The National Garden Scheme on Film

A whimsical scene of an attractive door surrounding by wisteria. 1/60s 80mm F2.8 with polariser Bronica SQ-A.

We’re blessed in the UK to have many thousands of public gardens spread across the whole country for everyone to enjoy. However, there are many thousands more impressive and unique private gardens that for most the year remain behind closed doors and away from the public eye. Emphasis on ‘most’. Founded in 1927 the National Garden Scheme is dedicated to opening access to some of these places for the benefit of charity. Starting out originally with 609 gardens, this number has now risen to more than 3,500 and in that time has raised more than £60M. Most of this money goes to nursing and healthcare charities, with a smaller proportion going to other charitable causes mostly relating to gardening.

Manor House in Ayot St Lawrence. The old house itself is surprisingly small. Notice the sky has been shifted to yellow as I’ve tried to correct the strong blue tones in the rest of the image. 1/125s 800mm F5.6 Bronica SQ-A.

It’s front door is very rustic. 1/30s 80mm F5.6 with polariser Bronica SQ-A.

The entrance to the venue. Notice how blue the image is compared to the image of the house above. 1/250s 150mm F4.0 with polariser Bronica SQ-A.

Dotted around the gardens are a series of bronze statues. This deer worked well with the yellow flowers in the background. 1/60s 150mm F4.0 Bronica SQ-A.

Given the sheer number of gardens there’s almost certainly going to be one opening near you, and with different gardens opening on different days you don’t have to worry about missing them all by being busy for a single weekend (or sometimes a week). This was my first time visiting such a garden and I headed over with my family to Manor House in Ayot St Lawrence. The modern gardens have been designed by Julie Toll, who’s won no less than seven gold medals at the Chelsea Flower Show. It really shows in the beauty of all the interlinking gardens which take several permanent and several seasonal professional gardeners to maintain.

The pond leads to a Roman inspired seating area. 1/60s 80mm F2.8 with polariser Bronica SQ-A.

Looking into the pond reveals the many gold coloured fish. Notice the lines running along the pond to deter herons. 1/30s 110mm F4.5 with polariser Bronica SQ-A.

Moving to the meadow area provided plenty of macro subjects. 1/125s 110mm F4.5 Bronica SQ-A.

Viewable by the public, but not accessible, was this idyllic swimming pool. I’m sure the owners are enjoying this through the warm sunny summer months. 1/500s 150mm F4.0 with polariser Bronica SQ-A.

As I mentioned in my previous blog, I am currently sitting on a reasonable supply of expired slide film, which although is not the best quality is perfect for more light-hearted days out where weird and wonderful colours can be something that enhances, rather than detracts. This time around I took another two rolls of my Kodak Ektachrome 100 GX as I thought the more yellow and blue colour palette would work well on this warm sunny day. As ever it was my Bronica SQ-A, which was seeing action, it’s always a joy to compose images with its large and bright 1:1 viewfinder.

These three purple flowers provided another great macro subject. As mentioned in the previous blog, detail holds up well with this expired film. 1/60s 110mm F4.5 Bronica SQ-A.

My favourite statue was this one of the two flying grouse. 1/60s 110mm F4.5 with polariser Bronica SQ-A.

With the limited weekend opening and sunny weather, the garden proved to be very popular. 1/250s 110mm F4.5 with polariser Bronica SQ-A.

The ghostly pale bark of this birch tree really stood out amongst the surrounding greenery. 1/125s 110mm F4.5 Bronica SQ-A.

I only had twenty-four images I could capture, but that was more than enough to cover a good cross section of the gardens and grounds, showing a representative sample of what is there. As noted previously there is definitely a shift more towards the blue part of the spectrum, though I’ve tried to clean things up enough digitally to make the colours a little truer to life. As is always the case with slide film, peering closely at the slides with your eye on the light table is a much better experience than viewing them digitally. I’m not sure whether they are less colour shifted in real life or whether it’s just harder to notice, either way they just look better. There’s something magical about looking a physical manifestation of your work with the colours the right way around. It is more like looking at real life than anything else, be it digital or print.

Separating this garden from the others was this ornamental bronze gate. 1/60s 110mm F8.0 with polariser Bronica SQ-A.

The small children were fascinated by this spiraling water feature. 1/250s 150mm F4.0 with polariser Bronica SQ-A.

Inside the greenhouse. The white structure contrasted well with the red brick. 1/500s 80mm F2.8 with polariser Bronica SQ-A.

As the day got hotter and hotter, the blinds were pulled down over the greenhouses to regulate the temperature. 1/500s 800mm F2.8 with polariser Bronica SQ-A.

I hope this blog has given you a bit of a nudge to support good charitable causes by heading out to a garden or gardens locally to you opened by this scheme. Perhaps it’ll also give you a bit of green fingered inspiration, and maybe there’s a film camera that’s been collecting dust for far too long that finally has a reason to see the light of day again. Either way, enjoy the images and let me know your thoughts and questions in the comments section below.

You can find out more about the national garden scheme by clicking here.

A vegetable patch had various kinds of crops growing in small quantities. 1/250s 800mm F2.8 with polariser Bronica SQ-A.

The season for cherry blossom has long finished but the apple blossom is just as attractive. 1/125s 150mm F4.0 with polariser Bronica SQ-A.

This repeating gate pattern made for an obvious choice for a photograph. Going in for a close-up gives a sense of infinity. 1/500s 150mm F4.0 with polariser Bronica SQ-A.

Not every area of the gardens were accessible to the public. Unfortunately there wasn’t to be any time on the tennis court today. 1/250s 150mm F4.0 with polariser Bronica SQ-A.

In addition to the entry fee; jars of jam, plants and even apple juice was on sale to further raise money for charity. 1/125s 150mm F4.0 Bronica SQ-A.

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