Mary Palmer Dargan & Hugh Graham Dargan
Landscape Architects
www.dargan.com
Professional Registrations
GA, Landscape Architect # 654 (Mary Palmer Dargan)
NC, Landscape Architect # 489 (Mary Palmer Dargan)
SC, Landscape Architect # 111 (Hugh Graham Dargan)
Educational Degrees & Professional Certifications
BA, Botany, University of TN (Mary Palmer Dargan) 1976
MLA, Landscape Architecture, Louisiana State University (Mary Palmer Dargan) 1982
BLA,Landscape Architecture, University of GA (Hugh Graham Dargan) 1972
Harvard Business School, Professional Development, 2 summer semesters (Mary Palmer Dargan) 1986/87 ( MP)
The National Trust (Britain), Historic Landscape Parks & Gardens Intensive Certification 1985 ( H & MP)
Health Care Garden Design Advanced Certificate, Chicago Botanical Garden 2010 ( H & MP)
Teaching Experience
Affiliate Professor, Landscape Architecture & Planning, Clemson University (2000-2005) (MP)
University of South Carolina, Art of Garden Design, many seasonal continuing education 6 week courses (1985-86) ( H & MP)
College of Charleston, Art of Garden Design, many seasonal continuing education 6 week courses (1987-89) ( H & MP)
National Lecturer & Landscape Design Workshops (1981-2018-present)
Botanist & Education Director, Cheekwood Botanical Gardens, Nashville TN (1976-1979)
The American College of Building Arts,Charleston, Lifelong Landscapes: Design Your Wellness Garden, (Winter Intensive, 2019) ( H & MP)
Hosts, The Garden Talk Salon, Cashiers, NC, weekly seasonal lectures May-October (2014-201- present) ( H & MP)
Author : Courses, Symposia, Books
The Certificate of Accomplishment in Landscape & Garden Design, Clemson University Continuing Education( 48 lectures, 8 modules) ( MP)
Timeless Landscape Design : The Four Part Master Plan, Dargan & Dargan, Gibbs- Smith, publisher 2008
Lifelong Landscape Design: Environments for Health & Longevity, Mary Palmer Dargan, Gibbs- Smith, publisher 2011
The Early English Kitchen Garden: ad 800-1800 ad, Mary Palmer Dargan, published 1984
The Early American Kitchen Garden: A Heritage Garden Handbook, ad 1800-1880, Mary Palmer Dargan, published draft 2017
Symposium Chairs, Southern Garden History Society 5th anniversary, Charleston, SC 1986 ( H & MP)
Symposium Chair, Heirloom Gardener Symposium: Plants for Use & Delight, Cashiers, NC 2017 ( MP)
Professional Affiliations & Community Boards
Founding Board, Southern Garden History Society (1983, three terms) (Hugh Graham Dargan)
Restoring Southern Gardens, Board Member (1978, Hugh Graham Dargan)
The Garden Conservancy, Founding Board of Friends (MP & H two terms)
Brookgreen Gardens, Founding Huntington Society Members (MP& H three terms)
Brookgreen Gardens, Artists in Residence (H & MP 2019)
Cherokee Garden Library, Atlanta History Center, Board Members (several terms, H & MP)
The Village Green, Cashiers, Board Member (MP three terms)
Cashiers Historical Society, Village Heritage Award Committee (four terms, H & MP)
Audubon Society, Highlands Cashiers Plateau Chapter, Board Member ( Hugh)
Inaugural Chair, Cashiers Plein Air Festival to benefit The Village Green (active 2008- present )
American Society of Landscape Architects (Mp & H)
Association of Professional Landscape Designers ( MP)
Garden Writers of America ( MP)
Rotary Club, Cashiers, NC ( 2017-present) (Hugh)
The Garden Club of America, National Affairs & Legislation ( MP)
(three year, Zone VIII Representative,Washington, DC managing 15 garden club delegates-awesome!)
