Charleston landscape architects

What are the Best Gardening & Landscape Ideas for Empty-Nesters?

February 23, 2015

A new chapter deserves a new space that will enhance your quality of life. If you and your significant other are looking to create an outdoor room, consider a custom design that will provide more than just a treat for the eyes.

Freedom and Mobility: Whether you are downsizing or you are just looking to optimize your home and property, the right design can result in a multi-purpose outdoor space that is cleverly leveraged to take advantage of every square foot and feature.

Nature: Consider a design that will encourage you to spend more time with nature on a daily basis. Include a table and chair for dining al fresco or a comfortable sitting area for reading the newspaper while you drink your morning coffee or tea. Bring your landscape to life and create ways to interact with nature by incorporating a bird feeder and plants that attract butterflies.

Therapeutic: You’ll enjoy incredible benefits with a landscape design that allows you to slow down, quiet your mind and find peace and tranquility. Tending to a garden, touching plants or simply just being outside can promote a healthier lifestyle as it reduces stress and reignites the senses.

Social: Designing an outdoor room that lends itself to social gatherings can also significantly enhance your quality of life. In addition to dining areas, consider other ways to encourage social engagement such as outdoor games or a fire pit or fireplace with plenty of extra seating.

Active Use: Get yourself moving outdoors with a personalized design. Whether you like to practice meditation or tai chi, or you would rather go for an invigorating swim in a lap pool, consider a home spa unit or fitness space to provide a way to enjoy a different level of activity or exercise at home.

Passive Use: You don’t have to work up a sweat. Simply creating an outdoor space for enjoying downtime and quiet “me time” for reflecting and clearing the mind can do wonders for your health and happiness.

Contact Dargan Landscape Architects to learn how we can help you achieve a custom multi-purpose landscape design.

How Can a Waterfall Environment Enhance my Landscape?

February 12, 2015

As the essence of life, water can become the heart and soul of your landscape with a well-designed waterfall feature. Bringing your landscape to life with movement and sound, a waterfall environment can stimulate more than just your sense of sight. You’ll quickly find how a waterfall goes far beyond beautifying. The personal benefits of a waterfall feature can actually far exceed the aesthetic impact it has on your landscape.

There’s nothing quite like the sound of a waterfall. It is nature’s symphony. Creating a beautiful sounding waterfall, however – just like creating a beautiful sounding symphony – is more complicated than you might think. When water separates and hits different surfaces, it creates different tones. The acoustics of a waterfall feature, therefore, must be properly tuned to optimize the positive impact it has on your senses and emotions.

A thoughtfully-designed waterfall can also stimulate your sense of touch. It often goes overlooked, but interacting with waterfalls can be just as enjoyable as the experience of seeing and hearing them. Close your eyes and imagine the soothing feeling of the liquid moving around your hand after a stressful day of work, or imagine the refreshing feeling of the mist subtly hitting and cooling your skin on a hot summer’s day.

The movement of a waterfall certainly brings landscapes to life, but it also draws wildlife to your landscape. Birds, butterflies, and other majestic creatures and beings will grace your landscape and your life when there’s water flowing. Water features additionally open up your landscape to a diverse world of plants that you would otherwise not be able to include in your landscape. A waterfall can coalesce into a pond featuring spectacular water lilies, lotus plants and other blooming plants that require water.

No need to worry about wasting water or energy. A self-contained water feature can consistently and sustainably run 24-hours a day, 365 days a year.

Let us help you achieve a landscape design that stimulates all of your senses. Contact Dargan Landscape Architects in Atlanta to set up a consultation for a water feature installation or other landscape architecture project.

How Do I Prepare My Landscape for Winter?

December 31, 2014

You put too much time and passion into your garden to allow winter to destroy your efforts. Your delicate shrubs and plants cannot withstand cold temperatures without suffering damage, so they need protection. With weather becoming increasingly difficult to predict, prepping your landscape for winter will ensure that come spring, your garden will thrive anew. We have put together some great tips to help you get started.

Protective Fencing
While protective fencing is often used to protect plants along the edges of your property from salt or other melting products, it will also protect your gardens from animal activity in warmer climes.

