Dargan Landscape Architects

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Landscape Design Tips

How to Build the Perfect Perennial Flower Garden

How to Build the Perfect Perennial Flower Garden
Source: Dargan Landscape Architects

While many want to enjoy the benefits of a garden, the regular maintenance and grooming required can often be an unwelcome uphill battle. To combat this common problem, we recommend a low-maintenance perennial garden. 

So, why are perennials such a perfect choice for a flower garden? I love how they return each year to deliver healthy doses of color and texture. Some perennials will even bloom in the winter. Also, the multiple possible color combinations allow you to activate your imagination and look at landscaping in a new, creative way.   

How to Build the Perfect Perennial Flower Garden

The best piece of advice I can give when designing your new garden is to start small. The best way to display your perennials is in plant clumps of at least three to five plants of your favorite, most coveted species. Growing perennials together is the most practical option — it allows for easy planting, soil preparation, and care.

To create a manageable sweep, plan one that is between five and eight feet deep and twenty feet long. To define the boundaries of your garden, boxwoods or other evergreens anchor the ends and provide great edge definition. Taller-growing plants should be positioned in the back, or even at the center of an island bed, with the lower-growing plants centered in front or around the larger ones. 

Nature likes to keep things interesting, so don’t be afraid to play along! I love Lychnis varieties, Stick Verbena, and Queen Anne’s Lace popping up in my beds. The variety is visually appealing and keeps the eye moving. Color blending your garden works well if you follow the color wheel and place complementary colors next to each other. For example, a splash of yellow is a stunning addition to a garden filled with reds and lavenders. Lighter flowers really make nearby dark flowers pop. When you choose perennials, look for full and colorful foliage with new growth appearing. 

Do you feel inspired to add a perennial garden to your landscape? Browse through our photos for inspiration, and when you’re ready, contact us at Dargan Landscape Architects to schedule a consultation. 

Relax, Rejuvenate in a Garden Spa or Sauna

Relax, Rejuvenate in a Garden Spa or Sauna
Source: HGTV via Pinterest

It’s no wonder why designers everywhere are creating spa-like environments in their client’s interior and exterior spaces. Spas provide experiences that are so relaxing and beneficial to your health that they are sought after by homeowners who want to recreate that experience in the comfort of their own homes.

When we made the decision to install a far-infrared sauna in our potting shed, it was part luxury item and part health equipment. Of course, the health benefits of far-infrared saunas are no secret.

Health Benefits of Far-Infrared Saunas

  • Detoxification: Due to a rise in the core temperature, the resulting detoxifying sweat occurs at a cellular level, outing harmful toxins.
  • Lowering Blood Pressure: Sweating encourages the heart to beat faster, which increases blood flow, thereby lowering blood pressure and aiding circulation.
  • Weight Loss: You can burn up to 600 calories just by relaxing in your garden spa! The cause is an increase in cardiac and metabolic rates, which burns calories.
  • Anti-Aging and Skin Purification: Infrared spas promote collagen production which reduces wrinkles and battles the symptoms of aging.
  • Pain Relief and Relaxation: When heat penetrates tissues, joints, and muscles, minor to severe pain can be readily decreased. And unlike traditional saunas, infrared saunas are gentle, soothing, and therapeutic. The deep tissue sweat is relaxing and invigorating. I’ve found that a relaxing swim followed by a massage or sauna is a fantastic way to de-stress!

Typically, a one-person sauna is around forty-eight inches wide and thirty-six inches deep. We absolutely prefer far-infrared saunas because they promote perspiration while allowing you to avoid the overwhelmingly hot feeling associated with traditional hot rocks and wood-fired moist saunas. Far-infrared saunas are, however, electrically powered and need to be housed in a shelter. A conveniently placed outdoor shower is equally desirable due to the high amount of perspiration.

Garden spas can be constructed of stone, self-contained in a wooden tub, or ordered in plastic form for in-ground use. Spas are often associated with swimming pools and should be located near the pool house. They have hot water and massage jets that are operated by a pump commonly housed adjacent to the spa. While sizes of spas do vary, the most efficient ones are approximately five to six feet across and can comfortably hold two people. Generally, they are three feet deep with a conveniently placed seating ledge.

To see how we can help you relax and rejuvenate in a garden spa or sauna, contact Dargan Landscape Architects today to schedule a consultation.

Build a Rain Garden for a Sustainable Landscape

Build a Rain Garden for a Sustainable Landscape
Source: Pinterest

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.

How Architectural Design Integrates with Landscape Design

How Architectural Design Integrates with Landscape Design
Source: Dargan Landscape Architects via Houzz

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.

Designing Backdrops for Beautiful Landscapes & Vistas

Designing Backdrops for Beautiful Landscapes & Vistas
Source: Dargan Landscape Architects via Houzz

Location, location, location. It’s the single-most important factor in real estate, not only because of proximity to work, schools and other requisites, but because of the natural views and surroundings. What many do not consider, however, that location can be a pretense. With the right landscaping, you can build in your own views to enjoy from inside and outside your home.

Landscapes can be designed with fantastic focal points and gorgeous features that not only catch the eye and add interest, but create naturally beautiful views and vistas. Are your landscape views lackluster? Here are some great things to consider as you start thinking of how your landscape might benefit from a new design with built-in backdrops:

  • Walk out to the street or edge of your property. How well does the landscape reinforce your house? Walk around to take in each vista or long view from the front, back and side. Imagine what plantings and structures could improve each vista as it blends the home into the natural surroundings.
  • Go through each of the main rooms of your home and look out the windows. Picture how a vista might be framed by a design element that draws the eye to it.
  • Take a look at your neighbor’s landscape, and see how you might be able to borrow a view by carefully incorporating it into your landscape’s backdrop.
  • Choose a view from a window or outdoor room that could potentially benefit from a sculptural piece or garden ornament.
  • Could a wall or fence add privacy while blocking unsavory sights? Picture your wall or fence dripping with elegant climbing plants.

Take lots of pictures as you survey your property and its views and vistas. These will come in handy as you dig into the first phase of the design process. A great trick is to overlay photos with tracing paper depicting sketches of possible new plans to visualize, experiment and play with different options as you discover what will work and look best.

Need a little professional help to amp up your views and vistas? Dargan Landscape Architects can help you create and implement a brand new, custom design with stunning views. Contact us to learn more.