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.
Hellebores
The garden is still very bare, with hardly any green to be seen but then suddenly, early Spring (or late Winter?) there’s this very welcome sight of hellebores.
Every year, when I first spot them in the gardens, on photoshoots and when working with floral stylists, I always decide to plant more the following year. While I have a few beautiful ones in my own garden, as soon as early Spring is over and narcissi and tulips and blossoms start to appear, I quickly forget about hellebores. That is a shame as I know the following Spring I will wish I’d planted more. Just like the one here, I captured it in the hellebore-heaven-garden of Simply by Arrangement in Yorkshire. This must be my favourite of the year.
Freshyl picked hellebores are notoriously temperamental. Make sure you sear them or cut the stem. Any maybe even then they will droop) I also usually only pick them when they are almost over. I had one in a tiny vase for 4 weeks this Spring.
Hellebores grown by Simply by Arrangement, Yorkshire
Flowing hellebores reveal the real beauty of this charming early Spring flower. Here’s one bowl full of hellebores arranged - and grown of course - by Huw Morgan.
Huw Morgan, Hillside, Somerset
And more hellebores grown by Milli Proust and Rachel Siegfried. I took these images for their books, Milli’s is coming out very soon and Rachel’s will be out next year. They both grow stunning flowers, not just hellebores, and I’m so lucky to have been working with them.
Milli Proust, Sussex
Green and Gorgeous Flowers, Oxfordshire
If you - like me - want to grow more hellebores, Twelve Nunns Nursery is a great place to get them from.
Château de Miromesnil
I was commissioned to photograph a beautiful garden in Normandy, France back in 2018. After the shoot, I had some time left before catching the ferry back to England so I stopped at the Château de Miromesnil where I had a lovely walk around the gardens.
Birthplace of Maupassant, many visitors come here because of him. I didn’t know much about the place before I got there and I was so happy to discover the beautiful potager around the château. It is not your usual manicured French garden but it’s full of lovely fruit trees, colourful dahlias and zinnias, cabbages and very photogenic rows of dill. Absolutely heavenly. I would highly recommend to visit and join the guided tour as well (if you’re a French speaker) which is very informative and gives lots interesting details about the past of the château.
Gingerbread
I have been baking gingerbread cookies at Christmas for a long time now. I remember making little gingerbread houses in my grandmother’s kitchen years and years ago. I’ll try and find images of those..
I’m not a great baker and there are only a handful of things I bake and most of the time with fruits in them. But no Christmas can go by without me filling the house with the smell of gingerbread cookies. I find them very easy to make and very relaxing to bake and decorate. Perfect.
You won’t need a huge and special list of ingredients but you might want to make sure you have some cookie cutters before you start with your gingerbread. They come in all shapes and forms but I do like using Christmassy ones at Christmas time. Christmas tree, bells, moose, stars, angels..
This gingerbread is soft and keeps for weeks only that it’s so good it never really does..
You will need:
200g of honey
150g of butter
250g of icing sugar
3 eggs
1tsp sodium carbonate
750g of flour
1 pack gingerbread spice mix
or
your own mix of the following
2tsp of ground cinnamon
1tsp of ground ginger
1tsp of ground cloves
1/2 tsp of ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp of ground cardamom
And this is what you’ll need to do:
Put the butter and the honey into a bowl that will fit over a pan of simmering water. Leave it over the water, stirring occasionally. When melted, let the mix cool.
In a large bowl, mix together the rest of the ingredients and add the butter-honey mix to it. You’ll get a soft dough. I don’t mix or overwork it too much, just slightly shape it into a ball. Let the dough rest in a cool place or in the fridge for overnight or even a day or two.
When ready to bake them, preheat the oven to 170 Celsius. Roll the dough to about 3-5mm thick. Then out with all those cookie cutters!
Flour the cutter a bit so the dough doesn’t stick to it. Line your baking tray with a sheet of baking parchement and put your cut cookies onto the tray and into the preheated oven for about 5-8 minutes.