Frost Protection
Frost can hit us at any time during the winter season, so it is essential to have frost protection fabric for your sensitive plants. If your daytime temperatures are warm, it is best to cover your plants at night when frost is expected and remove the coverings during the heat of the day.

Insulate with Mulch
To keep the soil temperature near the roots of your plants moderated, apply a two-inch layer of mulch at the base of your plants and trees. Mulch will also aid in water retention in dry winters and help prevent soil erosion in the event of a spring runoff.

Compost Protection
Some perennials that are limited in hardiness, such as roses, require compost to be mounded up to the crown to protect them in winter. Whenever possible you should use pulverized topsoil as it is less likely to cause root rot in the event of a warm, wet winter.

Pruning Tip
If you plan to prune any plants, wait until winter is almost over. By pruning later in the dormant season, the fresh wounds will not be exposed very long before new growth begins.

Prepping your landscape for winter does not have to mean an end to inspiration for your landscaping and garden wishes. Dargan Landscape Architects would be happy to meet with you to design your ideal outdoor space. View some of our project photos and contact us to learn more.

Can I Use Gravel and Stone for Garden Walkways?

December 30, 2014

When you think of a floor, chances are good you do not immediately think of your garden. By its very definition, however, a floor is a surface that is walked on. With that in mind, choosing the proper flooring for your gardens and their walkways is very important for both the function and overall appeal of your garden. Utilizing soft materials for garden floors can add to a tranquil setting and not take away too much attention from the work you have put into design and planting.

The first thing to determine is whether your garden is casual or formal. A general rule of thumb is to use loose materials for casual spaces and more structured materials for formal areas. The exception to that general rule would be maintenance. If you have many trees dropping leaves and seed pods onto your garden floor, loose materials can be difficult to keep clean-looking. The following are some ideas for utilizing soft materials for garden floors:

Flat pea gravel is a popular choice for both casual and formal spaces because of its compact size and versatility. It can be used for many applications such as walkways with edging, seating areas, and as filler between larger stone elements such as flagstone. Be careful not to put In too deep; we used a crusher run base of 3” and a 1” topping of gravel on the surface.
River rock is large stones that have been worn smooth from tumbling in a river. A natural-looking product, river rock can direct drainage and create dry creek beds for focal points. The stones can be difficult to walk on, so you may use them to edge a garden path rather than create main pathways.
Crushed granite can be used in both formal and casual gardens to create garden floors or pathways. The crushed stone is not smooth like pea gravel, however, the natural coloring blends well with most landscapes. It needs an edging of brick, metal or river rocks to hold it in place.
Soft-looking, smooth and fairly uniform in color, Mexican beach pebbles are a sophisticated choice for lining beds, walkways, and creating a zen-like atmosphere.

Let Dargan Landscape Architects design a master plan for your garden. View our past designs and contact us to learn more.

How Can I Incorporate Natural Elements into Garden Paths?

December 26, 2014

Garden paths may be functional and lead to a specific destination or they may be decorative and lend themselves to a stroll through your landscape. Regardless of their purpose, paths should always have a destination as a type of reward for whomever chooses to follow them. For a stroll-type path, the destination may be a beautiful centerpiece such as the one we created as a Dargan Landscape Architects project in this photo. Other destinations may be a sitting area or even a view of water. Incorporating natural elements into garden paths will ensure that whether the design is for function or fancy, they will still be beautiful and tie well into your garden’s overall design.

Once you have determined the destination, you need to assess what elements your garden path will pass through. When incorporating natural elements into garden paths, the idea is to keep them in character with the surroundings rather than having them clash or seem to be an afterthought. For example, a meandering pathway of variegated stones may not work well with a landscape that is ultra-modern and geometric.

To ensure the garden path is safe and comfortable for walking, stones or pavers should not have gaps larger than four inches between them and gravel-type paths must be secure enough to walk over without turning an ankle. Such safety measures do not have to impede your design, however. The materials you choose can be used in many ways to blend beautifully with your landscape. Irregular shapes can be used to create interesting walkways with live plants or pea gravel as space fillers. Uniform shapes can be mixed and matched to create interesting patterns or a cobbled look.

Before beginning construction on your garden paths, you should determine the end result you wish to achieve and create a plan. You can get some inspiration from our Dargan Landscape Architects photos or contact us to help you design and build the perfect pathway for your landscape.

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