South Wood Farm
Long before I became a full time garden photographer in 2017, I worked in an office. Full time. I always had a garden and always looked for garden inspirations. One day at the office, I remember this so clearly, instead of working, I was looking through Arne Maynard’s website. That’s where I first came across South Wood Farm. Visiting and let alone photographing this garden one day seemed like a long shot dream. But like most dreams, if we really want to, they do come true. I’ve been to South Wood Farm a few times now and I pinch myself every time I’m there. This applies to some other gardens too and I’ll share those with you too sooner or later.
My first visit was in 2020 when I was on a garden shoot nearby. It was Summer so I had a very early start to the day and I was very tired by the time I got to South Wood. (I was tired only because I booked a room in an inn and when I checked in I was told I was going to be the only person there and so spent my night alone - and awake - in an inn full of empty rooms and an empty pub below. All sorts of Agatha Christie stories came to mind) Anyway, later that morning I made it to South Wood. The first selection of images is from that day and all taken with a 50mm lens. No, it was not a sunny day but did I mind that?
In the Spring of 2021 I returned for a shoot of the gardens for House&Garden magazine. You can read and see the full article - by Anna Pavord - here and see selection of my favourite photographs below.
It was an early Spring shoot and the morning brought a gentle frost. I absolutely loved it.
And only just a week ago, I found myself at South Wood Farm again. Early July. A cloudy day. The garden visit didn’t last long as a heavy drizzle set in. Sitting on the porch, listening to the sound of the rain in this most peaceful place with the friends I went with was the cherry on the cake.
I really tried to limit the number of images I wanted to share here with you, too many, too few, I don’t know, here they are, gloomy or not, whatever the weather, I just love gardens. Follow along as I might have some more things to share with you with South Wood Farm.
Forced bulbs
I came home with some beautiful flowers and a pot filled with Narcissus bulbocodium ‘Arctic Bells’ from a photo shoot last week. Part of that shoot reminded me of a garden book (and I cannot remember now which one it was) where there was an image of a room filled with pots that were filled with forced bulbs. Somehow that photo mesmerized me and that image stayed with me. During that shoot last week, I was able to take photographs carrying that very similar feeling and that made me think oh my, this is like a dream.
So today I turned our dining room into a mini studio and had a little play with these flowers. The dining room is the only place in the house where I’m happiest with the light (at the moment as I know it can change any time) and that light looks like this..
Early Spring flowers
So I had this beautiful pot filled with these pettitcoat daffodils. I only took them out of the pot for a little flat lay but now they’re all safely back in the pot. But I do love seeing bulbs in their full beauty, the roots, the bulb and the flowers. I absolutely love this connection.
Narcissus bulbocodium 'Arctic Bells‘
I rarely force bulbs myself but I do buy bulbs early January (planted by garden nurseries). As soon as I get home with them, I remove them from their plastic containers and plant them into terracotta pots. The ‘Arctic Bells’ below were gifts from two wonderful persons I had shoots with last week.
Narcissi, muscari, snowdrops
I keep them in the conservatory which is the coldest place at the moment and slowly bring them in throughout February. To brighten up the days that are already growing longer. This is the month the sun starts to shine through the neighbour’s cherry tree and into our kitchen in sunny mornings too. Very prescious moments.
Paperwhite narcissus
Snowdrops and narcissus
It’s hard to believe it’s still early February and there are already so many beautiful flowers around. All of these are also British grown, the cut narcissi all from Cornwall.
April in the garden - ii
So our garden is not particularly big and it’s not particularly exciting for many, I’m aware of that. This garden has seen someone coming here and saying to me, I don’t like your gardening style. Oh well, that’s absolutely fine, of course. We’re renting here so there’s only so much you can (and want) to do to this garden but our landlords are the best and let us do anything we like. This garden had been neglected for a long time before we moved in six years ago but then as we slowly started to work on it (and with it), we discovered so many wonderful cottage garden plants and many traces from a garden that it once was. The garden is quite long and not too wide. When we came, I started to dig up a border on the sunny side, there was a lot of fight with ivy and ground elder but that long bed is now absolutely managable. Many parts of the garden are still ruled by the aforementioned plants.
April has been blue, forget-me-nots all over the garden. I love the cottagegardenness of this garden. Geraniums everywhere and the aquilegia has started to flower too. The tulips are slowly gone but my peasant eye narcissus has just started to flower, I forgot to photograph that but I’ll add it next time. With Salomon’s seal. And cow parsley.
