Canadian
Garden Council

GARDENS CANADA

Canadian Garden Council

Founded in April 2014, in collaboration with the Canadian Nursery Landscape Association (CNLA), in order to foster awareness and development of Canada’s garden experience sector, the Canadian Garden Council is a not-for-profit corporation with board representation from all parts of the country. Council membership reflects partnerships among all sectors of the horticulture, public garden, gardening, tourism and associated industries on a regional, provincial and territorial basis, enabling the Council to address the full range of issues facing the garden experience sector.

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Our Vision

Our vision is to champion Canada’s garden culture and its contributions to the development and well-being of Canadians, the sustainability of our communities and the health, social and environment benefits associated with gardens.

Smiling young woman working with friends in vegetable garden

Our Mission

Our Mission is to generate the development, growth and celebration of Canada’s garden culture by:

  • Positioning public gardens as the centres of our garden culture
  • Being the national platform through which garden organisations and organisers come together with common goals
  • Developing programs, resources, and services
  • Promoting the role and benefits of Canadian gardens and garden activities as integral components of our communities and their tourism appeal
  • Fostering increased visitation to gardens and participation in gardening activities.

Goals

  1. To contribute to the development and celebration of Canada’s Garden Culture
  2. To promote the “triple bottom line” (social, economic and environmental) impact of Garden Experiences in communities across Canada
  3. To enrich Canada’s tourism offering with the many and varied Garden Experiences within the provinces and territories
  4. To work with the Canadian horticultural industry to stimulate garden experience development and grow the garden clientele
  5. To be the vehicle through which we tell Canadian garden stories and share them proudly with Canadians and the world
  6. To facilitate collaboration and cooperation between garden experience organizers and members of the Canadian Garden-Family on a local, provincial, national and territorial basis.
  7. To be the voice of the garden experience sector vis-à-vis other related sectors or Industries interested in developing and promoting Canadian Garden Experiences e.g., education, art, culture, culinary, heritage, tourism, etc.
  8. To foster, develop, monitor and share research related to gardens and gardening development and trends
  9. To evaluate and measure development and performance on an ongoing basis to ensure continued growth and success of the sector
  10. To operate with integrity in a professional business manner.

Guiding Principles

All activities of the Canadian Garden Council are assessed against the following

Guiding Principles:

  1. Providing added value to Canada’s Garden Culture
  2. Respecting the nature of the Garden Experiences
  3. To always work collaboratively
  4. Contributing to the positioning of Garden Experiences in the context of Canadian heritage, culture, health, environment, diversity, inclusion and economic
  5. Contributing to the integration of Garden Experiences in their communities and the appeal of their destinations
  6. Contributing to enhancing visitation and business
  7. Resulting in a positive cost benefit analysis for the Council

We also consider other factors like making best use of existing human resources, operational considerations, sustainability, and partnerships

Values

Five values underpin the Council’s operations:

  • Commitment
  • Collaboration
  • Inclusion
  • Communication
  • Sustainability

By adopting these values, we believe all partners in the garden experience value chain will benefit and ultimately so too will visitors of Canada’s garden experiences.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI)

We recognize that our garden culture has grown within a wider society where discrimination based on race, gender, ethnicity, visible or unseen disabilities, sexual orientation, religion, age, immigration status, class or education, has perpetuated structural inequalities.

We commit to modelling equity and inclusion within our garden culture by identifying and addressing racism and discrimination wherever it may exist.

We remind everyone that plants are there for everyone. They offer the same experiences to gardeners or visitors regardless of race, gender, ethnicity, visible or unseen disabilities, sexual orientation, religion, age, immigration status, class or education.

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