Behind every great garden..

... is a great gardener.

If you are interested in Historic Garden Conservation, Chiswick House is a good place to see what can be done.  A huge injection of Heritage Lottery funding, plus donations from big business and generous individuals have enabled a thorough and careful restoration of this most important of London gardens. Designed originally by Lord Burlington and William Kent in 1729 - he who 'Leaped the fence and saw that all nature was a garden' - the garden has several layers of design contributed by the generations of owners, until it became a private mental asylum in the Victorian era and thence a public park. 















By the turn of this century it was woefully neglected, and whilst the house was under English Heritage the garden was maintained by the cash strapped local authority.  An ill advised restoration project in the 1970's had filled the main lawn with trees, graffiti covered the entrance walls, dogs fouled the grounds and mattresses lurked under the brambles in the undergrowth. 













The grounds have been transformed by the injection of money, the paths are resurfaced, the follies are gleaming and the exedra now has statues with heads above the hedge as they should be, rather than hidden in the hedge as they were. 













An iconic cafe and toddlers' playground brings a twentieth century layer and the garden now welcomes thirty thousand people a year, but what really makes the garden special is the people.

One cannot help immediately liking the quietly spoken Head Gardener Fiona Crumley. Former Head Gardener at Chelsea Physic garden she was enjoying  being at home organising funding for young gardeners to get started on their careers (see The Merlin Trust) when her arm was twisted to take on Chiswick. Despite early scepticism she soon won the hearts of the Chiswick House Friends group, a very influential and well organised set of local people who came together to protect their park at its lowest point, and were understandably at first unsure about plans to remove hundreds of trees from the gardens, until Fiona's good communication explained the historic reasons and replacements planned. 


Fiona maintains the garden with two - yes two - grounds contractors, but they are supplemented with 25 volunteers in the main garden, and 25 volunteers in the kitchen gardens. 


Goosefoot Volunteers
















The huge amount of good will and time that has been invested by local people has turned the kitchen garden into a community project, where local school children come to pick and picnic on the fresh produce - tasting their first lettuce in several cases. The gardens are tended by a cheerful group of mostly retired barristers, journalists and other professionals with occasional younger work experience gardeners. They called themselves the Goosefoot Volunteers after the famous patte d'oie layout of the main avenues:













The Greenwich BA Garden Design students who came with me last week were impressed by the restoration and particularly interested in the current exhibition of Rysbrack paintings which show the garden in its original splendour. But what really bowled us all away was the volunteers, and none more so than our Continental European students.  A very well educated mature student looked on in disbelief as Fiona spoke of being able to double the volunteers next year; until eventually he raised a question: 'Excuse me... these volunteers, how does it work - is it that they makes for free?' 'Oh yes' said Fiona, 'they all 'makes for free'.'





13 comments:

  1. Dear Marian, I only know the grounds of Chiswick House from many, many years ago, and clearly it is time to revisit. It is so cheering when places of such historic merit are restored so that they can be enjoyed anew.

    Chiswick House can be compared with Mereworth Castle in Kent, although I think that MC is a rather finer example of Palladian architecture. Do you know of it?

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  2. Dear Edith, I often pass the gates to Mereworth on the way to Hadlow, and am sad that the A26 cuts infront of the pavilions which lead to a long avenue now terminating in Kings Hill estate. I have not been inside yet - I think the current owner does allow occasional guided tours so perhaps the Kent Gardens Trust may organise a trip- but the wonders of Google Earth allow us to know that there are well maintained formal parterres around the house. You are quite right about its eminence - designed in 1723 by Colen Campbell of Vitruvius Britannicus fame as an almost exact copy of the Villa Rotunda it just pre dates Chiswick and I agree is finer.

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  3. Dear Marian, an encouraging post and i love the lioness above...wondering if you could arrange a coachload of these volunteers who 'make for free' to pop over to our place one day?

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  4. Dear Michael, I am sure lots of your regular readers would be more than happy to exchange a day's gentle gardening for one of Cook's famous teas!

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  5. A day of gentle gardening for cook's famous tea - they will flatten your hedge in the rush! Apart from the work getting done, having volunteers there and involved is the best protection for the future of the garden. Can't get away with - nobody cares, nobody uses it, arguments.

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  6. Dear Marian

    Always enjoy reading your blog. Love the photos and the history you provide

    Anni

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  7. Cook Jenny tells me that she is most flattered!

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  8. Marian, thank you for telling me here in the States about another Kent garden. I saw Rousham last summer, and loved walking the grounds to see all the beauties in the landscape.

    Just wrote a blog post about Rousham.

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  9. Lawns with irrigation, creating pollution, noise, C02, plus all the chemicals destroying Flora dn FAuna have to go...Banned as smokers and smoking.
    NO TURFERS.

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  10. Looks like a really nice garden. And it is very nice to hear about what can be done with alomost "only" volunteers!

    Best Regards,
    Annika

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  11. I remember orange trees at Chiswick set in pots at different levels in a circular ampitheatre, I was utterly bewitched by it, and can still see it in my mind's eye, although a miserable little photo must still lurk in a shoe-box somewhere. I saw this feature about 30 years ago - has it been restored? Would love to know. Interesting post.

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  12. Sorry just noticed the date on your post, I'm on Blotanical and got a bit confused. Bother

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  13. Love that lionness is she coade stone?

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Thank you for taking the time to comment!