The formal gardens of Middleton Plantation date back to 1731. During the US Revolution British troops occupied the main house and burned much of the early garden. The British surrender of the southern colonies was signed in the plantation house.

The new gardens rebuilt after the British left were larger than the original, however towards the end of the US Civil War federal troops burned Middleton with most of the other Ashley River rice plantation properties.

In 1910 the current gardens were again replanted and today they are part of the Middleton property open to the public.

These are around the garden area that runs along the Ashley River.

Middleton is one of four large plantation homes that sat on the river upstream from Charleston, South Carolina.