Behind the scenes on the September/October 2018 NZ Life & Leisure cover shoot

A short extract from the September/October issue of NZ Life & Leisure:

Huguette Michel-Fleurie, an alarmingly forthright Frenchwoman, isn’t easily alarmed herself. A ferret attack in the chook house shakes her – but not the imminence of hundreds of visitors about to stream through her property’s stone gates
“I don’t want to know the things I am supposed to do. I just plant,” she says of the 2ha of garden trailing 100 metres along both sides of Spring Creek and spreading in waves of flowering glory under the canopy of tall trees surrounding Hortensia House. This garden, named after its many hydrangeas, is always a favourite on the Wairau Plains tour during the annual Garden Marlborough festival and has been for many of the festival’s 25 years. The prospect of so many visitors doesn’t bother its owner too much.
“My girlfriends say, ‘Oh, are you coming to hear the guy talking about compost, and there’s another one talking about landscaping?’ I don’t want to know; I just plant the thing. If they grow and they’re happy, it’s okay. If they die, it’s okay.
I will plant something else.”

Learn more about Huguette Michel-Fleurie and how she created Hortensia Garden in the September/October issue of NZ Life & Leisure, on sale 27 August. 

ALSO IN THE SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER ISSUE 

 

• Film director Felicity Morgan- Rhind is a chameleon of creativity
• Torbay artist Elaine Wright-Williams took a leap of faith to swap the corporate life for days in the studio
• Generations of the Jackson clan have battled the odds to tend orchards in sunny Central Otago
• A Havelock North couple say there’s plenty of cultural common ground in their Italian/Maori heritage
• A Kiwi chef makes his mark (and his home) in New York
• Artist Grahame Sydney picks up his camera to capture a rare event – a hoar frost
• Growing up just outside of Picton proved inspirational for these two 20-something sisters – an artist and fashion designer
• Encourage the beneficial bacteria in your gut so they can bolster your health
• Opera has given Anna Pierard an onstage role and the motivation to make a difference
•  To save the ‘ninjas of the wetlands’ this dedicated environmentalist has to set the alarm pretty early
• The developers of an electric farm bike have their sights set on the US market
• Ruth Pretty turns to the flavours of Japan to enhance this season’s harvest
• Beattie invented a vacuum chamber to make salt from seawater gathered at the beach
• Drinks’ mixers once made in a Wellington basement are now on the best cocktail menus
• Biking to the foot of Mt Everest is an intrepid journey for body and soul
• The locals of Stewart Island (both birdlife and humans) give visitors a friendly welcome
• A trek to the rooftop of Fiji proves there’s more to these islands than tropical beaches
• His-and-hers Mustangs complete the picture for a Christchurch couple who love to kick up their heels

  Love this story? Subscribe now!