The Gardens at Middleton Place

The Gardens at Middleton Place. The Gardens at Middleton Place in Charleston, South Carolina, are the oldest landscaped gardens in America. The Gardens, which plantation-owner Henry Middleton envisioned and began to create in 1741, reflect the grand classic style of formal gardens that remained in vogue in Europe and England into the early part of the 18th century. Middleton’s 65 acres, with their endless vistas of ponds, lakes, salt marshes and the broad Ashley River, are criss-crossed by walkways or allées planted with trees and shrubs and filled with herons, swans and songbirds. The Gardens explode with glorious bloom twelve months a year