Introducing the gardeners and public figures we most admire in British horticulture
Rosie Fyles
The head of gardens at Chiswick House & Gardens Trust is reinstating historical features and innovating in this community green space
Chiswick House & Gardens is run by an independent trust, whose goal is to keep it open from dawn till dusk every day of the year for the community to use. Chiswick House is really just a glorious party room – there’s nothing domestic in it – and when you’re inside you realise how the gardens were key right from their inception.
House and garden were developed around the same time, and the designers’ understanding of the future impact of trees they planted as saplings is extraordinary. It’s inspiring to me as a gardener to know that 300 years later this amazing vision eventually reached fruition.
I was at Ham House before coming to Chiswick to work as head gardener. I was drawn by its community-driven nature and the fact that locals use these gardens very regularly. Chiswick House & Gardens is the heart of this community and filled with friendly faces.
Tackling a project as big as this garden is a challenge with lots of opportunities. We have three gardeners, two kitchen gardeners, an apprentice, and a fantastic group of volunteers. We grow crops in the kitchen garden and donate as much as we sell: we’re on track to donate the equivalent of more than 2,500 meals.
The English landscape movement was born in Chiswick, when landscape architect William Kent and his patron the Earl of Burlington decided they wanted to create a feeling of controlled countryside. They turned Chiswick’s canal into a lake and installed the feature cascade. The expenditure was lavish: they used steam technology to drive the water.
The challenge is to balance habitat and biodiversity and give people a
