It's spring here at Flaxmere Gardens in North Canterbury and this Garden of National Significance has come to life with an array of colours, scents, light and movement. But right now there's something else at play. Amongst the bouncing shrubs and sprouting flaxes; in the blossoming trees and the blooming bulbs; beside the glistening ponds and the manicured lawns there is art - sculptures and designs and paintings and structures. Everywhere I look there is art."My canvas is my garden," says Penny Zino, owner and creator of Flaxmere Gardens which sits an hour north of Christchurch on the isolated Lake Sumner Road. A sprawling seven acre array of flora and fauna, Flaxmere began as a spring fed creek and a vision of brilliance. In 1966, Penny began to sculpt the terraced riverbed country which sits 300 metres above sea level, eventually turning out an all-season delight of colour, scent and tranquillity.
Getting to Flaxmere takes visitors on a journey through typical North Canterbury landscape of endless lush paddocks dotted with sheep and edged in the far distance with velvety brown hills. Limestone structures jut outwards from the hillsides, rivers twist out to sea and vines stretch as far as the eye can see in perfect, countless rows. This land has been called an art form in itself, so it's no surprise that Penny was inspired by its natural beauty.
Each year since 2005, Penny has invited artists and sculptors from around the country to share her canvas - to display their works amongst the spectacular backdrop of Flaxmere.Not only a popular local event for art and garden lovers, Art in a Garden is a significant fundraising event for charities such as the Cancer Society and St John. In 2007 the event raised $8,500 for charity.
As I arrive at the grand estate of Flaxmere I hear someone speaking to the groups of spectators wafting in with the late afternoon breeze: "The best idea," they say, "is to get yourself a glass of wine and follow the little arrows which will take you past all of our sculptures."
I do just that and, as I peep around shrubby corners and follow delicate garden paths I begin to feel very much like Alice discovering the brilliance of Wonderland or Mary Lennox uncovering a Secret Garden of my own. There's a magic to this garden that seeps from the topiaried shrubs, flitters down upon you like a falling cherry blossom and swoops through the air like a frolicking fantail.
Rounding corners I come face to face with sculptures: there are curved wooden ones that bounce in the breeze, sharp silver ones that glint in the fading sun; there are huge detailed ones that tower above me and others that only just catch my eye as they peep out from their perching place.Time runs away on me and before I know it I've ventured from the start through the woodland, past the pond across the paddock into the main lawn, around the roses and back to where I started. I return my wine glass and venture towards the exit, imagining the thousands of people who will descend on Flaxmere over the next three days, attending workshops, hearing live music, purchasing artworks and sharing in the tranquil magic of Art in a Garden.
Amelia is Content Editor for the New Zealand travel and tourism website http://www.fourcorners.co.nz/. She visited Art in a Garden courtesy of Alpine Pacific Tourism and http://www.fourcorners.co.nz/.