But until then, these are the things I’ve recently captured in the garden.
No Floral Foam Class at Middleton Lodge
It has been a while and although I do really like blogs and I definitely want to keep this one going, time just always gets in the way. But now! I’m planning to get back to sharing lots of images with you, mostly thanks to all your kind words about how my photos lift you up.
Today I’d like to share some - oh it was so hard to choose - photos form a wonderful workshop I photographed at the beginning of March. Middleton Lodge has gone floral foam free and together with the wonderful floral designers Simply By Arrangement and The Wilde they decided to run a class about the techniques and mechanics to create a breathtaking wedding scene without the use of floral foam. I met and photographed the work some amazing florists there and well, taking these images was a dream. A treat, in fact.
What I haven’t done before and it was a first for me, shooting a model! I was so nervous and excited at the same time before the shoot. Luckily, Steph was a professional model and she new exactly what to do. As you’ll see.
2019 January - June
JULY
July was a very busy month. I photographed some stunning gardens from the Cotswolds to the Kent coast, you’ll see them this year. However, one of those has already been published - that of Matthew Rice at Ham Court - you can see this beautiful place in the Plant Issue of Gardens Illustrated.
July saw the publication of one of my favourite gardens. This was a commission by House&Garden and I spent a few days in Cheshire. The hottest Summer days, in fact. The garden was designed by Chris Moss.
Summer also meant Summer evening parties, and there was a wonderfully magical one and that I photographed for Mercurial Moon.
One of my favourite shoots in July was with my dear friend Justine in her studio.
AUGUST
August continued to be a busy month with more travels to Yorkshire. And as I mentioned earlier, this was the month the article of Debbie George and Andrew Sanderson’s house was published in Homes&Antiques.
London gardens again, here’s one designed by Emily Erlam
and one by Non Morris
In August I had a fun shoot at the Big Festival in the Cotswolds, for Country Living.
And a different Food Festival at Soho Farmhouse. Special guest, Tomos Parry
Several visits to Chastleton House. This house is very close to Daylesford farm where I held 4 classes.
and the rest, well, that is to be revealed later next year!
OCTOBER
In October, we finally! went on a wee holiday to Scotland. But even holidays cannot be complete without garden visits, so we went to Cambo (oh the dream!) and Broadwoodside. Both were stunning. Scottish gardens are just magical.
In October I went back to Middleton Lodge but this time to photograph at the Knackered Florists retreat. For me it was a definite treat. I sometimes still find it hard to believe that this is actually my job and I’m having the best of time while I work.
In October, I had a video one-to-one with the moooost wonderful person and teacher and photographer, Sarah Mason. I cannot upload the video I made with the help of Sarah here but you can find it on my Instagram. This was the most inspiring day.
And in October was published another Chris Moss garden I shot last Autumn. It appeared in Gardens Illustrated.
NOVEMBER
November was the month when I had my most one-to-ones, they were suprisingly more about editing images rather than taking them. I loved ever single one of these.
There were also bonfires and fireworks.
and a Dog Modelling class with Honeysuckle and Hilda and Darlingdog .
and I started to get in the festive spirit..
There were more gardens in November too.
DECEMBER
December was about wreaths. And more wreaths. And drinks.
One at Soho House, I didn’t make one here.
I did make one here, this was with Swallows and Damsons, read about it here.
I met Santa ..
And I have a few shoots for local businesses like the Coaching Barn
December also brought some quiet time at home and one final shoot in Yorkshire between Christmas and New Year.
So this just a fraction of what 2019 brought for me and to give you an idea of the work I do as in the busy days, I so rarely get the chance to share anything with you.
I have some very interesting projects lined up for 2020 and I can’t wait to get back to work. I still find it hard to call it work as I just love so much what I do. I am very generous and thankful for everyone who commissioned me and trusted me to photograph their garden, their events or their small businesses.
Happy New Year!
2019 January - June
Looking back on the year is one of my favourite things to do during the quiet days between Christmas and New Year. My 2019 was an amazing year and I cannot but only be grateful for the wonderful people I met, the dream commissions I got and all the beautiful places I travelled to.
When I look back on the year, I usually do it by looking at all the photos I took. Well, not all of them but you see what I mean. I cannot (yet) share everything with you (especially of two big assignments, one in Somerset and one in Yorkshire and that took me a whole year to complete) but I’ve chosen a selection of images that I hope will give you a good representation of the work I do.
I love telling stories with my photography and no matter what I shoot, gardens or stories in the countryside, I always try to stay true to my style. And my heart.
