Love Blooms at Oasis Cottage

The story began rather simply, with a photograph shared in a garden design group and a planting “recipe” that resonated with others. From there, NZ House & Garden approached us, and what followed was something we never quite imagined would happen.

If we’re being honest, the experience of preparing for a photo shoot felt a little daunting.

Opening a garden to visitors is one thing — having it photographed and documented is quite another. There is always something you feel you could improve, something you wish you had finished.

And of course, since the shoot, we’ve changed things — a hallway runner here, antique wall hangings there. But perhaps that is the nature of a garden and a home. They are never truly finished.

At the heart of Oasis Cottage is a slower, more intentional way of living.

We spend our days gardening, creating, cooking, reading — and, for me, working with flowers in the studio and creating seasonal bouquets. Each season brings its own rhythm, its own materials, and its own inspiration. That connection now extends into the studio. What we grow outside now quietly shapes what I create inside.

The floristry has become a natural extension of the garden — a way to bring what we grow into the home and share it with others.

There is something deeply grounding about working with seasonal flowers, allowing them to guide the shape and feeling of each arrangement.

The garden has always been more than a project — it is home.

I fell in love with this place over 20 years ago, long before it became what it is today. Later, I fell in love with Laurie, and together we have shaped both the house and the garden into something that reflects how we want to live.

From the beginning, the vision was to create an English-style garden and an elevated way of living — something calm, considered, and enduring.

It is only now, after many years, that we feel we are truly beginning to see that vision come to life. Even the smallest moments - like this - feel part of something larger.

Seeing the garden and home through someone else’s lens was a very special experience.

The photographer, Sarah Rowlands, brought a calm professionalism that immediately put us at ease, while the writer, Sue, felt more like an old friend than someone we had just met.

When the magazine arrived unexpectedly by courier, it was a genuine moment of surprise.

We both looked at it and simply said, “Wow.”

After a long summer season, it felt like a lovely lift — and a moment to pause and reflect on how far this place has come.

Oasis Cottage has always been, and will always be, our home first and foremost.

Everything else is simply a beautiful extension of that.