By creating beautiful and productive gardens, we aim to establish a learning environment where:
- the quality and distinctiveness of the local landscape is enhanced and maintained
- traditional island husbandry is valued and cultivated
- practice in restricting our use of natural and personal resources is demonstrated positively
- water is acknowledged as a precious and vital asset
- biodiversity is actively conserved, protected and cherished
- local identity and culture is celebrated
- and people can feel they belong
When developing our learning programmes, we aim to address, through both formal and informal education and research, the issues that will promote our ecological mission.
They will encompass both academic and practical objectives and be targeted at audiences of all ages. These will include programmes focused on:
- land based skills where traditional methods are integrated with newly emerging sustainable approaches
- heritage skills that both preserve the landscape and ensure its future productive use
- skills that maximise the self-provisioning of sustainable living
- knowledge and skills relating to water management
- exploration of the unity of the spiritual and the material in daily life
- practices to inform and encourage the reuse and recycling of resources
- study of local biodiversity and how to enable it to flourish
- activities to preserve island handicraft skills
- growing in understanding of how we may live in harmony with creation
- skills that advance opportunities for sustainable livelihood development including small business studies
- and programmes where we can support young people’s environmental education
Through the breadth and diversity of our activities to further sustainable lifestyles, we seek to build a flourishing learning community who will:
- share our commitment to be catalysts for change
- encourage life-long involvement in a shared vision
- support the development of new and existing community enterprises with similar aims
- inspire and be inspired
- be advocates within our own circles and communities
- enjoy positive dialogue
- support and learn from other environmental organisations and initiatives
- invest our own talents, skills, knowledge, and experience
- benefit from the programme’s resources
- continue to grow and flourish