The garden was established by the Little Garden Club of Rye in 1988, as a wildflower garden of mostly native plants.
In 2004, under the design leadership of club member Kathy Barnard, the garden was significantly renovated both physically and conceptually. A second front bed was added doubling the size of the display. Non-native species were removed and a broader range of plants, all native to northeastern America, were installed. These included trees, shrubs and groundcovers in addition to new perennials.
The purpose of the garden is to showcase a wide variety of native plants in order to educate the public about their beauty and functional, aesthetic, and ecological virtues thereby encouraging their use in other spaCES.