From 1753,according to Thomas Akins,in The History of Halifax public gardens were much in fashion.  Adlam's gardens in 1758 was  extensively  closed south of the Citadel near the Artillery Park,with a pavillion, and a variety of fruit trees and shrubs.In 1789 the first Agricultural Society in Canada elected the Honourable Richard Bulkley as president.A competition among private gardens flourished.

About 1818,the Lieutenant -Governour's Gardens (in front of Government House from Barrington Street to  Queen Street)were managed by a gGardener who received 32 pounds 10 shillings per annum.It is likely that Spring Garden Road derived its name from the Governour's Gardens,since by 1821 (15 years before the formation of the Public Gardens predecessor in 1836):"The walk down Pleasant Street and up the road now known as Inglis Street and round the new road,as the Tower Road was called, to Pyke's Bridge,and thence down Spring Garden Road to Government House was the fashionable promenade for all classes for Sundays and holidays." [ibid,p.210]

The "Agricola"series of articles on gardening by John Young in The Acadia Recorder in 1818 and Joseph Howe's articles in the 1836 Nova Scotian stimulated the formation of the Nova Scotia Horticultural Society. The Society's aims were to promote an interest in botany and proper horticultural technique while at the same time providing a delightful retreat for the people of the city.  "to improve the culture of the best kinds of fruit,the most useful vegetables, shrubs trees,and choice flowers". [The Maritime Pictorial vol.II 1930,p.29]

The site was chosen about 1841 of what was then part of the common, and now the southern half of the public gardens."the space was laid out in flower beds and vegetable plots and enclosed by a fence.It became a resort for all the wealth and fashion of the time,military bands furnishing music on fete days and holidays.The Society endeavoured to become self-sufficent by selling vegetables and flowers.About 1848 the old lodge was built for the purpose of  meetings of the Society and the cellar was frost proof for the protection of vegetables in the winter."

"In 1866 due to the initiative of Alderman John MacCulloch a flower bed was laid out north of the Horticultural Gardens by Michael Shea,a gardener in the vicinity of what is now the lake(sic)-today Griffin's Pond-( adapted from a plan observed by Alderman MacCulloch while on a visit to Paris).

"In 1867 the City Garden Plot of two acres was opened to an appreciative public by Sir.William Young,Chief Justice of the province.