The Nurture Garden
We need your donation to help us create an amazing new wildlife and wellbeing garden. The Nurture Garden will promote the health and wellbeing of people AND the health and wellbeing of nature. We believe you cannot have one without the other.
The Nurture Garden wraps around a new building where local health teams work from our site to improve access to healthcare for the local community. So far we are home to Social Prescribers from our local GP surgeries and our own team of Community Health and Wellbeing Workers.
This new facility and the Nurture Garden is another step in our mission to enrich lives in our community and contribute to nature recovery in our county.
Newquay Community Orchard: built by the community for the community
Newquay Community Orchard is a not-for-profit social enterprise that exists for the good of people and planet. We provide wellbeing support, skills and education courses to help people fulfil their potential and improve their quality of life. We run high quality inclusive community events and activities, and act as a venue for others in our community to do the same. We grow and teach people to cook nutritious, seasonal food with our wonderful veg and we create meals in our very own café – Heart & Soul.
Nurturing our community
The new garden will create natural spaces that invite people to stop, rest, talk, listen and connect with nature. At Newquay Community Orchard, we see everyday how amazing things happen when people get outside into nature. It has a direct benefit for our physical and mental health, creating a safe space where the mind and body can heal.
The garden will include wildflowers and plants that have medicinal and sensory properties and tell a story about the connection between nature and health. The planting and features in the garden will interact with all the senses - the scent of flowers, the sound of water trickling over a stone, the feel of a textured leaf, the bright colours of dazzling petals, the taste of a freshly picked herb!
The story will be told with information boards, signage and through digital links to make it accessible for as many people as possible.
Nurturing nature
As well as colleagues from our local GP surgeries, the Nurture Garden will be a home for nature. Our community bioblitzes identified more than 500 species of fauna and flora on our site already and we will use this data to inform the planting and design of the garden to encourage even more diversity and abundance.
In particular we will be creating habitats to encourage bees. In Britain, as well as honey bees we have around 270 species of bee, just under 250 of which are solitary bees. Increasing the diversity of bees at Newquay Orchard will be an amazing addition to the biodiversity of Newquay Community Orchard and will help pollinate the wildflowers in the new garden as well as our market garden crops and our orchard for a bountiful harvest. We will use the bees to teach our volunteers and students about our connection with nature and learn new invertebrate identification skills.
Large Scabious Mining Bee (Andrena hattorfiana) © Will Hawkes
The garden will be planted with a rich tapestry of wildflowers and plants that will support the bees and other wildlife by providing a diverse range of habitats with plentiful food sources. In addition we will include features to encourage more wildlife including bird boxes, beetle bumps, bug hotels and a rockery.
Photograph: Vole - Lisa Williams
How we will spend the money
Your donations will be spent as follows:
- A series of welcoming, oak sleeper planters with integrated seating - £5,900
- Perennial wildlife and pollinator planting - £3,000
- Wildlife friendly water feature - £1,000
- Habitat creation - £2,500
- New pathway surfacing - £500
- Interpretation boards and signage - £4,000
- Security and fencing - £1,200
- Landscape education team - £1,900
Total - £20,000
A thriving future
The Nurture Garden will be created and cared for by our amazing volunteers and students from the local community. Learning to care for nature gives us a tangible way to tackle the climate and nature emergencies where we live and build stronger and healthier communities. For individuals, it will help people to find wellbeing, to learn new skills, to build their confidence and make lasting connections with new friends, overcoming barriers to a better future. Helping people learn, heal and grow by connecting with nature and community is what we do.
Donate now!
By donating to this project you are becoming part of a story that is much bigger than this one project. You will be joining the Newquay Orchard community now and for a sustainable future.
Thank you
From all the Newquay Community staff, volunteers, students and friends