Dargan Landscape Architects

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timeless landscape design

021. Demystify Perimeter Spaces ( 5/8): Eight Tips to Immediately Improve Your Property

Demystifying Spaces

Landscape Your Life, Design Your Environment & Nourish Your Soul.

PS: Don’t miss an episode! Subscribe now to Timeless Landscape Design. iTunes | Android | Stitcher | TuneIn | Google Play

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021. Demystifying Perimeter Spaces (Part 5/8) Eight Tips to Immediately Improve Your Property

 

Hello Out There. I’m all about designing your property to make it seemlessly stressfree,  functional and beautiful! Enjoy this free 8-part course on Eight Tips for Immediately Improving Your Property :  (Parts 1-2) The Approach & Arrival Sequence, ( Parts 3) The Hub of the House,  (Parts 4-5) Designing Perimeter Spaces, (Parts 6-7) Destinations and Linkages, (Part 8) Art Elements & Design Principles

Why Design?  : Plan ahead, budget, conserve energy & money, maximize your space and enhance your property value! 

Facts: The Four Part Master Plan features useful tools for designing your property…these 8 segments share useful design tips within each of these four parts. This podcast series is a labor of love for me, and sometimes finding a quiet place to record is very difficult. So bear with the quality of this 8 part series…it was recorded on a lengthy lecture tour…in my car!

Enjoy learning about design! You don’t need a masters degree to design your property. 

 Topics in this episode: 

 Demystify perimeter spaces for use & delight !
 
. Appropriate sizes for perimeters close to the back door for entertaining or relaxing 
 
 .Types of paving 
 
. Elements to consider that might be part
 of your perimeter… An exercise in editing your wish list 
 

NOTE: Timeless Landscape Design: The Four Part Master Plan is available from me…[email protected] or by calling 828-743-0307.

VISUALS:

Please enjoy the gallery of gardens on our website! https://dargan.com

Cheers, 

Hugh & Mary Palmer Dargan, aslas

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What is Timeless Landscape Design : The Garden Talk Salon? 

AKA juicy nuggets of garden design brought to you by a think-tank of horticulturists, floral designers, sculptors and designers.

Welcome to The Garden Talk Salon! This is Mary Palmer Dargan and I’m mixin’ up recipes to landscape your life. After a long day of work, I need the garden to nourish my mind, body and soul. How’s yours workin’ for ya’?  Let’s design your landscape to fit your lifestyle like a glove.

Enjoy Chirps from the Field, our version of show notes, which are loaded with models for visual learners…after all, the spoken word can do just so much!

Share with a friend.  May we enjoy many a good garden adventure together. 

Who?

Hugh and I are licensed landscape architects who migrated in 1997 to Cashiers in the western North Carolina mountains. Hugh Dargan & I purchased Dovecote in 2012 as our landscape architectural offices. For 2 decades, we’d created gardens at Highcote in High Hampton, now featured in our health care garden design primer, Lifelong Landscape Design and written the best-selling landscape design book, Timeless Landscape Design : The Four Part Master Plan.

LIttle Dovecote needed everything.  Forget it serving as our office HQ; we enjoyed this historic 1929 farmhouse so much that it became our permanent home.  The best part about Dovecote is its context: the quaint, small and historic domestic structure, unused barn, future sculpture meadow and woodland path to the lake. 

Where? 

Many of our podcasts are live events. Each summer season, we host Friday lectures at Dovecote Gardens, our organic teaching gardens. Contemporary Stonehenge is now in the meadow and features atmospheric stone sculptures by artist, Carl Peverall. 

On Friday mornings, 10 am-noon, from Mothers Day to Labor Day, we hold The Garden Talk Salon. The brightest and most informed experts appear and share their stories about plants, design, cooking or nature.  

Find Dovecote at 35 Flash Point Drive (aka McKinney Way), Cashiers, NC 28717.

What’s in it for you ?

