Dargan Landscape Architects

Create Nourishing Flourishing Home Utopias

Landscape Your LIfe

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

What are the Best Gardening & Landscape Ideas for Empty-Nesters?
Source: Dargan Landscape Architects

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.

The Landscape Your Life Winter Sale Ends Tonight!

Are you still searching for the perfect holiday gift for your garden-loving family or friend? If so, you’ve still got some time to take advantage of Landscape Your Life’s first winter sale! Santa’s Helper, Mary Palmer, has packed the garden shopping cart with a few bundles to make your holiday shopping a breeze. Here’s a look at our special gift packages available through midnight tonight!

Our Holiday Book Bundle includes Timeless Landscape Design, Lifelong Landscape Design and The Early English Kitchen Garden, all autographed by Mary Palmer, beautifully wrapped and ready to go! These books are perfect for those in need of a good read over the winter as they dream and make plans for their spring gardens.

landscape design book bundles

landscape design holiday book bundle

landscape design holiday book bundle

Also featured in our winter sale is our home training study, SPROUT in PLACE. This legendary course begins in January and will help you achieve the garden of your dreams with a virtual blueprint system and 90 days of support included! This system has helped hundreds of homeowners transform their landscapes into beautiful and functional spaces they thought were impossible to create.

holiday special

Our holiday sale ends tonight at midnight! Act now to take advantage of this special holiday offer.

Also, don’t forget about Mary Palmer’s free gift for you this holiday season – a complimentary training video and worksheet that will help perk up your indoor environment with the crisp white color and refreshing scent of beautiful Narcissus.

And for additional free worksheets and videos covering sustainable landscape design topics that will help you improve your garden into a space created for health, longevity and fun, be sure to register your email address with us at www.landscapeyourlife.com. We’ll send these freebies right to your inbox, so keep an eye out for the current worksheet!

From the Dargan Landscape Architects family to yours, Happy Holidays!

The Landscape Your Life Winter Sale is Here!

We’re pleased to announce the very first Landscape Your Life holiday sale, the “Holiday Gardeners Need Love in the Winter, too!” sale. Starting today and continuing for the next week, we invite you to participate in this special sale.

We’ve been listening to our community of landscape design enthusiasts and have created this sale to help address the questions and topics you want answered. We also want to help make holiday shopping a breeze for those tough nuts to crack on your shopping list! Santa’s Helper (aka Mary Palmer) has packed the garden shopping cart with goodies for you to look through, so your garden and landscape design dreams don’t mold and mildew this winter!

Our first featured package is the Holiday Book Bundle. This bundle features three classic landscape design books – Timeless Landscape Design, Lifelong Landscape Design, and The Early English Kitchen Garden. Each book is filled with great information and inspiration, including Mary Palmer’s secret tips for garden-designing homeowners and landscape designers, as well as tons of gorgeous photos. In addition to garden enthusiasts, this makes a great gift for those who enjoy armchair reading. To make this bundle even sweeter, each book is autographed by Mary Palmer and beautifully wrapped!

Dargan Landscape Architects winter sale
Holiday Book Bundle

Our second special package features SPROUT in PLACE: PlaceMakers™ Virtual Blueprint System. Through the very same system Mary Palmer uses to transform hundreds of ordinary landscapes into slivers of paradise, you’ll learn that it’s possible to achieve a beautiful and functional property. This is the perfect gift for anyone looking to maximize their investment and improve their property, as well as landscape designers interested in putting themselves “over the top as an expert in your field.”

landscape your life winter holiday sale
SPROUT in PLACE: PlaceMakers™ Virtual Blueprint System

Head over to our website today for more information on our first holiday sale. Holiday gardeners need love in the winter too, and this is the perfect way to show them some love this holiday season!

Happy holidays from Dargan Landscape Architects!

Design Your Own Utopia with PlaceMakers

landscape design Atlanta
Design by Dargan Landscape Architects

Over the years we’ve discovered that many homeowners are eager to not only have a gorgeous landscape, but also to learn how they can transform their property into their own piece of paradise. During her time as an instructor, Mary Palmer has taught students in both in design education and in landscape architecture and planning. Now you can learn her unique system that allows you to design your perfect and personalized home environment through PlaceMakers.

