The current gardens and surrounding facilities are located completely within the former Brookgreen Plantation, which was owned by Joshua John Ward.

Before his death in 1853, he held more than 1,000 enslaved African Americans and in 1860 his estate (in his name) was the largest slaveholder in the United States.

During the American Civil War, Confederates built an earthen structure on the grounds to block Union Navy ships from coming into the tidal rivers.

[citation needed] Archer and Anna Hyatt Huntington of Redding, Connecticut purchased the four plantations in order to develop gardens to showcase her sculptures.

A seventy-inch long sea horse, sculpted by Joseph Kiselewski,[7] was place in Brookgreen Gardens in 1942.

The sculpture gardens also include works by:[8] Winner of the South Carolina Heritage Tourism Award, the Lowcountry Trail is a boardwalk that crosses the hillside overlooking Mainfield, a restored rice field of the former Brookgreen Plantation.

The rhythms of life – planting, growing, harvesting, threshing – changed seasonally for everyone on the rice plantation.

Archaeological survey and excavation projects have revealed the remains of four structures on the hillside: the site of the overseer's residence at the apex of the hill, and its kitchen, smokehouse and dependency closer to the edge of the rice field.

The Lowcountry Trail Audio Tour is a public education program that emphasizes historic preservation.

The tour winds along the Ricefield Overlook and adjacent rice field and is free with garden admission.

A self-guided tour of the nature trail shows off the 2000 identified species of life, including longleaf pines, Spanish moss draped live oaks, and vistas of the river, and nearby marshland.