Introduction Amidst claims that the use of mixed methods research is in the ascendancy (Brannen, 2005) much has been written defining mixed methods research itself, defining the types of mixed methods research and arguing the case for or against it. However, perhaps because academic journals tend to be discipline-based and often incline towards particular research paradigms, there are few examples demonstrating how the elements of a mixed method design were selected. In this chapter it is shown

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... how a proposed two-phase mixed methods study was subsequently adapted to four phases to meet the changing circumstances of a cultural tourism research project. In doing so, a novel approach to interviewing was required and the method selected, drawn from ethnography, is described in detail. The study cited sought to understand participation in garden visiting from a number of perspectives but principally that of the visitor. It concentrated on what lay behind the decision to visit gardens rather than the experiential aspects of a visit. It therefore moved beyond the established approach of individual agency with its assumption of free choice to incorporate social and material agency. Initially, the project was conceived as a quantitative survey followed by qualitative interviews. This design was developed, as like many others, because the research project had more than one objective and hence more than one type of question to be answered.