About Us
Edinburgh Garden Partners has been creating garden partnerships across the city since 2011, connecting garden owners with volunteers looking for a space to grow.
Today our aim is to nurture a sense of belonging and strengthen communities in Edinburgh by creating garden partnerships that connect volunteers to older people in their community. It is the shared interest in gardening and the exchange of skills, knowledge and life experience that make these partnerships so special and rewarding for everyone involved.
Our Vision
We strive for sustainable, connected communities where everyone lives well and has space to grow.
Our Mission
We are a community organisation active across Edinburgh.
We aim to strengthen communities by creating relationships between people who want a space to grow and those who have garden space to share.
We connect people of different ages, abilities, and backgrounds to build a shared gardening movement through the exchange of skills, knowledge, and life experience.
Our Values
We are inclusive and strive to bring people together in a spirit of shared endeavour.
We are nurturing of gardens, of relationships and of ourselves.
We are open to new ideas, new ways of working, and in the way we communicate.
We are collaborative and believe that our organisation, partnerships and communities are stronger when we work together.
We are resourceful in our gardens and in our organisation, making the most of what we have and sharing our time, knowledge and skills.
We care about the environment and are committed to promoting sustainable practices and respect for our planet.
Our Strategy
Edinburgh Garden Partners (EGP) undertook a major strategic review in 2019, resulting in the 2020-2025 Strategic Plan, developed by our trustees and staff, with valued input from our garden owners and volunteers. This five year plan set out our vision, priorities and key aims to guide our work. In October 2022, having weathered the global Covid pandemic and with new staff and trustees on board, we took the opportunity to revisit this plan, and to reaffirm our Vision, Mission and Values. To deliver this, we will focus our work on 5 key workstreams which are structured around developing the quality, depth and strength of the work we do.
Sustain our garden partnerships, nurturing the breadth and quality of relationships between owners and volunteers within these, and build a bank of evidence for this.
Develop further opportunities for people to contribute to and collaborate with EGP, increasing volunteer capacity and strengthening partnerships.
Prioritise building diversity in our community and encouraging people of all different ages, abilities and backgrounds to get involved with our work.
Share and promote the EGP model with others, and develop ideas for expanding the scope of our work, in line with our key values and mission.
Build further resilience into EGP - including the background processes, governance structures and finances - to ensure the organisation is equipped to deal with change.
