Celebrating The Queens Platinum Jubilee
4 May 2022
The Queens Platinum Jubilee
This year marks 70 years of service of Her Majesty The Queen. In celebration of The Queen becoming the first monarch to have a Platinum Jubilee, there are events all around the United Kingdom and Commonwealth to reflect and celebrate. There are of course large-scale events up and down the country, street parties and more. However, if you want to take matters into your own hands and organise a weekend of celebrations in your own garden, here are some tips to throw a spectacular event in your space.
Regal gardens
Recreate Buckingham Palace’s gardens in your own space by taking inspiration from the famous planting schemes. The flower beds at the front of Buckingham Palace are also known as the Memorial Gardens and were created in 1901 to honour Queen Victoria. They are designed in circles and semi-circles, with different seasonal plants through the year. Through winter, they are packed with vibrant yellow flowers and red tulips, for a simple yet bold impact, especially in such large drifts.
Elegant & regal
Get creative by using the summer schemes to plant around your patio or in containers on top of it. Geraniums are a common choice, and red varieties are chosen to match the famous tunics of The Queen’s Guard. ‘Best Red’ has wonderful scarlet flowers that are complemented by the dark green foliage. From June to October, these flowers will bloom in a sunny or partially shaded spot in moist but well-drained soil.
Celebrate with lots of colour
Salvia (sage) ‘Amistad’ has glorious deep-purple flowers through summer. It’s a versatile choice, suiting many garden locations from city and courtyard spaces to coastal and gravel gardens.
It has a lovely fragrance too, making it a wonderful companion on the patio where you can enjoy the aroma as you celebrate with loved ones. This will attract pollinators as well, so will be appreciated by everybody.
Platinum patio
Among the materials used to construct Buckingham Palace is Portland stone, a formation of limestone. The East side of the palace, including the balcony is made up of these building blocks, giving it a light, sandy colour.
The beauty of natural limestone
Get the limestone look in your garden with Limestone paving, which not only looks great but is durable too. For sandy cream and bronze tones, Abbey is a wonderful foundation with different sized stones that knit together to form a mosaic of golden colours. It’s a great colour for cottage style gardens and traditional spaces, to add a bit of charm.
Dramatic & contemporary
Alternatively, for contemporary gardens or for a deeper and more dramatic patio, opt for the black-blue tones of Black Kadapha, or the modern Kota Blue. The soft, riven finish of the paving brings an element of texture to the space too.
Clean enough for a royal visit!
Prepare your patio for celebrations by making it pristine for the platinum party. Whether you have stubborn dirt to clean off, or are just looking to give your patio a spring clean, this Patio Cleaner is well-suited to clean sandstone, limestone, slate, and porcelain patio paving.
The cleaner simply needs to be diluted with water and applied to the area that needs sprucing up. Scrub the area with a sponge to rid residue and debris, repeating the steps of adding solution, water and scrubbing until clean. Then, the patio can be rinsed well with water.
Don’t forget the walls
The same method can be used for cleaning walls, so if the perimeter of your patio is accentuated with Rock Stack Cladding, you can make it party ready by giving it a spring tidy.
Dinner and drinks
For gatherings, you might want to put on a spread or host a barbecue if the sun is shining. What could be better than cooking up a storm with homegrown ingredients? Your garden is also a great place to grow embellishments for summer drinks.
Grow your own embellishments
Simply putting some fresh strawberries into a glass of lemonade, or raspberries in a glass of gin and lemonade, finished with a colourful straw looks fantastic. Strawberries are very easy to grow and can be grown almost anywhere such as window boxes, hanging baskets, or containers on a patio.
Grow them anywhere
From March to May, strawberries can be planted in well-drained, fertile soil in a sunny but sheltered spot, and watered frequently to help them settle into the new space. Harvests of red, juicy fruit can be ready to pick from June onwards. Wait until the strawberries are fully red before harvesting and pinch the stalk to release the fruit.
Fancy cocktails
Growing herbs like mint are a great thing to have on hand for cocktails like mojitos, juleps, and mint coolers. Mints are vigorous growers, so are best grown in a container. They’re also thirsty plants, so need plenty of water, especially during dry, hot weather. It’s ideal to pick mint regularly to keep the plant compact and encourage new growth.
However you are spending the Platinum Jubilee, it’s never a bad idea to spruce up your patio. Host a celebration with your loved ones in a space that looks, feels and smells great with an array of plants that will complement your patio area.
Here is a video of a great party garden. I love the contrast between the buff 'wood' effect timber porcelain paving and the Granite 'stone' effect porcelain paving. Two wonderfully contrasting paving tiles, which being porcelain will hold that clean looking 'just been laid' look for many, many years to come!
David Domoney, TV gardener, horticultural expert and Pavestone brand ambassador blogs monthly on the Pavestone website on all things landscaping related.
We look forward to seeing you back again next month.