Your home environment can fit your lifestyle like a glove.

My lifelong mission is to “Heal The Earth One Garden at a Time”.

Now is the time to take your garden to school.

Don’t miss the inaugural episodes of Taming Tricky Places: Timeless Landscape Design. Our first 3 podcasts introduce why a master plan is important, and better yet, how to create one in 4 parts that will make your home environment fit your lifestyle like a glove.

This is visual learning at its best. 

A bonus awaits of videos with useful action steps. and Live Garden Talk Salons (GTS) videos reduced by magic into smaller bits.

So these first three podcasts are hot off the press from Tricky Places, my next garden design book.

What else is in store ?

. Timeless Landscape Design guides everything we do at Dovecote. You’ll take home useful action steps to improve and organize your own home environment.

. Lifelong Landscape Design: Environments for Health & Longevity peppers its concepts to keep the podcast pace lively. Action steps are provided to transform your home environment into an oasis of health, healing and inspiration. 

 . Interviews with my favorite healthy garden gurus await you. They often introduce one of our courses.

. Free courses to dip in – or binge thru- as you wish. 

Be sure to subscribe and not miss an episode of The Garden Talk Salon!

 

Cheers, 

Hugh & Mary Palmer Dargan, aslas

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019. Create a Pleasant Walk (3/8) Eight Tips to Immediately Improve Your Property

Falcone WoodlandLandscape Your Life, Design Your Environment & Nourish Your Soul. 

PS: Don’t miss an episode! Subscribe now to Timeless Landscape Design. iTunes | Android | Stitcher | TuneIn | Google Play

______________________________________

019. Create a Pleasant Walk (Part 3/8) Eight Tips for Immediately Improve Your Property

Hello Out There. I’m all about designing your property to make it seemlessly stressfree,  functional and beautiful! Enjoy this free 8-part course on Eight Tips for Immediately Improving Your Property :  (Parts 1-2) The Approach & Arrival Sequence, ( Parts 3) The Hub of the House,  (Parts 4-5) Designing Perimeter Spaces, (Parts 6-7) Destinations and Linkages, (Part 8) Art Elements & Design Principles

Why Design?  : Plan ahead, budget, conserve energy & money, maximize your space and enhance your property value! 

Facts: The Four Part Master Plan features useful tools for designing your property…these 8 segments share useful design tips within each of these four parts. This podcast series is a labor of love for me, and sometimes finding a quiet place to record is very difficult. So bear with the quality of this 8 part series…it was recorded on a lengthy lecture tour…in my car!

Enjoy learning about design! You don’t need a masters degree to design your property. 

 Topics in this episode:

. The pot ear as entry motif at driveway 
 
. Types of walkways and stepping stone paths, widths of paths
 
. The front landing, useful sizes for admiring your front door as a guest 

NOTE: Timeless Landscape Design: The Four Part Master Plan is available from me…[email protected] or by calling 828-743-0307.

VISUALS:

Please enjoy the gallery of gardens on our website! https://dargan.com

Cheers, 

Hugh & Mary Palmer Dargan, aslas

—————————————————–

What is Timeless Landscape Design : The Garden Talk Salon? 

AKA juicy nuggets of garden design brought to you by a think-tank of horticulturists, floral designers, sculptors and designers.

Welcome to The Garden Talk Salon! This is Mary Palmer Dargan and I’m mixin’ up recipes to landscape your life. After a long day of work, I need the garden to nourish my mind, body and soul. How’s yours workin’ for ya’?  Let’s design your landscape to fit your lifestyle like a glove.

Enjoy Chirps from the Field, our version of show notes, which are loaded with models for visual learners…after all, the spoken word can do just so much!

Share with a friend.  May we enjoy many a good garden adventure together. 

Who?

