The basic plan of the garden dates from the 1820s, when King George IV commissioned William Aiton to redesign what had been the gardens of the Duke of Buckingham. The king's father, George III, had bought the mansion in 1761, but it didn't become an official residence of the monarch until Queen Victoria's accession in 1837. More than 200 hollies, mostly dating from Victoria's reign, keep the garden green even in winter and support a population of Holly Blue butterflies. The brick walls are not much used for climbing shrubs, but pyracantha, cotoneaster, escallonia and chaenomeles do scale the wall nearest the royal mews. Many bulbs are naturalized in the garden, including bluebells, snowdrops, daffodils and grape hyacinth.
Seasonal bedding includes tulips, the varieties of which are changed every year.
The herbaceous border, conceived by the present queen's father, King George VI, stretches 175 yards along the north edge of the garden. It is mulched with a compost of garden clippings and manure from the adjacent horse stables at the Royal Mews. Chemicals are kept to a minimum. It was Lane who initiated the naturalists' study and asked the London Natural History Society to organize it, Plant said. They tend the lawns meticulously, of course, but some areas of the 20 acres of ornamental grasses are allowed to grow long to provide wild habitat for insects and animals.