JANUARY
I started the year with a trip up to my beloved Yorkshire. I photographed Debbie George’s beautiful house for a feature in Home&Antiques (I’ll share more about this in the August part) It was the perfect start to the year. I love Yorkshire and little did I know in January that I would go back there many more times in 2019.
January also saw the publication of these images in Country Living and that I took of Bea Andrews of Botanikafloral.
I often shoot for Soho House so the first shoot of the year for them was the soft opening of their brand new diner, Mollie’s Diner in Oxfordshire. This was just a few minutes before the diner was so busy I could hardly move. And the story came out beautifully.
FEBRUARY
February was dark and exciting. I shot a private dinner party in Mayfair. I always like a challenge and shooting in such dark conditions was definitely one.
The first travel abroad was to Belgium with Clare Foster. It started in Kalmthout and then off we went to Bruges to discover some beautiful gardens of Piet Blanckaert. You can see one of these gardens in the January issue of House & Garden. And look out for the February issue for images of witch hazel from Kalmthout.
February brought some flowers and I shot something different, some vegan beauty products for Country Living.
MARCH
Happy day when this garden designed by Arne Maynard and that I shot last year, was published in House&Garden in March. And le voilà
In March I was in the middle of photographing our local artists for Art Weeks and this took up a lot of my time but I thoroughly enjoyed it. And I’m doing it again, with the new artists joining in. So yes, this was most of March and continued into
APRIL
I photographed over 40 artists as part of our Art Weeks (Watlington, Oxfordshire), here’s just a modest selection of the photos from those shoots.
Spring came and with that some stunning bouquets by Honeysuckle and Hilda. I had a lot of shoots this year with Clare, most of them at Daylesford Farm (where I was teaching too but so typical, I never had the change to take any images of my classes)
And there was a chilled event with Rick Stein in Chiswick.
In April, my 1-2-1 teaching season opened too. I travelled up to Shropshire to teach Tammy at Wild Bunch Flowers and then to Cheshire for another one-to-one with Carol Siddorn from Carol’s Garden. I will not be able to mention everyone here I would like to say a very big thank you to everyone who came either to my home or booked one of my classes at Daylesford Farm. I absolutely love teaching and I really enjoy passing on the love of photography to anyone who’s inspired..
MAY
May was beautiful. I travelled back to Belgium to photograph those gardens of Piet Blanckaert that I mentioned back in February.
and then came a wonderful trip to the South of France (more on this later but I can tell you that an absolutely stunning garden was involved)
I spent quite a lot of time in London too. There was the Chelsea Flower show
and I also shot an event at the studio of the very inspirational couple, Annie Morris and Idris Kahn.
Another article I shot was published in the May issue of Country Living.
I spent a whole week in beautiful Derbyshire to shoot a story for Country Living. Again, this will come out in May so I’ll tell you more about it then.
JUNE
Summer arrived and with it, lots of parties. I do love recording parties in meadows like this 40th birthday party here in an Oxfordshire village.
and there was another party related BBQ learning event at Soho Farmouse
and a lovely lunch hosted by Emma Harris aka @aquietstyle.
June brought my first ever front cover of Gardens Illustrated from this feature of the magical walled garden at Middleton Lodge, designed by Tom Stuart-Smith.
I continued travelling down to Somerset and on my way home from those shoots, I always stopped discovering new gardens and country houses. Like Great Chalfield Manor. I can never tire of seeing new gardens and of the English countryside.
Then there was the wonderful Strawberry Hill Flower Festival where I had the change to photograph the stunning work of so many creative florists. Here’s just one work chosen for you of Botanical Tales and Atlas Flowers.
to be continued with the rest of the year!
Welcome to Yorkshire at Chelsea
This May has been a crazy busy month, with lots of travels but oh, with so many beautiful gardens! I started this week at the Chelsea Flower Show where I was happy to find yet another Welcome to Yorkshire garden. A little bit of magic in London, almost a fairy tale garden but most importantly, there were lots of foxgloves too. I will share more photos from Chelsea later on but I know that most of you loved this particular garden a lot, so here it comes..
Hill View Farm
One Sunday morning, I met Natasha at her Buckinghamshire studio when we went shooting her for the Autumn issue of the Chilterns Food Magazine. Her Hill View Farm is not only a farm but a place for all creativity. She’s hosting Creative Festivals and they have the best brownie in their café - The Bower - also part of the farm. You don’t need to be an expert knitter to admire anything she does. And the energy she has.