Hugh and I are licensed landscape architects who migrated in 1997 to Cashiers in the western North Carolina mountains. Hugh Dargan & I purchased Dovecote in 2012 as our landscape architectural offices. For 2 decades, we’d created gardens at Highcote in High Hampton, now featured in our health care garden design primer, Lifelong Landscape Design and written the best-selling landscape design book, Timeless Landscape Design : The Four Part Master Plan.

LIttle Dovecote needed everything.  Forget it serving as our office HQ; we enjoyed this historic 1929 farmhouse so much that it became our permanent home.  The best part about Dovecote is its context: the quaint, small and historic domestic structure, unused barn, future sculpture meadow and woodland path to the lake. 

Where? 

Many of our podcasts are live events. Each summer season, we host Friday lectures at Dovecote Gardens, our organic teaching gardens. Contemporary Stonehenge is now in the meadow and features atmospheric stone sculptures by artist, Carl Peverall. 

On Friday mornings, 10 am-noon, from Mothers Day to Labor Day, we hold The Garden Talk Salon. The brightest and most informed experts appear and share their stories about plants, design, cooking or nature.  

Find Dovecote at 35 Flash Point Drive (aka McKinney Way), Cashiers, NC 28717.

What’s in it for you ?

Your home environment can fit your lifestyle like a glove.

My lifelong mission is to “Heal The Earth One Garden at a Time”.

Now is the time to take your garden to school.

Don’t miss the inaugural episodes of Taming Tricky Places: Timeless Landscape Design. Our first 3 podcasts introduce why a master plan is important, and better yet, how to create one in 4 parts that will make your home environment fit your lifestyle like a glove.

This is visual learning at its best. 

A bonus awaits of videos with useful action steps. and Live Garden Talk Salons (GTS) videos reduced by magic into smaller bits.

So these first three podcasts are hot off the press from Tricky Places, my next garden design book.

What else is in store ?

. Timeless Landscape Design guides everything we do at Dovecote. You’ll take home useful action steps to improve and organize your own home environment.

. Lifelong Landscape Design: Environments for Health & Longevity peppers its concepts to keep the podcast pace lively. Action steps are provided to transform your home environment into an oasis of health, healing and inspiration. 

 . Interviews with my favorite healthy garden gurus await you. They often introduce one of our courses.

. Free courses to dip in – or binge thru- as you wish. 

Be sure to subscribe and not miss an episode of The Garden Talk Salon!

 

Cheers, 

Hugh & Mary Palmer Dargan, aslas

—————————————————–

 

017. The Drive as Welcome Mat (1/8) Eight Tips for Immediately Improving Your Property

Dixon DriveLandscape Your Life, Design Your Environment & Nourish Your Soul.

PS: Don’t miss an episode! Subscribe now to Timeless Landscape Design. iTunes | Android | Stitcher | TuneIn | Google Play

______________________________________

017. The Drive as Welcome Mat (Part 1/8) Eight Tips for Immediately Improving Your Property

Hello Out There. I’m all about designing your property to make it seemlessly stressfree, functional and beautiful! Enjoy this free 8-part course on Eight Tips for Immediately Improving Your Property : (Parts 1-2) The Approach & Arrival Sequence, ( Parts 3) The Hub of the House, (Parts 4-5) Designing Perimeter Spaces, (Parts 6-7) Destinations and Linkages, (Part 8) Art Elements & Design Principles

Why Design? : Plan ahead, budget, conserve energy & money, maximize your space and enhance your property value!

Facts: The Four Part Master Plan features useful tools for designing your property…these 8 segments share useful design tips within each of these four parts. This podcast series is a labor of love for me, and sometimes finding a quiet place to record is very difficult. So bear with the quality of this 8 part series…it was recorded on a lengthy lecture tour…in my car!

Enjoy learning about design! You don’t need a masters degree to design your property.

Topics in this episode:

. Starting at the Drive Apron with suggestions of road improvement

. That pesky mailbox area and how to improve curb appeal

. Driveway surfacing and the two tire track look!

