When I first met Gaye Jeynes and her ladies’ group on a cold January morning this year, I could never have guessed what we would achieve in their rubbish-filled back garden. In less than six months we transformed the space and changed ourselves a little bit, too.

My name is Barbara and I work for BBOWT as a community officer in Slough. My role was created as part of The Wildlife Trusts’ £5 million Nextdoor Nature project, funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund to help communities help nature.

The Ujala Foundation is a community organisation based at the Manor Park Pavilion in Slough. The ladies’ group, led by Gaye, is mainly women of South Asian heritage. They meet on Tuesday mornings and do knitting, card making and painting.

My initial idea to help the ladies spend time in nature was to go on walks to a local park – however a new host of possibilities emerged when Gaye revealed that the pavilion had an enclosed area at the back: at the time, this was a dump for passers-by, but we saw its potential.

The challenge was huge: how would my group of mostly elderly ladies react to the gargantuan task of clearing the space and preparing the ground before spring?

Gaye leapt into action, calling in favours from a host of local movers and shakers such as The Good Gym Slough - a volunteer group who do good works to get exercise. She even recruited two local woman while they were out shopping who turned out to be invaluable project leaders - Sharon Carty and Yolanda Benjamin. We were helped all the way by Ujala founding members Zulfiqar Ali Warsi and Arshad Mehmood Janjua.

We started by clearing the rubbish, but this turned out to be more productive than we could have imagined: when we found an old baby bath, we lined it with tarpaulin and buried in in the ground to create a wildlife pond.

A compost heap was created on a discarded pallet, a hedgehog box made out of reclaimed wood and we used sticks to create a shelter for small animals. We upcycled bits of an old fence as signs, hand-painting them to welcome people to the garden.

When it came to helping wildlife, we discovered that many of the ‘weeds’ were valuable wildflowers that could benefit butterflies and bees, so we simply left them as they were. We also discovered a carpet of wild garlic which Sharon told us could make a great cooking ingredient, so we encouraged it to grow.

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Council contractor Osborne Property Services donated wildlife boxes made by disability charity Mencap Greenwich, R Watts and Sons tree surgeons provided wood chippings and Davies Brothers Nurseries in Burnham supplied all our beautiful plants. BBOWT donated two benches.

When it came time to prepare the ground for our new plants, Brother Arshad provided a very different kind of fertiliser. During our clear-out, we had stumbled across some old sacred literature: a Muslim precept forbids from disposing of any sacred material by throwing it away, so Brother Arshad suggested burying it in the ground. I found this a poignant act, as if the literature had been placed there to bless the earth where the new plants were going to grow.

On a sunny Tuesday in May, we held our official planting day. In freshly-tilled beds along the warm, south-facing walls, we filled the soil with vegetables from the ladies’ Asian heritage: pumpkins, sweet potatoes, chillies, tomatoes, cucumbers and melon. Elsewhere we planted courgettes, onions, potatoes, herbs, lemon balm, lavender, hydrangeas and pansies.

On Tuesday, 18 July, we held an official opening ceremony. Brothers Arshad and Zulfiqar led the organisations, we served delicious locally-made food and the Mayor of Slough Amjad Abbasi cut the ribbon.

As if to prove the wildlife credentials of the garden, a rare zebra-striped Jersey tiger moth landed on our fig tree during the celebrations. We’ve also seen solitary bees making nests in our bug hotel and regularly have butterflies visiting the flowers.

I was so touched that day by how many compliments we got from the visitors: in less than six months we had transformed the muddy, rubbish filled patio in a gorgeous green haven, brimming with life and the results were clear to see.

We were all so pleased with what we had achieved for our community and for wildlife – and spending time with nature has undoubtedly helped us as well.