Seriously satisfying garden jobs for National Gardening Week
27th Apr 2020
Today marks the start of National Gardening Week, a national celebration of gardening from the RHS. This year the RHS calling on gardeners up and down the country to go out into gardens or onto balconies as a way to look after their physical health, wellbeing and keep 'growing at home'. We couldn't agree more with this! Gardening can be seriously satisfying, as our latest piece of research confirms.
Therapeutic gardening
According to our latest study, conducted in March 2020, many people across Britain are finding DIY and gardening to be very therapeutic right now, with several garden jobs cited as being ‘strangely satisfying’ in the current climate.
Planting seeds, bulbs or plants in the garden topped the list of the UK’s most satisfying DIY jobs. The Draper Tools study also found that mowing the lawn, jet-washing the patio and perfectly trimming a hedge were among the most enjoyable tasks too. Others love painting a fence and digging out troublesome weeds.
Kev Smith, Head of Marketing at Draper Tools said: “While it’s true that we are living in unprecedented and uncertain times, it does appear that many people are trying to find the silver lining in all of this and using the time at home to take on new DIY projects or tackle long put off home and garden jobs. In fact, just over half of those in our survey, told us that making their home a nicer place to be is a priority right now.”
Strangely satisfying tasks
The study revealed other outdoor jobs that bring satisfaction include laying grass turf, using power tools, and sawing wood.
Just under a third of adults (31%) have spent time watching online videos of ‘oddly satisfying’ DIY and garden jobs, like filthy patios being slowly blasted clean. The same amount also believe DIY and gardening is one of their favourite ways to relax and switch off from everyday life.
In fact, during a typical week, the average person spends more than two hours watching DIY programmes, including Garden Rescue and Love Your Garden, with three in 10 finding them ‘relaxing’.
Lockdown DIY & Garden plans
People will also take nearly three days off each year to tackle jobs that need taking care of around their homes and gardens. However, with the majority of the population now working from home, seven in ten people feel the next three months will be the perfect time to start a new DIY or gardening project.
A quarter of Brits plan to clean their patio, while just under four in 10 have some garden weeding to attend to. Almost three in 10 want to tidy their garage or shed, and 15 per cent are planning to go through their toolboxes and sort them out.
45 per cent of people say they are planning to have a general garden tidy up in the next three months and two in ten say they’ll be painting outside walls or fences. Just under a quarter plan on some garden pruning.
Kev Smith of Draper Tools added: “That’s the great thing about DIY and gardening – the jobs can be as big or as small as you want them to be.”
“And while not all of them are satisfying while you’re doing them, there is always satisfaction to be had at the end of a project.”
“No matter how stressful our lives are, or whatever’s going on in the world – seeing something you’ve planted growing successfully is always going to feel great.”
The UK's most satisfying Gardening & DIY Jobs:
- Planting seeds / bulbs / plants
- Mowing the lawn
- When flatpack furniture slots perfectly into place
- Weeding
- Jet washing the patio
- Painting with a roller
- Hanging up a picture perfectly
- Painting a fence
- Painting the final layer of paint
- Oiling a noisy hinge
- Stripping wallpaper
- Filling in holes with polyfilla
- Polishing surfaces until they shine
- Fixing something with glue
- ‘Cutting in’ – perfect lines when painting
- Getting wallpaper perfectly lined up
- Trimming a hedge perfectly
- Getting a shelf perfectly lined up
- Hammering nails into wood
- Smashing down walls
- Using a drill
- Organising tools
- Successfully removing a screw which has lost its thread
- Using power tools
- Sorting through a massive pile of screws/nails and finding the one you need
- Using a tape measure
- Sanding wood
- Sawing wood
- Varnishing furniture
- Cleaning paint off a paint brush
- Fixing a crooked shelf
- Laying grass seed
- Using sealant
- Cutting a tile so it fits perfectly
- Plastering to a smooth finish
- Laying grass turf
- Planing wood
- Fixing a wonky floorboard
- Perfectly laying a patio
- Watching paint dry
Are you planning on taking part in National Gardening Week? Which gardening jobs do you find most therapeutic? Tell us in the comments or let us know on social media.
Find out everything you need to know about National Gardening Week here: www.rhs.org.uk/get-involved/national-gardening-week/
