I love this photo sent by friend, E Bradham from Charleston. I want to go here!! Our  daffodils from Brent & Beckys bulbs planted from GWA samples received over many years enrich our garden at Highcote in Cashiers, NC with a multitude of cup colors and form. The apricot hyacinth Gypsy Queen is fantastic. Pulmonaria in a tapestry of pinks and purples., Weeping cherry purchased for $25 and now 30′ tall is magnificent with cascades of pale pink flowers. Blindingly dark purple grape hyacinth has never been thicker or better.

Forysythia,* Corylus spicata* in bloom, Stachyurus about 3″ long racimes ready to pop…it is a heartbreakingly early zone 6a-new zone 6b- spring. Tulip poplar with 1″ leaves sheaths…I’m enjoying while waiting for the next shoe to drop  since our spring officially is around May 15, not March 15.

Distressed concrete might not be the first thing you think about when it comes to Hobe Sound, but there you are. Different strokes for different folks. I like the texture of this homemade tabby, a take on the historical real think made from either carved ( sliced) coral stone, or imbedded and compressed crushed oyster shells. I was judging  the GCA Jupiter Island Flower Show, attending a Peter Wirtz lecture and stumbled upon it!

Time passes by all too swifly. I promised many of you the link to the memorial video played on February 17, 2012 at the UGA gathering in honor of our friend, the late Jim Cothran, FASLA.

Susan Hitchcock and I photographed and keynoted images of the many trophies, family photos and manuscripts that Lynn Cothran shared with us. A voice-over of the eulogies fromt the funeral is included on this video link.This a “Home Movie” and I think, very sweet. It also features colleagues at the Cherokee Garden Library memorial gathering and includes images sent from many friends.

In memoriam Jim Cothran, FASLA (click here)

We share a kinship as a loosely formed group of garden historians, garden club members and landscape architects who knew Jim. In the past short month since his passing, scarcely a day goes by that I don’t think of him. In so many ways, Jim Cothran was the face of garden history in Georgia and South Carolina, and in the South in general. He had such gentle, all abiding interest in our cultural landscape ways.

Lynn has his slide collection and asked me what to do with them. She even has my old slide projector given to Jim when his antique projector bit the dust! It inspired me to send you each gift, a link to 4800 inspirational images of gardens from my archives. The garden history ones are particularly popular (012 series). Please share these galleries with your friends http://learn.dargan.com/

I wish Jim’s slides could be scanned for posterity and shared similarly. Any ideas?

I do not have a complete list of who came, or couldn’t or wanted to be there and just found out, so please share http://vimeo.com/36870419 in honor of Jim.

Mary Palmer is on an exciting adventure to San Diego, CA to reach her dreams of becoming the next garden guru! She’s studying with internationally renowned sales and marketing “queen”, Lisa Sasevich, to help learn the tricks of the trade in creating the best product for her readers. Additionally, she is meeting with video extraordinaire Jimbo Marshall from Hell Yeah! productions to get the best concepts and ideas for her Placemaker’s Workbook and series of 12 DVDs, due Summer 2012! This workbook and study series will be jam packed with gardening tips, ideas, and personal testimonies from various garden characters that will be sure to keep you thoroughly entertained and informed on all of the latest and greatest garden tools, tips, and technology. Stay tuned!!!

Remember all those landscape design courses I taughtat Clemson called the Clemson Certificate of Landscape Design (CCALD)? Ta-daa… they  are here for you as videos and power point shows…free!

Well, I hated to let them languish in the closet. So, we uploaded them to VIMEO… and voila, now you can have them for tune-ups and inspiration. The address is http://acald.org/ or if you just want the videos: http://vimeopro.com/dargan/landscape-design-course

Study up on landscape history, planting design, learn hundreds of zone 5,6,7,8 plants, hear me yawn, refresh your memory on footings, arbor design and remember how to draw.

Oh yes, the power points reviews are there too, so you can print a picture from the lecture. There will be a test in November, just kiddin’ !

These shows are a gift from me to you.

Redesign the world, one garden at a time.

Lifelong Landscape Design: Demo Cover for Garden Writers Debut

The Search for a Expressive Cover

High Green, Nancy and Holcombe Greens’s lovely garden in Cashiers, NC,  is the current poster child for Lifelong Landscape Design: Environments for Health and Longevity, due for release in August 2012 by Gibbs Smith Publishers.

The garden has everything…  an atmospheric waterfall, place to sit, herbs between the cracks, gentle stairs, flat surface on which to walk and beautiful plantings. The demo cover is evolving, so stay tuned!

Mary Palmer leaves this week for Garden Writers of America Annual Meeting in Indianapolis to debut the upcoming book. Over 650 Garden Writers vie for the opportunity to share contacts, hear fabulous & inspirational lectures and visit good material to write about…gardens!  www.gardenwriters.org/

Cashiers Pioneer Garden

Bring your Pickin’ Basket to the The Pioneer Garden

Kentucky Wonder Pole Beans  live up to their name! Planted in early June, they climbed the beanstalks and set 8″ pods by mid August. The kale, swiss chard, garlic chives and other useful herbs and vegetables survived attacks by crows and rabbits to flourish in the millstone garden. The birdhouse gourd tree makes a quaint statement…no occupants yet!

Mary Palmer Dargan, asla put together antibellum gypsy kettles as planters, and antique gardening tools plus a collection of rustic furniture. Hugh Dargan suggested grasses planted in the caldron kettle to mimic smoke.

The Cashiers Designer Showhouse benefits Cashiers Historical Society and is a “must visit” for both home and garden. Reflections, the historic log cabin home overlooks a scenic lake and reached along an atmospheric, mountain road. It is open until Sept 4.

For more information contact http://www.cashiershistoricalsociety.org/ or call 828-743-7710

The Joy Garden Tour  July 14-16 benefits the support of The Cashiers Village Green with a beautifully executed garden tour to exclusive mountain homes and gardens. This biannual event raises the majority of the funds for maintenance for the 12.5 acre site in the heart of little ole’ unincorporated Cashiers, NC.

Gardens in the Chattooga Club and Wade Hampton Golf Club designed by Mary Palmer Dargan are special stops along the tour of a handful of beautiful gardens. The Akitt garden, Timberline, is a spectacular series of interconnected garden terraces situated on a west facing slope. Complete with rare shrubs, flowering hydrangeas and specialty cornus, there is also a snail’s trail path and topiary deer in a buckberry forest. The Valenta garden which faces north and west toward Chimney Top mountain, is likewise situated on a series of terraces (see pathway). The garden features a collection of handcrafted bird’s houses by Walt Cottingham, a fantastic waterfall by Bob Dews and planting installation by Dustin Watson of Scotly’s Yard Nursery.

A market of hand selected garden fares opens at the gala on Thursday, July 14 and continues till Saturday July 16. Mary Palmer will do booksignings each day. http://www.villagegreencashiersnc.com/fundraisers/joy_garden_tour.htm

Mountains in Bloom is a REAL flower show, with bonus garden tour and opening cocktail party. Entries are accepted on July 7 from 8 am till noon, then the judging begins on garden photography, horticulture and floral design.

Don’t be afraid to enter! It is free and painless. The gala opening is 6-8 pm July 7 at the Bascom’s fabulous gallery. Tours begin on friday to Highlands finest. Cecile McCaull, the flower show co-chair, graciously shares her wonderful log home garden with visitors. Mary Palmer designed the arched backdrop and tweaked several areas of this large, mature garden ; Cecile added the mirror!  for tickets

www.mountainsinbloom.com or 828-787-2896