Opened in 1995, the Dean Garnier garden was constructed over the medieval ruins of the dormitory of the Benedictine monks in the priory of St Swithun. It is named after Thomas Garnier, who was dean of the cathedral from 1840 until his death in 1873, aged 97. Garnier came from a family of gardeners and plantsmen—an ancestor, Isaac Garnier, started the Chelsea Physic Garden in 1685. He planted many of the fine trees in the cathedral close and, with the famous plant hunter Joseph Banks, compiled a catalogue of all the plants on the Isle of Wight.
The photographer, John Garfield, was a neurosurgeon at the Wessex Neurological Centre in Southampton. He has been recording the progress of the garden in both black and white and colour since its earliest stages.