Dargan Landscape Architects

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timeless landscape design

What’s the Best Way to Create an Outdoor Social Setting?

What's the Best Way to Create an Outdoor Social Setting?
Source: Dargan Landscape Architects

Outdoor rooms rank among the top requests with homeowners and homebuyers. And it’s no wonder because there are so many purposes and benefits that can be enjoyed with outdoor living spaces.

Maybe you want an outdoor venue for entertaining guests and throwing fabulous parties or an intimate space for dining al fresco with close family and friends. Maybe you envision an outdoor space that enhances the look and feel of your home while providing a safe and convenient place for your children to play outside. Perhaps you just want a space that will encourage you to spend more time in nature and find better ways to entertain. With the right landscaping, you can achieve a gorgeous outdoor room that brings beauty, style, health and pleasure to your home.

Ensuring your home has a space for gathering outdoors can bring wonderful health benefits to your household. After all, social interaction is healthy for all individuals at any stage of life as it promotes healthy physical and mental development.

Outdoor social settings are usually designed within the perimeter of the home, which means around seventy to a hundred feet from the house. These spaces are most popularly used for social activities and entertainment but can also be strategically designed to serve as multipurpose spaces. For example, a dining terrace can be decorated with vegetables planted in pots, all of which could be adjacent to a small outdoor spa. With the help of a professional, your outdoor room can be carefully planned to take advantage of every spatial opportunity.

Outdoor rooms for socializing can include decks, terraces, pavilions, loggias or lawns. They can include grills, wet bars or even entire outdoor kitchens. They can be more subtle such as a bench niche in a shaded area under a large tree or an outdoor fireplace or firepit to allow you to use your outdoor space year-round.

We’d love to help spark some ideas for your very own outdoor room for social gatherings. Feel free to browse through our photos for inspiration or contact us at Dargan Landscape Architects to begin discussing a potential project. 

What Should be Included In a Kitchen Garden? Ideas for Cultivating a Kitchen Garden

What Should be Included In a Kitchen Garden? Ideas for Cultivating a Kitchen Garden
Source: Dargan Landscape Architects

Benefits abound with kitchen gardens. From healthy sustenance to therapeutic power, kitchen gardens can be customized to provide just what the doctor ordered and more. Here at Dargan, we’ve designed and built several kitchen gardens that do more than offer wholesome ingredients. They enhance quality of life.

A classic approach to a kitchen garden is to create circular design with four pathways leading to four central beds all encircled by a tall wall. The four central beds can be anchored by different types of boxwoods such as Kingsville dwarf, parsley or chives to provide evergreen armature during the winter. For a less formal look, allow nasturtiums to cascade over and mingle with the walkways. Raised beds can be constructed from 12 x 2-inch edging boards with six inches above and below ground to promote proper drainage.

For pathways, bricks or stone set without mortar will prevent storm runoff and add naturally beautiful color and texture. The wall encompassing the garden can be accompanied by a living fence designed out of fruit trees to add to the aesthetics while extending the garden’s harvest.

The interior beds can feature seasonal vegetables protected by exterior beds of tough and tolerant plants such as kale, asparagus, chard and comfrey. Lettuces can be intertwined with annual herbs such as borage and mustard plants. Separate compartments can harbor string and stable root vegetables.

After the beds are strategically designed and arranged, aesthetic accents and features can be added to achieve and personalize the look and functionality. Herbs, for instance, can be planted in cast-iron gypsy kettles at the garden’s entryway for a charming touch. Benches can be positioned in particular corners to provide a place to relax and enjoy the garden as well as provide convenient surface areas for tools and baskets when maintaining the garden. Other features to consider including are birdhouses, fountains and even bee houses and chicken coops.

Are you feeling inspired to add a kitchen garden that will help you with your New Year resolutions to take control of your health and happiness? Contact Dargan Landscape Architects to set up a consultation today.

Landscape Lighting for Coastal Areas & Gardens

Source: Dargan Landscape Architects
Source: Dargan Landscape Architects

Living close to water is an idyllic lifestyle that many people only dream of, however, it does come with a certain amount of responsibility to protect the wildlife that makes the coast its home. Ample lighting to enjoy your property and gardens in the evenings is necessary for your comfort, but there are often restrictions when living on the coast. We have some tips about landscape lighting for coastal gardens that will appease all affected.

