We are thrilled to announce that the Jubilee-inspired garden created by our Sonya Lodge Care Home residents and staff has won first place in Nellsar’s ‘Right Royal Jubilee Garden Competition’!
As part of this year’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations, we entered a fun competition running across all Nellsar’s 13 Homes, to see who could create the best royal-themed garden.
The judging criteria were:
Creativity: How well the Jubilee theme had been executed in the garden design.
Collaboration: How well staff teams worked with and included residents.
Presentation: How well presented and eye-catching the garden looked.
Our submission read:
‘We took a whole-home approach with the competition, with all staff and residents getting involved with this project from start to finish. Our residents were involved in the early discussions with our management team, Business Support Officer and Recreation and Well-Being Team about the types of designs they would like in the garden.Once designs had been agreed on, residents went out with our Recreation and Well-Being Team to buy plants and supplies. The Business Support Officer, Maintenance Officer and Recreation and Well-Being Lead then worked tirelessly with the residents in the garden to plant everything. Our main floral attraction in our Jubilee garden is our stunning flower bed.
Our residents and staff created a Union Jack Flag design from a selection of red, white and blue plants. The whole staff team and residents have then kept up with the maintenance of our new Jubilee garden. This included weeding and watering. With the garden under control, it was time to turn our pagoda into a Jubilee crown!
Our Maintenance Officer worked hard to build supports onto the pagoda to attach our crown pieces. Whilst he was busy doing this, our residents and staff team decorated each crown piece with colourful handprints to represent the jewels.
Many of our residents adore animals and enjoy nothing more than a chat about them. With this in mind, we decided to add finishing touches of corgi pictures, including pictures old and new of the Queen with her pet corgis. This sparked many conversations amongst our residents as they looked at the photos and reminisced about their own pets. Everyone got stuck it with this project and everyone’s hard work really paid off.
To celebrate our achievements, we decided to hold a garden afternoon tea party. Our residents enjoyed a selection of biscuits and cakes with several cups of tea. We also got into the Jubilee spirit with hats and flags. Even our garden gnomes joined the celebrations dressed as Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip!’
Nellsar’s Operations Director Glenda Osmotherly and Recreation and Well-Being Manager Viv Stead had great pleasure in judging the entries last week and our wonderful garden caught their eye!
They commented:
‘The centrepiece of this wonderful garden was the pergola made into a crown and a beautiful Union Jack flowerbed, designed and grown by the residents. Congratulations on first prize!’
We are so delighted to have won £200 for our Residents’ Fund and have all been enjoying the wonderful garden we have created. Congratulations to everyone involved!
St Winifreds Care Home were awarded second prize for their painted pots, patriotic planting and London themed decorations, whilst Silverpoint Court Residential Care Home came in third place with a Queen-inspired garden, featuring a beautiful waterfall.
Click here for further details of the fantastic competition entries.
