The annual Ayrlies plant fair attracted both garden enthusiasts and hundreds of first-time visitors into one of New Zealand’s oldest and much-loved gardens.
The two-day fair was supported by 16 specialist plant growers selling their exciting array of plants and more than 1100 enthusiastic gardeners, dutiful partners and groups of friends and family.
Considering the wet Friday, attendance was huge with most stopping into the pop-up café for refreshments and to soak up the live music.
Ayrlies, which includes 16 acres of garden and 36 acres of wetlands, is recognised as one of the world’s most significant gardens, and often termed ‘a living work of art’, 59 years in the making.
Creator Bev McConnell, now 92 years old, is the archetypal sustainable gardener and kept busy on both days meeting old friends and making many anew.
