Dargan Landscape Architects

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Landscape Design Tips

What are Some Design Ideas for an Enclosed Garden?

Source: Dargan Landscape Architects
Source: Dargan Landscape Architects

An enclosed garden can be the retreat you’ve needed to transform your home into a vibrant oasis. Why? Enclosed gardens evoke visions of magnificent pastoral settings and a simpler life, and are a setting in which you can celebrate your outdoor environment to a fuller degree. Below are some factors to take into consideration during the process of planning your garden design:

Fencing

The fencing you choose for your enclosed garden heavily influences the style it reflects. A good rule is to think of your garden as any other room in your home, except without the roof. You can further shape the existing layout of homes by enclosing garden spaces with fencing. Appropriate fencing can be almost anything — traditional picket fencing, rustic wood, and even chicken wire are all viable options.

Trees

Trees inherently enhance the look of architecture, and we cannot stress enough the benefits of incorporating them into your landscape design. Planting shade trees to the south and west of a property cool the roof during hot summer weather; and evergreens planted in the northwestern portion of a property help with wind control.

Garden Plants

Planting vegetables along with your plants is a good way to take full advantage of your enclosed garden space. Expensive or high-maintenance plants are often more of a hassle than a reward, so choose plants you are capable of caring for. Think about planting living artwork — consider your color scheme and intentions for how you will use the space. With the right combination of plants and flowers, you can create a genuine place to escape from the stresses of a busy life.

Pathways

Rather than arbitrarily laying paths where they fit in your enclosed garden, think about how you will functionally use the area and care for the garden space. You can use flagstone, gravel, or any other material you wish to lay the path in your garden.

If you would like help with your landscaping design and enclosed garden, we at Dargan Landscape Architects invite you to contact us to conduct your design consultation to create your dream enclosed garden space.

Using Evocative Color & Design to Transform a Garden

Source: Dargan Landscape Architects
Source: Dargan Landscape Architects

We all know how color can affect our moods and emotions, which is why we are so particular about the hues we bring into our home. Similarly, gardens can be designed with color palettes that create a certain feel or mood. One of the most appealing parts about flowers is their colorful blossoms and petals. Since perennials can be found in almost any color on the spectrum, gardens can be designed with color combinations that make them feel as beautiful as they look. 

Plants with evocative tones can have a powerful affect on gardens. Racy reds, sunny yellow, vibrant magenta and bright orange, for instance, can bring gardens to life with invigorating energy. An attractive scheme can be created by combining colors that are complementary or opposite on the color wheel to ensure strong, aesthetically-pleasing contrasts for added vitality and creative energy. Harmonious hues – which are adjacent on the color wheel – can round out palettes with balance and cohesiveness. 

Flowers and plants, as well as accessories for outdoor living spaces, can be used to add color to gardens. Command attention with a patch of assertive red lilies or create a dynamic look through smaller pops, like a piece of red outdoor furniture. Orange poppy flowers can add warmth with a vivid tone that inherently makes you smile. Yellow accent pillows can brighten an outdoor living space while a big bed of yellow rudbeckia can make a garden appear larger.

Blue blossoms are rare, but some planters with blue and violet delphinium, or a patio finished with turquoise tiles, can make for an environment that is both stunning and serene. A touch of purple can always be used to infuse a little nostalgia or help to finish a modern scene with its complex blend of calming blue and energizing red. 

To go bold in the garden, don’t limit yourself to bedding plants. Shrubbery with an animating hue can add a little drama as they bring color to eye-level. Container plantings can bring color where soil can’t in areas including decks, porches, walkways, and steps. Gardens can also be carefully planned with containers, beds, trees, and shrubs in a way that ensures a captivating landscape all year long with different colors for every season. 

For a steady source of garden design and landscape architecture inspiration, like Dargan Landscape Architects on Facebook and follow co-owner Mary Palmer Dargan on Twitter.  

Create a Garden Corner to Energize & Invoke Nature

Source: Dargan Landscape Architects
Source: Dargan Landscape Architects

A well-designed garden is aesthetically interesting from every angle, even corners. Too often, corner areas of the garden get overlooked or underrated as a space that can enhance landscapes and outdoor living. No matter what the size of your garden, it can be designed to make the most of each corner, so no inch of beautiful outdoor space goes to waste. Such spatial planning in the garden can add value to your property and quality of life. A smart garden designed to optimize space can leave you with better views to enjoy from inside your home as well as more ways to connect with nature and expand living space beyond the walls of the home.

Here are some of the garden design ideas we are finding inspiration from right now as we begin planning for the spring growing season:

  • Convert a corner into a focal point: Turning a corner of the garden into an intriguing focal point will direct the eyes to this area, highlighting the spaciousness or making the garden feel larger. An ornamental tree, sculpture, or fountain that compliments the style of your home and landscape can make for a fabulous focal point. Blend it into the rest of the landscape with a border garden. Position a light fixture on this focal point to create a more dynamic lighting scheme and allow this corner to shine even at nighttime.
  • Create a corner seating area: A built-in garden bench, sectional sofa, or patio area with table and chairs can be a great use of a corner space. This layout will allow you to entertain and relax outdoors as you enjoy your garden from a new and unique vantage point. A pergola, fire pit, or full outdoor fireplace can anchor and define this corner seating area and allow its use more seasons out of the year.
  • Tuck in a pavilion, gazebo, or other structure: An outbuilding nestled in the corner can turn this space of your garden into your own backyard retreat. A more significant corner structure can also give you the opportunity to establish the style of your garden, whether it’s inspired by modern, Asian design or an enchanting and picturesque cottage scene.

