These were accompanied by significant changes in 1960s youth culture, with the fashion-led teenage consumerism of the mid-1960s Swinging London era being challenged by the more reflective, less materialistic outlook of the San Francisco hippies.
Peel, having had first-hand experience of the emerging hippy scene - he had seen many of the new bands and performers in California - found himself in the right place at the right time, with a parallel movement developing in London under the influence of the Beatles.
The Perfumed Garden began quietly, in May 1967; the name-change (which had nothing to do with the celebrated erotic book, he maintained) occurred when Peel realised that no one else on the station was listening to its late-night programmes, the after-midnight slot being unpopular with DJs and advertisers alike.
Departing from the station's heavily commercial "Fab 40" playlist, Peel began broadcasting a mixture of folk, blues, psychedelic and progressive rock tracks that he happened to like, announcing them in a shy, laconic drawl which contrasted sharply with the fast-talking, upbeat presentation of most pirate radio disc-jockeys.
Peel's listeners sent in letters and poems very much in the spirit of the times, and with a strong sense of identification with what The Perfumed Garden represented; for many, the programme was an introduction to the music and beliefs of the flower power era.
His early BBC programmes, being restricted to two or three hours per week, were less free and personal than the Perfumed Garden; listener input, in particular, was greatly reduced, but its influence was still apparent in Peel's presentation style and in his musical choices.
However, Night Ride can be seen in retrospect as well ahead of its time, its eclectic musical content foreshadowing programmes such as BBC Radio 3's Late Junction, which only began thirty years later.
Although the more whimsical side of the Perfumed Garden - the fascination with sparrows, hamsters and other small creatures, his sympathy for the childlike fantasies expressed in some listeners' letters - caused Peel some embarrassment in his later years, the social concern which accompanied his hippie idealism remained constant throughout his career.
"In 2006, as part of a John Peel tribute marking the second anniversary of his death, BBC Radio 6 Music broadcast four half-hour excerpts from his final Perfumed Garden show from 23–27 October.