By Rosie Fyles, Head of Gardens 

After 100 days in the role of Head of Gardens in 2022, I wrote a piece for the Trust’s website and described the impact that the gardens’ trees have on me every day. Their longevity in the gardens – the things they have seen! – remind me that their tenure outlasts us all. As such it’s a massive responsibility and privilege to look after the tree collection, to intervene, to take action in 2024 that will prolong the lives, increase the diversity and add to the numbers of the trees of Chiswick.

Successfully bidding from the London Mayor’s Rewilding Fund in early 2024, planning and then implementing the Letting the Light In project is a long-term exercise. Its legacy benefits will far outlive those of us walking in the gardens today. I am conscious that the contemporary impacts, for many, have brought joy, and for a very few others, a sense of alarm.

I’m writing this from a personal and professional perspective to explain why I share the joy, empathise with the alarm and to give a sense of the second phase of the project and beyond.

When is a tree not a tree…

The short answer, when it’s a weed. If a weed is a plant in the wrong place, a self-seeded tree, inhibiting other more established trees from thriving, is a weed that needs to be removed to enable the more valuable specimen (for nature, for carbon capture, for tackling air pollution, for human well-being), to live a good life.

That’s where the alarm comes in, seeing trees taken that had settled in the landscape, made paths more secret and clearings more personal. In the majority, we have removed self-sown holly and over-large laurel, both evergreen species that restrict light to other trees and shrubs, and to the woodland floor, inhibiting the germination of seed. We are undertaking the work that in other contexts – where natural grazers and herbivores like rabbits and deer roam – might happen naturally, without sudden change.

The joy, though, is not just ours. One of the most important learnings from working with experts on this project has been the simple fact that light encourages insects and insects enable, among many others, bat populations to grow – something that is especially important when our gardens are home to rarer species like the Daubenton’s, Natterer’s and brown long-eared bat. As we intervene to remove weeds, to the let the light in, to restore balance, we are encouraging diversity in every possible sense and enabling those communities to prosper.

My personal satisfaction at seeing shafts of sunlight hitting the late autumn woodland floor and of opening views planned to be here over 300 years ago is shared by many of you. Thank you to everybody who has spoken to a member of the gardens’ team to share your joy over the last few months.

What’s happens next?

In January and February, we plant. We will be adding over 100 young, deciduous trees into the planting areas we have created, protected by dead hedges. Chosen for their value to pollinators and to wildlife, plus their ability to thrive in predicted climates, we will be adding hazel and rose, cherry and rowan, to name but a few.

In the areas that transition from formal garden or paths to woodland, we are adding 200 shrubs, selected for their accuracy to the gardens’ original 18^th century design and their value to wildlife. As they mature, they will form the soft, textured zones of planting that William Kent and Lord Burlington envisaged.

We are planning that every group of trees and shrubs will be planted by different visitors and users of our gardens, from members of our Little Forest Folk Forest School to our ‘Goosefoot’ volunteers, from Gardening Together attendees (our drop in weekend and holiday volunteering) to our trustees.

In spring we will continue to plant more snowdrops along the Rustic House (car park) gate walk down to Park Road, adding winter aconites too.

We will also be looking to restore the balance to the terrace, starting some work on thinning out self-sown holly and sycamore on the steep slopes to make life easier for established trees and shrubs. In other areas, we will be moving tree stems and fallen wood around, too, making sure it is best placed for habitat and play.

When will it finish?

It doesn’t. I have been reading Oliver Rackham, one of the most well-regarded naturalists, for many years and his tome, Woodlands, sets the context for woodland and tree management: his calendar begins 4,600 million years ago. He describes the increasing shade over the last 1000 years, our time looking after trees is fleeting.

Trees remind us that we do what we can, when we can and with the best intentions, advice and methods possible, that joy is a welcome, needed outcome. We approach the next 300 years of Chiswick trees with more confidence because of what we are doing in 2024 and 2025.

• Find out more about ‘Letting the Light In’ here