Are the corners of your garden working as hard as they could be for you and your landscape?

We’d love to help you make the most of your landscape with a custom garden. Whether you are looking to entertain outside or simply achieve a space to inspire and encourage a stronger relationship with nature, Dargan Landscape Architects would love to help build and design the garden of your dreams. Contact us by calling me (Mary Palmer Dargan) at 404.354.1715 or Hugh Dargan at 404.354.1714.

Inspired Spring Gardening with Raised Beds

Source: Dargan Landscape Architects
Source: Dargan Landscape Architects

The benefits of raised garden beds abound, and there’s no better way to ensure a bountiful garden than with sturdy and reliable raised beds. Gardening in boxes or contained areas makes it easier to maintain better soil and prevent weeds and pests. With more control over nutrient levels, soil temperature, and seed distribution, raised beds allow you to enjoy higher yields and longer growing seasons. 

Raised beds not only make for beautiful and healthy gardens, but they can also add incredible aesthetic value to landscapes. As we enter the tail-end of the winter season, we’re dreaming of lush and gorgeous spring gardens with inspiring raised beds that are design elements in themselves.  

  • The classic raised bed is constructed with a wooden box. These are the traditional structures most people picture when hearing raised beds. Wooden raised beds can easily be designed with ledges on top to provide convenient seating for nurturing and enjoying gardens. 
  • Great for garden designs that are outside of the box, stone walls can be used to make creative and more organic-shaped raised beds. The cool tones and natural textures of stone masonry additionally create naturally stunning contrasts in the garden. 
  • Metal raised beds can be fabricated from troughs, stock tanks, culverts, slabs of steel or Cor-Ten. What’s so intriguing about metal raised beds is the industrial, modern, or rustic feel they can bring into garden designs. These types of beds not only create up-to-date designs but are long-lasting and weather-resistant. 
  • Other materials that can be used for raised gardens include rock, cinderblock, and brick. But no matter what materials are employed, there are still plenty of opportunities to create a custom garden design with the shapes, positioning, and configuration of raised beds.
  • Beds can be configured into a grid pattern or organized to outline and surround a yard or patio. They can be terraced on a slope or laid into narrow rows like a small farm. Galvanized culvert beds or metal troughs can be arranged in a way that makes for a whimsical, shabby-chic garden or a chic, contemporary design. 

Raised beds can be used to achieve any style garden, from formal designs to clean and contemporary landscapes to more casual, cottage-inspired looks. They can also be practical and functional. Picture being able to cook in an outdoor kitchen with herb gardens in nearby raised beds, or imagine being able to smell herbs as you dine and entertain al fresco. 

Our team at Dargan Landscape Architects has the expertise and passion to design the garden of your dreams. Whether you’ve always wanted an edible garden or your entire landscape could use an update, our team would love to help. Contact us online or call 404.231.3889. 

How Do I Incorporate Walls & Design Features Around My Yard?

How Do I Incorporate Walls & Design Features Around My Yard?
Source: Dargan Landscape Architects

Masonry walls and backdrops give three-dimensionality to landscapes. Built structures compliment anything with footing. These include fences, gates, retaining walls, steps, arbors, treillage, pavilions and pergolas. They can showcase your style while highlighting the best aspects of the landscape and the home’s architecture.

A treillage is a staple of the French-inspired garden. It’s any type of trellis that can stand alone or be attached to a wall or side of the home to add architectural interest and detail as well as greenery. Creeping vines covering a trellis always creates a romantic and picturesque look and feel.

Fences can be custom designed to add character, charm and personality to landscapes. A tall fence that encloses a garden can become a fabulous backdrop to a sitting area with an ironwork canopy. A front gate can feature elegant balusters, arches and keystones or even arbors to make a stunning impact and memorable first impression.

Pavilions provide a distinct area for relaxing and entertaining in a gorgeous outdoor setting. We’ve custom-designed several site-specific pavilions that make for an incredible and one-of-a-kind outdoor room. The types of plantings used on and around the pavilion can solidify the style of the landscape, whether traditional, contemporary or modern.

Balustrades can create a Mediterranean, resort-style look and feel while adding a beautiful patina to the landscape design. Traditional balustrades constructed with cast stone form negative and positive spaces that add wonderful shape.

If you are looking for a larger built structure, you can have a tall wall custom designed with built-in niches, planters, arches, columns, ironwork and even a fountain. The bricks or stones can be arranged, painted or aged to create the exact look that blends and enhances the landscape. One of our favorite, and most complicated, projects was a tall statuary wall complete with natural grotto design. Rocks were used throughout the design to integrate it into the natural surroundings while niches provide places for plantings that add color and interest.

If you are looking to add beautiful backdrops to your landscape, contact Dargan Landscape Architects in Atlanta to learn more about our landscape services.