BEHIND THE SCENES

LEIGH BR AM W ELL W R ITER

For garden writer Leigh Bramwell, summer is the best time for hard landscaping projects on the Bay of Islands property she shares with her landscaper partner Andy McKenzie. It’s usually too dry for planting, so she sees it as an opportunity to coerce Andy into putting together ideas they’ve picked up from other people’s gardens. “We don’t always agree about how things should be done but he usually has the final say because he’s the one doing the work. I’m just standing around directing.” Last year she directed the revamp of their courtyard, complete with boardwalk and pond, and for the next few weeks, inspired by David Monks and Jürgen Tofahrn’s garden featured on page 106, they’ll be creating more outdoor living spaces where they can relax before autumn, “which is when the real work happens”.

NATA LI A DID OV ICH HOME R EPORTER

The newest member of the NZ House & Garden team, Natalia joins us a week after completing her degree at AUT. That’s a sure sign of someone who’s known what they’ve wanted to do since discovering at age seven that writing for magazines is an actual job. As a devotee, she even collects vintage fashion magazines (300 so far) with her aunt. And family is what life’s about: after 11 years in Brisbane, Natalia, with her parents and younger brother, returned to Auckland last year to be closer to relatives. “This summer we’re going up Matakana way to catch up with extended family we haven’t seen for a while, and hopefully go to the beach a few times.” She may also fit in a bit of horse riding – she once competed in dressage – and bingewatch the creepy Stranger Things “during the day”. See her story on a pretty Marlborough cottage on page 74.