Heritage gardens serve as vital custodians of cultural heritage and as a catalyst for progress towards becoming a cultural powerhouse. They embody a multitude of historical, ecological, and social values. The study of their landscape perception is critically important for elucidating mechanisms of human-environment interaction and advancing heritage preservation and revitalization. Based on the CNKI and Web of Science databases, this paper systematically analyzes the knowledge structure and evolutionary characteristics of research on heritage garden landscape perception from 2004 to 2024, including 160 Chinese and 125 English publications. Using CiteSpace, bibliometric and visual analyses are conducted, and a three-dimensional “object-method-content” framework is constructed. The fi ndings indicate that the research is generally advancing in three stages, with the scope of research objects expanding from garden heritage, historical gardens, and classical gardens to encompass a “multi-object genealogy” of various landscape types. These include historical gardens, garden heritage, classical gardens, cultural landscapes, cultural heritage, rural settlements, and traditional landscapes. This paper proposes a comprehensive methodological framework based on a “perception-assessment-regulation” structure. It develops an application system founded on the “multi-perception channel- multidisciplinary method-multi-dimensional well-being” framework, off ering systematic theoretical and practical support for the scientifi c preservation of heritage gardens and the enhancement of human settlements.