MEET THE HEAD GARDENER
Chiswick House and Gardens Trust
Opening up historic gardens to new audiences and creating a community kitchen plot is part of the magic of Chiswick Gardens for head gardener Rosie Fyles
Where and when did you train?
I trained at Merrist Wood College, near Guildford, more than 12 years ago, having had a previous career in marketing and communications.
How long have you been at Chiswick House and how did you get here?
I’ve been at Chiswick for almost two years. Before that, I spent almost 10 years working in gardens in the National Trust at Polesden Lacey and Ham House.
Tell us about Chiswick House Gardens...
Chiswick Gardens is known for being the birthplace of the English Landscape movement in the 18th century and for its history of camellia growing indoors. My job is about caring for these well-known areas and opening up and recreating the other historic garden spaces that have been somewhat overlooked. We have a 17th century walled fruit garden, a 17th century pleasure garden, now run as a community, public productive kitchen garden, and two formal gardens too – an English rose garden and an Italian garden.
Where do you take inspiration from?
Inspiration is easy to find in gardening, whether it’s from our gardening colleagues and friends, nature, garden visits, reading or the other arts.
Some of the time it’s about really focusing on the inspiration that is most valuable to your garden and its visitors. It can be very easy to become distracted!
What are the biggest challenges you have had to overcome at Chiswick House?
I think the biggest challenge so far has been scale – the number of garden spaces, the size of
