I innately want to do.

I have experimented with all aspects of landscaping and gardening for over forty years, and come to this activity with a fair degree of expertise.

Christiansen, C., & Townsend. E., An introduction to occupation, in Christiansen, C., & Townsend, E. (Eds.). (2010). Introduction to occupation: The art and science of living (2nd ed.). New Jersey: Pearson.