Nurserygardeners.com

Some of the research which underpins this website now forms the core of a special exhibition at Hogarth’s House in Chiswick. The Mulberry Garden is the name we’ve given to a project to reinvent the half acre plot at the House as an “exhibition garden”, telling its story from beginnings as a new orchard in about 1680 to the present. The Heritage Lottery Fund has provided Stage 1 development funding to a partnership between the owners, Hounslow Council, and Carillion Services which runs the site for them and the William Hogarth Trust which provides support and expertise to the House.

The project as a whole will see the 17th century boundary wall restored, careful works to preserve the mulberry tree, research including garden archaeology and an environmental study. A new learning centre is being designed for one corner of the garden to help make the House more sustainable. This will also have a bothy as a base for a planned team of volunteer gardeners who will look after it and present it to visitors once the project is completed in 2017

The “exhibition garden” will be carefully designed and planted to provide an elegant setting for the Grade 1 Listed House and to demonstrate styles and types of gardening in a modest plot of this type, contrasting with the grand garden at Chiswick House almost next door. The exhibition describes the way the garden has evolved and changed, providing clues to possible elements of the new garden. But to make sense of the garden in local history, the exhibition also looks at some of the big estates in 18th and 19th century Chiswick as well as nursery gardeners in the area in the 18th and 19th century – the first time this research has been shared in an exhibition.

The House is open daily, except Mondays, 12 noon to 5pm, admission free.