Garden School Library cardEditor’s note: This treasure was found in 2025 in the Cullerne Gardeners’ Meeting Room. It is a photo album/early brochure for the Garden School. The folder has plastic sleeves containing prints, captions and other text mounted on black card. It has a library card on the inside which just shows how well organised things were at the time.

We provide the text also below the flipbook to make it more accessible.

To browse through the folder please use the < > arrows at the left and right of the window. For easier reading, use the buttons at the bottom of the window: use Zoom (the + and – buttons) or Toggle Fullscreen (the four arrows pointing outwards).

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THE FINDHORN FOUNDATION

The Findhorn Foundation is an international spiritual community living and working in the northeast of Scotland. Taking root in 1962 on the windswept dunes of the Moray Firth, it has flourished to become a world renowned educational centre receiving thousands of guests each year, and now a ‘planetary village’ of some 250 members, committed to exploring new approaches to government, education, business and the arts.

The Foundation has no formal doctrine or creed. It is based on the premise that humanity stands on the threshold of an evolutionary expansion of consciousness which will in turn create new patterns of civilisation. The Community exists to embody this new consciousness and to test these emerging patterns in its daily life.

THE COMMUNITY GARDENS

From its earliest beginnings the Community has been centred in its gardens. It was here that world-wide attention first focused on the pioneering work of communication and cooperation with the nature kingdoms, and it is here that the work of co-creation with these intelligent forces continues. Not only have the gardens shown that communication is possible, but our learning to work with these forces is of crucial importance in a world struggling to correct the ecological imbalances created in the wake of human technology. Today, more that ever, Findhorn’s ‘growing edge’ is in its gardens.

THE GARDEN SCHOOL

In the continuing development of Findhorn, nothing could be more appropriate than the newly emerging Garden School — the first in 18 years. Centred at Cullerne, it is a ‘school within a garden’ — a learning environment where staff and students grow food, flowers, trees and themselves. The garden is the classroom and the teacher.

Courses are intensive and practical, from garden design to food preservation; from seed selection to cold-frame construction; from composting to greenhouse and solar-dome agriculture; from small engine overhaul to small-animal husbandry.

Our purpose is to ground a horticulture more sensitive and attuned to the art of ‘right action’, utilising the knowledge of our time in cooperation with native lore and natural elements present here. Students will learn how to be responsible for the well-being of a piece of the planet. To learn how to see it, cultivate it, plant it, tend it, harvest it . . . how to love it and learn from it. . . how to do this and in the process, further their own inner evolution . . . These are among our objectives.

The directors of the Garden School are Fred and Dick Barton, a father and son team and Community members since 1974, carrying on a five-generation family tradition of tending the land.

Initially, up to ten students will be in residence, enrolled in three month or year-long units of study. These units begin at summer solstice or spring or fall equinoxes. Students will have opportunity for full exposure to Community life and those who elect to remain for the full year will be eligible for Community membership at the end of their first quarter of study.

Captions in the album:

There are 9 acres of land around Cullerne House, which include a woodlot, greenhouses, chicken houses, vegetable plots, and various outbuildings.

Given our far northern climate, considerable growing is done under glass or polythene cover, both for food crops as well as for propagation.

The Garden School has two main streams of work: vegetable and ornamental plant production.

We may do many different types of jobs – some large-scale, such as greenhouse construction, others rather minute, such as plant propagation.

A gardener’s work is often not even with plants. Various maintenance skills are necessary in order to keep the entire property in peak condition.

Some of our work is with machines as well, such as the compost shredder/grinder and the mechanical cultivator.

We are working with chickens and sheep in our initial efforts in animal husbandry. Besides giving their products to us, the animals lend a sense of wholeness to the property.

Work is shared equally between all of the participants, be they staff or students. Organic soil improvement means a lot of carting of manure, and our exposed position demands more shelter belts.

We have recently begun a garden shop, through which we offer fresh vegetables and ornamental plants to our neighbours.

While the Garden School is centred at Cullerne House, it embraces the work done in all of the other Foundation gardens as well, including the Park Garden and those at Cluny Hill…

Even as far as Erraid Isle in the Inner Hebrides, where 10 community members live a life very close to nature.

Horticulture is the primary emphasis in the Garden School, but nature as a whole is our classroom. Outdoor activities in the Scottish hills tone the body as well as sharpen the spirit.

We recognise trees as sources of great wisdom and strength.

Our tree program includes propagation from cuttings and seed.

And just as the roots of the tree
Sink into the earth and are nourished by it,
And the branches of the tree
Raise their arms to heaven,
So is man like the trunk of the tree,
With his roots deep
In the breast of his Earthly Mother,
And his soul ascending
To the bright stars of his Heavenly Father.
And the roots of the tree
Are the Angels of the Earthly Mother,
And the branches of the tree
Are the Angels of the Heavenly Father.
And this is the sacred Tree of Life
Which stands in the Sea of Eternity.

The Gospel of the Essenes

We dedicate our work to the future generations.

ENROLLMENT

The first 3-month unit of study commences on June 21, 1980. Subsequent units begin always on a Solstice or Equinox (excepting the Winter Solstice). Students may enroll for one or more 3-month units up to one full year.

The fee for any initial 3-month unit is £750; subsequent units are £500 each. These costs include all tuition, accommodation and full board within the Findhorn Community. Fees are payable in advance at the beginning of each quarter.

A fully detailed prospectus of the Garden School is available on request for £1.00 (sterling) or S2.00 (U.S.). Such requests, applications, or general correspondence should be addressed to:

MR. A. D. BARTON
THE FINDHORN FOUNDATION
THE PARK
FORRES, MORAYSHIRE
SCOTLAND IV 36 OTZ

Those considering enrolment should include a brief resume of their experience, their expectations of the course, and whatever personal details may be relevant.

PROJECT CULLERNE

To date the total of finances raised for Project Cullerne is £64,000, of which £13,000 has been donated and £51,000 loaned. Our trustees have put a ceiling of £65,000 on loans, so we may accept another £14,000 at an agreed interest of between 0 and 12%, with the remainder of the £80,000 total coming from donations.

In view of the advice of our lawyers we are in the process of establishing a nominee company which will hold in trust the standard security which the Foundation would give to the company in exchange for a loan of £65,000. We expect these negotiations to be completed in the very near future.

The simplicity of this organisational scheme has kept the costs to a minimum, therefore our goal is the £80,000 which is the basic price the Foundation agreed to in 1978. A big thank you to everyone who has donated or subscribed to Project Cullerne so far and, with money still coming in, we look forward to reaching our goal over the next few months. If you know anyone who may like to support our venture please put them in touch with us.