PLACE is an acronym created by Mary Palmer that stands for Potentials, Layers, Agenda, Create and Environmental Transformation. This unique system features five levels to meet your needs and help you make the best use of your land. The five levels are:

  1. PlaceMakers Sprout2Grow – Offered twice per year, with two months of Wellspring Sprout Galleries
  2. PlaceMakers Orchard – Enrollment is offered only during events and features two design studios and four months of Wellspring Orchard Galleries.
  3. PlaceMakers Live Oak – Enrollment is offered only during events and features two design studios, Wellspring Orchard Galleries, nine months design certificate and other benefits such as European travel
  4. PlaceMakers Grow Library – A 6-part comprehensive design library
  5. PlaceMakers at Landscape Your Life™ LIVE! – Receive priority seating, preferred status, special rates and tickets for a friend

To get started, join at PlaceMaker’s Sprout2Grow level. In this level, you’ll study the PLACE system through a three-month home-study program featuring video downloads, audio and DVDs, as well as a supported forum with Wellspring Galleries where you can interact and share inspiration with like-minded homeowners. You’ll also receive autographed copies of Lifelong Landscape Design and Timeless Landscape Design and a call from a PlaceMakers staff member to guide you through the forum and address your questions.

landscape design programs for homeowners

If you are a homeowner or landscape designer looking to take your knowledge to the next level, the PlaceMakers Orchard is the place for you. You’ll receive everything included in the Sprout2Grow package, as well as design studios with personal assistance and phone calls from Mary Palmer to discuss your project. You’ll also receive six webinar lectures on DVD and slides for each webinar, Pinterest board where you can share your process plus much more.

Are you ready to design the utopia you’ve always dreamed of? Visit our website today to learn more about joining PlaceMakers today! There, you can register as a guest to learn more about the program, as well as receive access to useful worksheets designed to help you organize your property, a sample of the Wellspring Galleries, and a forum just for guests.

Consider the Benefits of Hardscapes for Your Garden

There are many elements necessary for a gorgeous and functional landscape. Yes, features such as colorful plants, trees, benches, chairs and perhaps a fountain are a few of the necessities. But one area that’s often overlooked until winter sets in is the potential of hardscapes.

Hardscapes are just as important as the living portions of your landscape, especially for functionality. In some instances, hardscape surfaces, such as rock walls, create the backbone of your garden. Most often, hardscapes help define outdoor rooms of a home, creating a seamless transition into nature where homeowners can cook and host guests. These features also allow you to enjoy recreational activities or to just sit and take in the beauty of your surroundings. Still, in other cases, hardscaping can be used simply to enhance visual interest through texture, or to create symmetry or proportion within the parameters of the area.

Additional benefits of hardscaping that are often overlooked include:

  • Decreases erosion on properties with slopes and/or uneven soil
  • Increases property value
  • Requires less maintenance
  • Makes your landscape and garden areas more accessible to all guests
  • Reduces the amount of water needed to maintain your landscape

Below are a few examples of functional and beautiful hardscapes. Take a look and get inspired for your next hardscaping project!

Atlanta landscape architects
Project by Dargan Landscape Architects

In this project, we used a variety of stones to create a focal point that captures the eye through texture. The arched openings create the right amount of mystery to draw the viewer closer to the structure.

Cashiers landscape architect
Source: The Garden Consultants, Inc. via Houzz

The brick walls in this hardscape create a nice frame for the courtyard, as well as the woodland views beyond the fence.

designing a hardscape
Source: Pennsylvania Landscape & Nursery Association via Houzz

We love the contrasting colors used in the bricks of this outdoor fireplace and patio design. What a cozy spot to enjoy a cool evening!

dargan landscape architects
Source: Harmony Design Group via Houzz

This hardscape design creates visual interest with terraces for plantings, while also controlling erosion.

hardscape design ideas
Source: Designing Nature Inc. via Houzz

In this design, a brick pathway adds a traditional element to a more contemporary garden. Notice how the layout of the bricks pulls your eye toward the center arrangement.

 

Are you considering an update to your current hardscape, or are you looking to incorporate a hardscape into your garden? Contact Dargan Landscape Architects today. We would love to discuss how we can help you achieve the perfect look for your garden, complete with a hardscape that balances the rest of your area. Give us a call at 404-231-3889 to schedule an appointment. We can work with you virtually or in person.