Forum Topic

Will Chiswick’s young trees survive a fourth heatwave?

From The Chiswick Calendar - July 28, 2026/by Juliet McDonald:Trees play a part in mitigating climate change, but they are also directly affected by itIt will take more than the strategies of two councils – Hounslow and Ealing – to take care of our trees as temperatures soarDuring the recent hot weather, our trees have never been so appreciated and, at the same time, ignored.In the High Road you can walk under the shady protective canopy of one ancient Plane tree after another.Yet in other roads, younger trees could be dying.Seek out any newly planted trees in a heat wave and you’ll see limp leaves and dry soil. How often is the council watering? In frustration, a few concerned residents may take to watering a wilted sapling immediately outside their property, but how many people can say that they’ve watered a street tree?Or perhaps gone further still – say up to 50 steps – to save a different tree?Young trees are under stressIn a recent Chiswick WhatsApp group, there were so many posts about the perception of poorly looked after street trees that the episode was named ‘Treegate’. But the question is what are we going to do about it?For many people, nothing – just complain. Surely, it’s the job of councils to maintain the trees that they plant? After all, residents pay their council tax. The issue is a divisive one.https://chiswickcalendar.co.uk/will-chiswicks-young-trees-survive-a-fourth-heatwave/?mc_cid=d57bdd4cd6

Les Wilson ● 18h2 Comments

Ealing Council has partnered with Trees for Cities to plant new trees.  We water them and also try to alert the Council when we see park trees that are obviously suffering and we can't carry water that far.We were all devastated when the Council's contractors without prior notice pruned the tree outside our house - one that we had lived with and seen the seasons and years in with for more than 30 years.  They pruned it until there was nothing left and then chipped it.  We still mourn those days of lying on the bed behind the tracery of the branches watching the seasons change - the bare branches of winter, the excitement of the first new buds of spring and the flowers and bees, the glorious fully leaved shade of summer with the visiting birds and squirrels, then the gradual changing colours of autumn and the fall of leaves - right the way to those very last dangling and dancing brightly coloured leaves.We desperately miss that tree and the shade but our neighbours miss it more than us which may be because we have double glazed bedroom windows - the old ones were draughty and cold and used to rattle when the planes flew overhead.Thankfully the Council planted new saplings - and yes we want them to live - and WE DO WATER THEM! Not regularly but then rain isn't regular either.A watering can is too heavy and difficult to carry  especially with stairs but reusing a large plastic milk bottle with handle and screw top lid is much easier.In order not to waste the water before it gets hot enough to do the washing up I started ages ago to fill an empty milk bottle with it to water indoor plants.  I discovered that if the hot water has not been recently run that this could be enough to fill nearly two large plastic milk bottles ie nearly 8 pints or A GALLON which would otherwise have just gone straight down the drain.  We don't buy that much milk at a time so we got them from a family that do!When walking to the shops and the doctor's surgery and the dentist, chemist etc in this weather the value of the shade is immeasurable.  Instead of walking on the sunny side of the street we walk on the shady side and sadly we still see saplings that died some time ago.PLEASE LOOK OUT FOR & LOOK AFTER THE TREES IN OUR STREETS!Forum Home

Philippa Bond ● 9h

If you have a young tree outside your property, water it. We had one planted a few years ago watered it in the summer months to help it establish its root system.

Jayne Thorburn ● 14h