The surprising change the Queen has made to Buckingham Castle

(Image credit: POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

It's been a busy few weeks for the royals, with the Queen celebrating her 96th birthday with a special portrait, Prince William preparing Prince George to be the future king, and Prince Harry attending the Invictus Games and giving a rare interview about this family life.

And it's likely to get even busier, with Her Majesty's Platinum Jubilee celebrations set to kick off in a couple of months. Ahead of the big event, the Queen has unveiled some interesting changes to Buckingham Castle.

In celebration of Earth Day, the monarch's social media team shared an illustration of the unusual sculpture which will be completed this summer. It will be called the Tree of Trees and feature no less than 350 trees which will be replanted in local communities later in the year.

A photo posted by on

The caption read, 'The sculpture will feature 350 British native trees, that will then be gifted to community groups and organisations, to help inspire the next generation of tree planters across the nation. The Queen’s Green Canopy (QGC) is a unique tree planting initiative created to mark Her Majesty’s Platinum Jubilee, with over 1 million trees already planted in the first planting season. Tree planting will commence again in October, through to the end of the Jubilee year.'

If the illustration is to be believed, the impressive green sculpture will be erected in front of the palace, looking onto the Mall. This way, tourists coming to celebrate with the Queen will be able to take it in, while also waiting to wave to Her Majesty, who will appear on the balcony as is tradition.

She will be joined by Meghan Markle and Prince Harry, who have been rumoured to have been invite to stand alongside her, as well as Prince William and Kate Middleton and their children, as well as Prince Charles and Camilla.

Penny Goldstone

Penny Goldstone is the Digital Fashion Editor at Marie Claire, covering everything from catwalk trends to royal fashion and the latest high street and Instagram must-haves.

Penny grew up in France and studied languages and law at the Sorbonne Nouvelle University in Paris before moving to the UK for her MA in multimedia journalism at Bournemouth University. She moved to the UK permanently and has never looked back (though she does go back regularly to stock up on cheese and wine).

Although she's always loved fashion - she used to create scrapbooks of her favourite trends and looks, including Sienna Miller and Kate Moss' boho phase - her first job was at MoneySavingExpert.com, sourcing the best deals for everything from restaurants to designer sales.

However she quit after two years to follow her true passion, fashion journalism, and after many years of internships and freelance stints at magazines including Red, Cosmopolitan, Stylist and Good Housekeeping, landed her dream job as the Digital Fashion Editor at Marie Claire UK.

Her favourite part of the job is discovering new brands and meeting designers, and travelling the world to attend events and fashion shows. Seeing her first Chanel runway IRL at Paris Fashion Week was a true pinch-me moment.