NOTE: Timeless Landscape Design: The Four Part Master Plan is available from me…[email protected] or by calling 828-743-0307.

VISUALS:

Please enjoy the gallery of gardens on our website! https://dargan.com

Cheers,

Hugh & Mary Palmer Dargan, aslas

—————————————————–

What is Timeless Landscape Design : The Garden Talk Salon?

AKA juicy nuggets of garden design brought to you by a think-tank of horticulturists, floral designers, sculptors and designers.

Welcome to The Garden Talk Salon! This is Mary Palmer Dargan and I’m mixin’ up recipes to landscape your life. After a long day of work, I need the garden to nourish my mind, body and soul. How’s yours workin’ for ya’? Let’s design your landscape to fit your lifestyle like a glove.

Enjoy Chirps from the Field, our version of show notes, which are loaded with models for visual learners…after all, the spoken word can do just so much!

Share with a friend. May we enjoy many a good garden adventure together.

Who?

Hugh and I are licensed landscape architects who migrated in 1997 to Cashiers in the western North Carolina mountains. Hugh Dargan & I purchased Dovecote in 2012 as our landscape architectural offices. For 2 decades, we’d created gardens at Highcote in High Hampton, now featured in our health care garden design primer, Lifelong Landscape Design and written the best-selling landscape design book, Timeless Landscape Design : The Four Part Master Plan.

LIttle Dovecote needed everything. Forget it serving as our office HQ; we enjoyed this historic 1929 farmhouse so much that it became our permanent home. The best part about Dovecote is its context: the quaint, small and historic domestic structure, unused barn, future sculpture meadow and woodland path to the lake.

Where?

Many of our podcasts are live events. Each summer season, we host Friday lectures at Dovecote Gardens, our organic teaching gardens. Contemporary Stonehenge is now in the meadow and features atmospheric stone sculptures by artist, Carl Peverall.

On Friday mornings, 10 am-noon, from Mothers Day to Labor Day, we hold The Garden Talk Salon. The brightest and most informed experts appear and share their stories about plants, design, cooking or nature.

Find Dovecote at 35 Flash Point Drive (aka McKinney Way), Cashiers, NC 28717.

What’s in it for you ?

Your home environment can fit your lifestyle like a glove.

My lifelong mission is to “Heal The Earth One Garden at a Time”.

Now is the time to take your garden to school.

Don’t miss the inaugural episodes of Taming Tricky Places: Timeless Landscape Design. Our first 3 podcasts introduce why a master plan is important, and better yet, how to create one in 4 parts that will make your home environment fit your lifestyle like a glove.

This is visual learning at its best.

A bonus awaits of videos with useful action steps. and Live Garden Talk Salons (GTS) videos reduced by magic into smaller bits.

So these first three podcasts are hot off the press from Tricky Places, my next garden design book.

What else is in store ?

. Timeless Landscape Design guides everything we do at Dovecote. You’ll take home useful action steps to improve and organize your own home environment.

. Lifelong Landscape Design: Environments for Health & Longevity peppers its concepts to keep the podcast pace lively. Action steps are provided to transform your home environment into an oasis of health, healing and inspiration.

. Interviews with my favorite healthy garden gurus await you. They often introduce one of our courses.

. Free courses to dip in – or binge thru- as you wish.

Be sure to subscribe and not miss an episode of The Garden Talk Salon!

Cheers,

Hugh & Mary Palmer Dargan, aslas

—————————————————–

 

Cute cat alert: check out how our books stack up with this feline

How cute is this? We just got an e-mail from a client with the above attached. Is it safe to assume this cat’s afternoon is going purrrfectly?

We love receiving photos from our happy customers. Don’t hesitate to get in touch and share your pics with us- whether it’s you with one of our books or a pet friend.

Find out more about the two books this furry friend is relaxing on: Lifelong Landscape Design and Timeless Landscape Design.

Happy cat napping!

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.