In Mr. Lee's community garden project, since there is a linear relationship between the number of flower types planted and the total time spent, we can describe the rate of change as follows:
The rate of change represents the amount of time spent on the project per additional flower type planted. If we denote the total time spent on the project as \( T \) (in hours) and the number of flower types planted as \( N \), the rate of change can be expressed as:
\[ \text{Rate of change} = \frac{\Delta T}{\Delta N} \]
This means that for each additional flower type planted, Mr. Lee will spend a fixed amount of time (let's denote this as \( k \) hours) on planting that type. Therefore, the rate of change is the number of hours spent on the project per flower type planted.
If he spends constant \( k \) hours on each flower type, then the total time spent on planting \( N \) flower types would be:
\[ T = \text{(time gathering supplies)} + kN \]
In conclusion, the rate of change is \( k \) hours per flower type planted.