Awards & Honors
The 2017 Garden Club of America, Zone Conservation Award (usually given to a large organization)
The 2005 American Horticultural Society Environmental Award
Garden Club of America, Accredited Horticulture Judge (national shows; ie: Philadelphia, Palm Beach)
Numerous GCA & ASLA awards (1982- 2018 present)
Cashiers Historical Society, Village Heritage Award (2016)
Archives
Dargan Landscape Architects works on paper are preserved on microfilm in the South Carolina Historical Society finding aids (SC & Charleston properties)
Cherokee Garden Library, Atlanta History Center, Atlanta GA holds over 10,000 of their works on paper.
Publications & TV
Many professional publications, homeowner & historic landscape preservation landscape design books
Shelter magazine to Sports Illustrated (Extreme Gardens)
HGTV to CNN
Biographical Information
Dargan Landscape Architects was founded as Hugh Dargan Associates upon Hugh Dargan completing his BLA in Landscape Architecture (1973). Hugh, a 13th generation South Carolinian, continues to steward his family’s small farm, in Darlington County, SC which is a fragment of the original family land grant of early eighteenth century.
The HDA office moved to Camden, SC in 1976, when Hugh became involved with Historic Camden projects as a historic landscape architectural preservation expert; his office subsequently moved to Columbia, SC in 1979 to continue notable work in historic landscape architectural preservation with Historic Columbia projects and as landscape architect serving homeowners and businesses. Hugh & Mary Palmer Dargan met in 1984 at a Southern Garden History Society meeting in Natchez, MS. Mary Palmer Kelley Dargan is a member of the Founding Families of TN and a 6th generation Nashvillian.
The Dargan’s work in historic preservation landscape architecture in Charleston, SC propelled them into the national spotlight in several books by influential British garden authors, Penelope Hobhouse and Rosemary Verey. Rosemary Verey became a champion of the Dargans; they spent their wedding trip at Barnsley, her home in the Cotswolds. During the next 30 years, the firmly anglophilic Dargans studied 800 gardens & estates in England plus worked on two British National Trust projects and home of The Earl of Wemyss and March at Stanway, in Gloucestershire. Analytical studies of historic French, Italian, Portuguese gardens continued as well, providing a rich base for understanding architecture and how man lives on his personal land.
Invitations to work in many states followed. Dargan Landscape Architects slowly moved from Charleston to Atlanta to manage very large projects, becoming one of the larger mid-sized landscape architectural practices in the US by 1993. Their practice spanned coast to coast, mountains to the sea. Encouraged to write a book about their philosophy of The Four Part Master Plan, the universal language of the land system devised from their workshop teachings, Charles (Pete) Wyrick, noted Charleston publisher, found their work a home with Gibbs-Smith publishers. Gibbs- Smith subsequently published Timeless Landscape Design: The Four Part Master Plan ( 2008) and Lifelong Landscape Design: Environments for Health & Longevity (2011). While in Atlanta, Mary Palmer became very involved with The Garden Club of America’s Cherokee Garden Club, becoming a nationally accredited horticulture judge (an 8 year process), and as Conservation National Affairs and Legislation representative from SC, GA, AL & FL to Washington, DC.
The demand of beautiful projects located in western NC prompted the Dargans to purchase Highcote, at High Hampton in Cashiers, NC, in 1998. In 2015, they renovated Dovecote, a historic farmhouse, and created The Garden Talk Salon. Their restoration efforts and community programs received the prestigious, Cashiers Historical Society’s, Village Heritage Award in 2016.
The Dargans love hiking in the Smoky Mountains, especially overnight camping in high places. Their young Boykin Spaniel, SHR Hollow Creek’s Henry Dargan SHA, has numerous titles in upland hunting & retrieving, and is a late in life hobby. Hugh is now partially retired at age 70 (2019), having moved the Atlanta office to Cashiers in 2015. Mary Palmer is the CEO of Dargan Landscape Architects with projects throughout the southeastern United States and continues to teach.
404-354-1715, 828-743-0307
PO Box 2638
Cashiers, NC 28717