Flaxmere Garden
Flaxmere Garden is a 5-star garden of national significance located in the high country in the Hurunui District. The 3.2 hectare garden has been developed over 50 years and hosts the annual Art in a Garden festival along with weddings and tour groups.
Our Role
We approached the owner, Penny Zino, and offered to write a book about the challenges involved with creating an award-winning garden in an extreme environment – temperatures have reached 40 degrees Celcius in summer and fallen to -15 degrees Celsius in winter.
What We Did
We conducted interviews and wrote and edited the text for the book, supervised the design, coordinated publication and assisted with the launch. Our services included:
- writing and editing the book Flaxmere Garden 50 years of extremes
- supervising the design and layout of the book
- coordinating and proofing the printing
- arranging and writing an article about the book for NZ Life and Leisure magazine
- advising on the book launch and being MC for the event
- contacting book retailers and getting them to agree to sell the book
In addition, we shot aerial photographs and video footage of Flaxmere Garden. The aerial photographs have been used in the book and on the Flaxmere Garden website to provide consistency of imagery across the marketing materials. We scripted and edited the aerial video footage to create videos for the website and Flaxmere Garden Facebook page. The video posted on the Facebook page attracted over 1,000 views within its first week.
The Outcome
The book was launched at an event held at Flaxmere Garden in October 2017 and a number of local and national book retailers are selling the book. The book sold out its first print run within two months and a revised edition has been printed and is selling well.