MyGardenOfTrees

A participatory science project for climate-resilient forests in Europe

What is MyGardenOfTrees?

MyGardenOfTrees is a participatory science project supported by the European Commission and led by a team of researchers from the Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL. The aim of MyGardenOfTrees is to evaluate the growth and regeneration capacity of silver fir (Abies alba Mill.) and European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) through experimental gardens across Europe. Observations obtained from these gardens will be used to develop a prediction tool for foresters to help them build forests better adapted to climate change.

MyGardenOfTrees in a nutshell

The project explained by its PI

In this video, the project PI, Dr Katalin Csilléry, explain the steps of the project from seed collection to the development of a prediction tool.

How to set up my garden?

Video protocol for participants of the 2023-2028 trials

This video will walk you through the steps that you need to follow to set up your micro-garden.

Where are the participants?

They are all over Europe!

Over 300 micro-gardens have been established across Europe in the framework of the 2023-2028 trials.

NEWS

February 2024

Stratification of seeds for the macro-gardens

This week, we are stratifying the Abies seeds for the 21 macro-gardens. Seeds will be shipped to participating institutes in mid April.

January 2024

21 research institutes will establish macro-gardens

Parallel to micro-gardens, we initiated a network of common gardens – called macro-gardens – established using nurseries. 21 research institutes and nurseries across Europe joined this initiative. They will receive stratified seeds in April. We are looking forward to collaborating with all of you!

January 2024

The germination trials in climate chambers have been completed

Back in August 2023 we set up the third and last cycle of germination trials in the climate chambers of WSL. Because of their limited size and the vast variety of our seeds provenances and families, we had to split the trials in 3 cycles. In each cycle, we tested germination under different temperature and humidity conditions, and different stratification lengths.