Do keep an eye on them as they bake very quick. When nice and golden, they are ready.
Place the cookies on a cooling rack. When completely cooled down, you can start preparing for the icing. If you don’t have time for it straight away, just put the cookies in a cookie jar or tin, they will last there forever and can decorate them anytime.
For the icing, you’ll need 1 egg white, 200g icing sugar and a drop of lemon.
In a bowl beat the egg white and gradually add the icing sugar. This should take about 3-4 minutes. Then add a drop of lemon that will give a nice shine to the icing.
When nice and firm, spoon the mix into a piping bag and have fun icing your own designs!
And now it’s time to use your beautifully crafted gingerbread cookies.
I like making gifts tags or place cards for Winter parties. They can also be wonderful gifts in a nice jar or just the perfect treat on a cold Winter afternoon..
Wishing you all a wonderful Christmas!
with love,
Eva
Dahlia
It has been a very good year for dahlias. It wasn’t the best though for the ones I left in the ground but those have been in there for at least 3 years so I figure I should now lift and divide them. Anyway, the ones that are good just keep on giving. I cut them every day and either give them to friends or bring them in the house.
One of the main reasons I like growing them is because they are easy to grow and won’t stop giving you flowers well into Autumn.
These above are a mix of ones growing in my garden but some I picked at Green and Gorgeous. I have too many orange-Autumn colour ones and so Sweet Nathalie (or Café au Lait) stand out a bit. I’m definitely going to mix in more colours next year. This is the best time of the year seeing all the beautiful varieties growing out there i.e. writing a dahlia shopping list.
I love displaying dahlias in a rather simple way, putting them in these vintage stoneware jars - Victorian ink bottles. You can esily find these on etsy or car boot sales.
I grow most of my dahlias at the very back of the garden. This area looked like this - below - when we moved here 7 years ago but we cleared it a lot. We’re only renting so there’s ony so much work we want or can do but I’m quite happy with the current state.
So yes. Dahlias. Such a colourful (sometimes even a bit too much for my liking) and easy to grow flower, do grow them if you can.
Crab apple
There are four crab apple trees on one of my favourite bridlepath. I love seeing these in all season but they are always my favourite when the trees lose their leaves and only the apples hang on like baubles. A few days ago, a big branch from one of these trees broke off so I saved a few bits and brought them home. I love crab apples trees a lot. I love their wildness, their imperfect shape and as they grow old, their mossy branches. They also say Autumn is not far now..
Meanwhile my crab apple:
It’s a Comtesse de Paris that I planted in February and is enjoying the company of Ammi Majus growing all around it. I chose this one for its apples that turn orange in the Autumn. Although I really liked its simple, single flowers in the Spring too.
Garden by the sea
In recent years, one of the highlights of my trips up to Scotland is meeting Rachael of Hedgerow / @hedgerow for a coffee or lunch and a walk and chat around the streets of Portobello. She shows me the most beautiful little streets , colourful old doors and gates and we admire anything green and flowery (I must do a blog post just on that). When, after a long long time, we finally travelled up to Scotland again in May, I got to see Rachael’s beautiful garden too and her stylish home (proper magazine material but I didn’t want to be too pushy on that front, maybe next time)
Rachael is a floral designer and an architect and these passions of hers can be found everywhere you look in her garden and home.
We had tea and cinnamon buns and a good, much needed chat and I spent some time out to her rainy garden with my camera. We then headed out for lunch to Rachael’s favourite place - Skylark - before walking back home through rainy Portobello and making a flat lay with flowers from her garden.
Making this flat lay with flowers from Rachael’s garden was such a treat. I never take it for granted picking flowers (or dismantling a bouquet) just for this. The backdrop we used was her kitchen table and the light in the kitchen just worked perfectly and helped us create this moody image on that rainy day.
Thank you Rachael for this very special day, I had the best time. This must have been the most relaxing day of my holiday.
I’m going to share with you more private gardens, do come along.