New nature garden opens in Maidenhead's Norfolk Park area

A new nature garden built using sustainable materials has been established in Maidenhead’s Norfolk Park area.

The St Luke’s Community Nature Garden came to fruition through RBWM public health and local Climate Partnership funding.

It was officially opened this week by Royal Borough deputy mayor Cllr Sian Martin, alongside pupils from St Luke’s CofE Primary School.

The £15,000 garden, funded by an external public health grant, has been specially designed to create a relaxing and welcoming space for residents to enjoy and for local school pupils to use as an interactive green classroom.

The space has been created using only sustainable materials, featuring pebble and basket seating, a log bridge, raised planters, stepping logs and two bug hotels, providing a place for insects to rest, breed and hibernate - particularly in the winter months.

St Luke’s pupils helped with the final planting in the garden and the school has now established a gardening club for youngsters to care for the plants and learn how the insects in the bug hotels encourage biodiversity.

Local volunteers from GoodGym Windsor and Maidenhead and Calibra Tree Surgeons initially cleared the area and built the new garden, with Bower Facilities now conducting the larger ongoing maintenance.

The creation of the garden is part of the council’s public health externally funded £50,000 Healthy Streets Project, which also created the nearby Rain Gardens at the entrances to Norfolk Park.

These feature planting and natural drainage systems to help stop surface water from gathering.

Cllr Sian Martin, deputy mayor of the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead, said: “An underused urban corner is now a pretty and calming space for the whole community to relax in and enjoy.

“And it also gives local children their very own interactive classroom to experience first-hand how to care for plants, the importance of nature, and see for themselves how insects help keep the environment healthy.”