[3] It was founded by horticulturist and freelance journalist Lawrence D. Hills and named after Henry Doubleday, an Essex-based Quaker smallholder who had a particular interest in the properties of comfrey.
The Gears retired in 2004, when Dr. Susan Kay-Williams became the chief executive and the charity changed its working name to Garden Organic.
Bremner left in the summer of 2013 and was replaced by James Campbell, former acting chief development officer of the Earthwatch Institute.
In the autumn of 2017 Garden Organic announced that it was considering options for the future of its Ryton site, with full or partial sale among the possibilities.
[5][6] In September 2019, Coventry University, whose Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience is located on the Ryton site, purchased it.
[10] It used to actively campaign on issues vital to both people and the environment including health, sustainability, and climate change, and helps children in over 15% of the UK's schools learn about food and organic growing through its free education programme, Garden Organic for Schools[11] and through its work on the Food for Life Partnership.
Here the organisation not only leads its charitable delivery activities, but also runs over 30 individual gardens in 10 acres (40,000 m2) of landscaped grounds open to the public.