A Global Perspective on our Garden Heritage There is no country in the world without historic gardens, parks or designed landscapes. They are everywhere. They do not need to be grand formal landscapes like Versailles or Het Loo. A historic designed landscape can be a 19th-century urban park in a city in Latin America or a Moghul cemetery in India. Historic gardens form a vital part of a country’s heritage and form part of the identity of the land and its people. As such, they should be cherished, protected, maintained and, where necessary and practicable, restored. In 1995 we set up the Historic Gardens Foundation as a not-for-profit organisation working to bring together lovers of historic parks and gardens across the world. We have built up a wide network of contacts linking garden enthusiasts, visitors, owners, professional gardeners, landscape architects, historians, planners and botanists. Our objective is to bring all these people together to share ideas and information and to provide mutual support in campaigning to preserve or restore our garden heritage. We have promoted the cause of historic parks, gardens and designed landscapes through publishing a magazine, Historic Gardens Review through giving Prizes and currently by making grants to publications.
One of the most popular sections of the Review was 'Optimist and Pessimist' where we included the latest news - good and bad - of historic gardens. We're continuing this on our website so, if you wish to catch up with what is happening, click News The Foundation receives no public funding and so is completely independent. It is based in London but works worldwide. If you have news of historic parks or gardens, or are looking for help for your own campaigns, do get in touch via the Contacts page | 