In 1964 while Malcolm McConnell focused on the development of McConnell Dowell, wife Beverley also had a dream which they shared together – to develop a garden, "Ayrlies", that more than forty years later is recognised as a ‘garden of national and international significance’.  In 2010 Beverley was awarded a Queen Services Medal (QSM)  for her services to horticulture. 

Ayrlies attracts thousands of visitors annually, more than half from overseas.  It is also the venue every year for a variety of charity fundraising activities.

Back in 1964 the only thing growing in this South Auckland  garden was pasture. With a very busy husband and five young children the garden wasn’t a priority but it was gradually expanded as money and time allowed. While Beverley, ably assisted by Oliver Briers, provided the vision, landscaping and plantsmanship Malcolm provided the engineering resources to make it happen.

Today Ayrlies, which takes its name from the McConnell family farm in Scotland, presents four hectares of informal country garden and twelve hectares of wetlands.

Filmed recently by the BBC in a series ‘Around the World in 80 gardens’ Ayrlies has graced the covers of the world’s finest gardening magazines and featured at length in books by international gardening luminaries.

In the Daily Mail newspaper (UK) –Feb 08 presenter Monty Don says ‘Ayrlies transcends the good taste and horticultural confidence that is typical of so many of Britain’s grand gardens. It makes you look anew. I have never seen such a wide mixture of plants in one garden. I left elated by the scale and vision and dreamlike intensity of colour and size.’ (http://www.ayrlies.co.nz)