A mid-life crisis sparked a rethink for Maree Langford, launching her into study at EIT as a stepping stone to a new career as a landscape gardener.

For the previous 10 years, the mother-of-two had managed her husband Martin’s dental practice. It was quite a challenge, she says, taking on her first tertiary study more than 20 years after leaving school.

She enrolled for EIT’s Certificate in Horticulture, which places some emphasis on landscaping.

“That was good fun – a real experience,” she says of the one-year study programme and her time at EIT.

It was Martin who suggested Gild The Lily as the imaginative name for her business. Maree originally employed two classmates as part-time workers. Now that she’s established, her team comprises an independent, self employed contractor and a woman studying part-time for the same EIT programme over two years.

For Maree, the change of direction was about pursuing her passion.

“Gardening has always been a hobby,” she says. Her other great interest is reading, and even then half the books are about gardening.

As much a plants woman as designer, Maree considers the individual needs of her clients, soil type and site in drawing up her landscape plans. She equally does commercial and domestic projects.

Taking on a big life change like her own is “highly recommendable”, she says.

“It was a bit scary at first, starting the business, but I soon got past that.”