Charleston landscape architects

At a typical home, rainwater gushes out of the downspout, across the lawn, into the street, and down a storm drain — never to be thought of by the homeowner again. What they’re probably not considering is pollution from storm drains is dumped into local streams, rivers, and bays. The clever few take rainfall and build rain gardens, and here’s why:

• Your simple gutter water can be diverted into a visually stunning garden. Soil in the planting beds works like a sponge, filtering the water and allowing it to percolate into the surrounding area.
• Because rain gardens capture and filter water from roofs, driveways, and parking lots, they actually improve water quality in nearby bodies of water.
• You can inexpensively store over one hundred gallons of collected water to use for your garden and other outdoor purposes.

Tips on How to Build a Rain Garden for a Sustainable Landscape

Before you begin, ask your local Cooperative Extension Office to inform you about soil mix, garden size, and plants for your specific area. Start by obtaining one or more water storage barrels. You can acquire them used or online; just be sure to thoroughly clean them with soapy water. A barrel that can hold between 30 and 55 gallons is best, and you can connect two or three together as part of the same water collection system.

Creating a rich plant basin to collect and filter storm water involves three planting zones for wet, semi-wet, and dry conditions. When choosing native plants for your rain garden, you’ll need to consider the height, bloom time, color, and overall texture of each plant. Choosing plants that bloom at different times will result in a beautiful, long flowering season.

To give your rain garden the best chance of flourishing, seek out an area of your landscape that isn’t already overly soggy. We also suggest selecting plants that have a well-established root system. Generally, plants need one inch of water per week immediately after planting, so be sure to baby them!

Contact Dargan Landscape Architects today to start planning your sustainable rain garden.

A well-designed landscape complements the home while blending it into the natural surroundings. The best way to ensure a landscape design that enhances property value is to take cues from the home’s architectural style.

Each architectural style is associated with building materials that can become the foundation for a fantastic landscape design. Whether it’s a combination of brick and wood or fieldstone and stucco, the colors and textures of building materials can help to harmonize the home with the landscape to create a naturally beautiful and cohesive design. These materials can specifically be used for freestanding walls and paved areas, creating a direct connection between the home and landscape.

Here are some other questions that can help to jumpstart a landscape design based on the home’s architectural style:

• What are the dominant hues of the home and building materials?
• What is the size and mass of your home? Is it a little architectural gem, cottage/bungalow, mini-mansion, or mega-mansion?
• What is your home’s relationship to the ground plane?

Taking cues from architecture goes far beyond materials. Scale, for instance, is determined by the home’s size and is paramount in designing terraces, parking courts, foundation plantings, and other improvements.

Foundation plantings, such as ivy and boxwoods, are a popular design element for anchoring and merging the home into the rest of the landscape. Before drainage solutions like gutters, paving ran right up to the edges of homes, and architects like Andrea Palladio – a sixteenth century Italian architect – mastered the art of stand-alone home designs. Now, landscape designs can incorporate foundation plants that not only ground and balance the home, but add to its attractiveness.

In the past, consistent architecture and limited planting options made integrating homes rather self-explanatory. Today, however, with the melding of architectural styles and the variety of plants available, knowing how to create a planting scheme that will marry with the landscape, scale, and style of the home is paramount.

For larger homes and mansions, large-scale shrubs and shade trees can bring it down in scale to connect it with the landscape. When designing for cottages and little architectural gems, go for plants that create an intimate and personal atmosphere. Historic homes and old photographs can be great inspiration for planting schemes.

Dargan Landscape Architects would love to help bring your home to life with a landscape design that highlights its best architectural features. Contact us to learn more.

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.