Dargan Landscape Architects

Create Nourishing Flourishing Home Utopias

Appearances, Lectures and Shows

Help Us Design Dovecote’s New Garden!

The participants in our Summer Sizzle. Summer Pop! 3 day Garden Design event June 16-19 will design our new garden with us. I think Hugh and I might need some garden psychoanalysis…or at least a drink in the shade!

The front garden was installed last week in less than 2 days; so now is the time to tackle the rear.

If you’ve been watching this project unfold, now comes the juicy part.

Dovecote

Sound intriguing? Here is a sneak preview…

We have a blank canvas with 19 existing boxwoods, wooden fencing and a hedge backdrop 18’ tall. A BLANK CANVAS.

We’ll take you by the hand and show you how to analyze the space to get maximum benefit… beauty and brains.

Blank Canvas

Ever wonder how to start to design your own garden?

Help us solve pesky questions like where to hide the compost center consisting of the comfrey tea maker, the tumbler plus 4 leaf decomposers. Then there is the potting shed, the water garden, several pieces of statuary and kitchen garden. How are we going to manage water harvesting? Did I mention the 8 tile pictures of birds left over from a Southern Accents show house?

Interested? Sign up now for one of the few remaining spaces!

The pre-event design studio June 15 still has a few spaces left and will help you solve those pesky problems on your property. Available only to course participants.

So sign up now to save your seat!

 

Mapping Mrs. Whaley’s Iconic Landscape

58 Church Street in Charleston, SC (otherwise know as Mrs. Whaley’s Garden), was designed by Loutrell Briggs in the mid- twentieth century as the garden for a family. Today it is loved and occupied by the same family who was raised there!  Marty Whaley Cornwell ( Mrs. Charles) and her family are using the garden much like she did as a child.

Our “Create YOUR Outdoor Room, Courtyard and Retreat” participants had an innovative field session as they learned how to map a special place…by PACING. A pace is approximately 5′ and is a quick way to measure gardens and general field work. A survey form a licensed surveyor is recommended for detailed construction drawings or zoning submissions…but a paced landscape is generally good enough for schematic drawings.

58 Church Street

 

Building a Show Garden : Hope Springs Eternal!

Well I am so grateful for assistance in building this exhibit. It is only 10 x 10 and considered to be a pocket garden, but geeeeez, is it persnickety! Of course, we will be adding things up to the last minute…everyone  does! We have plants coming from Goodness Grows, Cut Flower Wholesale, Steve Miller’s Kingsville Boxwood edging, Pike and Saul’s color, our Highcote, Jenks Farmer’s crinums, Atlanta Water Gardens…and the woods!

Show Garden

Pat Boak is helping with invaluable installation of show perimeter boards, installation of mulch, backdrop and more. Thx pal! The following list is just something I found useful for keeping it all straight…

Dargan Plant List and Supplies

Bulbs
Muscari sp grape hyacinth (Cut Flower: bulbs in pots)
Narcissus  – Daffodils (HH-H&MP harvest & pot up)
Crinum americanum (Jenks Farmer- loose bulbs in basket w/ trowel and labels, booklet)- Crinum lily

Vines
Gelsemium sempervirens (maybe)- Carolina Jessamine
Clematis armandii (Saul’s)- Evergreen Clematis or Armand’s Clematis

Ground Covers
Native moss(HH- MP harvest fresh if possible- is sheet moss allowed?)
Ophiopogon japonicus (GG or Sauls, Pike?)- Mondo Grass

Shrubs
Spiraea prunifolia (Goodness Grows, force in Lynn C’s sunroom)- Bridalwreath
Camellia japonica sp (Pikes or Habersham)
Edgeworthia chrysantha (maybe- GG)- Oriental Paper Bush
Aspidistra elatior variegata ( maybe-PIke)- Cast Iron Plant
Fatsia japonica ( maybe-Pike)- Japanese Aralia

Edging Material
Buxus sempervirens ‘Kingsville’ Boxwoods (HH-MP/H or Steve Miller)
Buxus sempervirens variegata  Variegated Boxwoods (HH-MP/H)
Buxus sempervirens Boxwoods (Steve Miller-need to be rounded nicely)

Ephemeral Color
Lobeila erinus – trailing blue lobelia (50 4″ Pike)
Viola sp blue mixed colors (Pike)
Delphinium sp (Pike)
scabiosa (Pike & Sauls)
Pansies (yellow,orange, white gallons-Sauls)
Ornamental kale (Pike or Sauls)

Small Pond Plants
Iris pseudoacorus variegata ( Atl Water Gardens)- Variegated Yellow Flag Iris
Fuzzy stuff on surface?

