MOST people who visit Stillingfleet Lodge gardens do so in the summer months, when the sumptuous herbaceous borders are in full bloom.

The gardens are actually closed to the public from October to March. So the chances are you'll never have seen the popular family garden as it appears in these photographs today.

Owner Vanessa Cook invited members of the Selby Camera Club to make a complete photographic record of the garden throughout the changing seasons of a full year.

The images that they came up with both surprised and delighted her.

Nine photographers in all paid regular visits to the garden throughout the year.

"They each looked at the garden completely differently," Vanessa says. "There are some wonderful close-ups of flowers; others that are quite quirky. And because they came back regularly throughout the year, there are photographs from times when we're not open."

The resulting photographs - including those on these pages today - will be included in an exhibition, A Year in the Garden, which opens at Stillingfleet Lodge on July 21 and runs throughout the month.

They range from dreamy abstracts to crystal clear close-ups of berries and blossom, autumn leaves in a pool of water - and even a stunning portrait of guinea fowl amongst trees, their plumage a study in texture and contrast.

York Press:

Spring: Christine Carr, "Dreams"

"Vanessa asked if we would be willing to a photographic record of a year in the garden looking at the range of flowers and colour throughout the seasons," says camera club member Mike Hatfield.

"It certainly is a wonderful garden. Hopefully we covered all the seasons as Vanessa requested. Her comments when picking the photographs were 'far better than ever expected!'"

We should think so...

York Press:

Spring: Sarah Kellett, "Iris"

 

See the exhibition

A Year in the garden opens in the café at Stillingfleet Lodge on July 1 and runs all month. You can visit the café and see the exhibition free, although there is a charge for entry to the gardens.

This Sunday there will be a 'wildlife day' at the gardens, featuring mini beast hunts, talks on butterfly and bumblebee conservation, pond dipping, a beekeeping demonstration, and more. To find out more visit stillingfleetlodgenurseries.co.uk

Selby Camera Club holds weekly meetings from September to May at the Franklin Centre in Selby. The club has about 50 members. It has an annual exhibition in Selby Abbey on August bank holiday weekend, and also organises other exhibition and field trips.

To find out more, visit selbycameraclub.co.uk