The University recently hosted a conference to conclude the two-year project Gardmed – The Network of Mediterranean Gardens.
The project identified gardens in Malta and Sicily and provided tools for their sustainable management. It created a network of 18 gardens in Sicily and Malta, such as Latomia dei Capuccini in Siracusa and Palazzo Parisio in Naxxar, and devised a sustainable management index and applied it to two public gardens of the network.
During the project, a catalogue, as well as a searchable database on the gardens, were produced and these werepromoted with a number of international tour operators. Public events and tours, as well as a gardening school for the public, were organised in severalgardens.
The conference was addressed by Tourism Minister Karmenu Vella, University of Malta pro-rector Richard Muscat, Anna Guglielmo from the project’s lead partner – the University of Catania, Argotti Botanical Gardens director Joseph Buhagiar and Italian ambassador Giovanni Umberto De Vito.
The project website http://gardmednetwork.org was launched at the conference. The garden network hopes it will continue to grow.