Cut Trees for Background
May we use top of cedar trees like PHS does??- yes

5 senses:

Color
(see plants above)

Sound
Windchime
Small bubble in pond

Texture
Stepping stones in moss, ophiopogon with muscari mixed with blue lobelia
Need something like fatsia or aspidistra
Maybe ornamental kale

Fragrance
Clematis armandii
Other plants above

Taste
Violas
Maybe ornamental kale

Site Appurtenances
Weathered backdrop fencing painted a watery blue green ( leave natural?) 3 sides partial
Pond Gold fish? (MP maybe)
Stepping stones ( PAT BOAK)
Half moon step stone stabilized on cobble base ( PAT BOAK)
3″ interior raised border of granite cobbles ( PAT BOAK)
Board perimeter 12″ tall painted gray sim to cobble ( PAT BOAK)
One band of cobble of ground outside board adds 6″ perimeter around exhibit (PAT BOAK)
Lichen side chair (here)
Beautiful antique urn (here)
Small pond basin with moss around it (here)
A good book, coffee cup on side table or on stone to side (how to display?- on large stone?)
Mulch for interior of exhibit
Natural leaves (HH-H/MP)
Candle light torcheres (no wiring) , candlesticks, globes (or one atmospheric one on treillage)

Electrical  (Show committee)  one duplex outlet only
Pump (very small for fountain)
Outlet  computer

Display Boards
Black board (Curt/Andrew to do)
Plant list (Lynn & MP)
Handouts/cards (MP)
Books (Eagle EYE supplement)
Music stand for display of materials
Chair/stool?? (2)
Storage container for our stuff…hide it where?
Plant labels (clothes pins and wire, hand printed-Lynn)
Book drawing materials, 3 books and jar for names!

 

Celebrity Guest, Author Louisa Cameron, Shares a Fun Courtyard Treatment that Solves Urban Dilemmas!

At our Charleston event this past weekend, our celebrity guest, Louisa Cameron, Charleston native who is an author of 2 books on Charleston gardens and wonderful garden designer, produced a model of a courtyard to solve the problems of an urban Bed and Breakfast for 8 Church Street, The Cabell House…now where will Mrs. Randy Cabell get those pink bushes?

Louisa was good enough to speak on her project on film for us!

Building A Garden of the 5 Senses: Memories Spring Eternal

manningly rosesHow well I remember the fragrance of the roses in England! While in Manningly, in the rain, the mist from the petals filled my umbrella and I was inside my own personal aromatherapy chamber! Now whenever I as much as SEE a photograph of these roses with dewey petals, I swim in memories of that beautiful experience.

Fragrance triggers memory pegs. Memory pegs, in Dargan-speak, are sensory reminders of something in the past…such as a walk in the woods with your grandfather with the sound of leaves under your feet, or the taste of fresh olive oil on your wedding trip, or…well, the list can be endless. As we age, memory pegs become more and more important, especially with senility patients. Anything that can trigger the feeling of connectedness presents a calming influence that is very grounding.

At the upcoming 25th Southeastern Flower Show, its silver anniversary, held in Atlanta, GA on March 14-17 at the Cobb Galleria, Dargan Landscape Architects is preparing a type of memory peg garden.  It exhibits simple  devices like a water basin for reflection, an antique urn, a mossy chair for texture, a wind chime for gentle sound and plants in an array of color, culinary value and fragrance.

Come visit!  I’ll be posting photos as it is being constructed!

A WIN a BOOK drawing will be held each day. 3 Books will be awarded and names posted on our exhibit.