Whenever possible, use motion sensors to control lighting that is designed for safety. Well-lit pathways to garden or seating areas near the beach are an example of such lighting. Not only will you be helping to protect the wildlife environment, you will realize energy savings with such areas lit up only when in use.

Spot lights and roof-mounted lights are particularly dangerous for coastal wildlife. Since they cast light into the trees and onto the shoreline, they can put animal habitats at risk and confuse newly-born wildlife such as sea turtles. If used at all, spotlights should be prevented from reflecting light towards the sky and should be angled at no greater than 90 degrees.

There are many subtle options when it comes to landscape lighting for coastal gardens. Recessed lighting can be used to cast soft light in covered areas, deck flooring, and stair treads. New LED styles include rope lights that let you get creative. Consider using them to outline garden areas, furniture, or other outdoor features for an interesting look.

At Dargan Landscape Architects, we understand the balance between ample lighting for your night-time enjoyment and wildlife protection when designing landscape lighting for coastal gardens. As licensed and storied landscape architects, we can help perfect your oasis. Contact us to discuss your plans today.

 

What is the Best Way to Incorporate Evergreens into Landscaping?

Source: Dargan Landscape Architects
Source: Dargan Landscape Architects

Evergreens are more than just a vibrant year-round plant addition; they provide a way to gain privacy and sound buffering, change up the texture in your landscape, or provide an attractive habitat for local birds and wildlife.

Pictures and Ideas for Incorporating Evergreens into a Landscape Design

For a quick primer on incorporating evergreens into a landscape design, we recommend watching this video, created at one of this summer’s Dovecote Summer Garden Talk Salons. It will provide important background information, so you can make better choices regarding the evergreen species you choose for your outdoor landscapes.

Here are a few ideas for additional inspiration:

Make it a focal point in a formal garden planter. In this garden, which takes its inspiration from formal English gardening techniques, the evergreen yew is the focal point of the planter. The pink blooms of the mid-perimeter geraniums create a colorful contrast to the surrounding greenery, including the exterior-perimeter boundary formed by boxwoods. The fun thing about this concept is that you can prune your yew and/or boxwoods into different sizes and shapes as the years progress. It’s an adaptable canvas.

Augment a new or existing garden accessory. If a garden accessory is your focal point, evergreens can be used to showcase it. I love how the holly plants surrounding this gorgeous oversized “bird cage” accessory have been pruned to mimic its shape. The variegated leaves echo the patina on the metal, creating a complete visual package.

Use evergreens to form living boundaries, privacy and sound relief. You can customize the size and shape of your evergreen selections to meet your need for living perimeter boundaries, such as the multi-level evergreens that create depth in this landscape plan. Trees can be grown much taller than typical building codes allow for fence lines, so they are ideal for creating privacy. Soft foliage and bark help absorb sound from a busy street, sidewalk, or from a public area of your landscape to a more private seating area.

Would you like professional assistance incorporating evergreens into your landscape? Schedule a consultation with Dargan Landscape Architects.

 

How Do I Create a Timeless Landscape Design for my Home? Mary Palmer Dargan Explains at Williamsburg Garden Festival, Feb. 2-4

There are typically two kinds of landscapes: those that observe the trends of the time and those that are designed timelessly so they remain functional and beautiful for decade after decade. Here at Dargan Landscape Architects, we design the latter. Our work, including the release of our popular book, Timeless Landscape Design, is dedicated to helping homeowners and businesses design landscapes that “fit like a glove” and improve the health of the property and surrounding community.

timeless-design
Source: Symposium 2015

Learn the Art of Timeless Landscape Design with Mary Palmer Dargan at Williamsburg Garden Festival

As a result of my approach to sustainable landscape architecture, I have the privilege of traveling all over the country and speaking about my passion for healing the planet one garden at a time. Up next, I’m honored to be a keynote speaker at the Williamsburg Garden Festival and Symposium, sponsored by the Garden Club of Virginia. The event takes place February 2 – 4, 2015 at the Williamsburg Lodge at Colonial Williamsburg.

Attending this special event will place you in one of the nation’s most interesting locations, loaded with history and artifacts as well as celebrated locations for shopping and dining. Plus, you’ll be able to hear other inspiring and renowned speakers ranging from experts on natural health and healing remedies to chefs, landscape historians, and more.

My portion of the symposium will focus on how you can create a home landscape design that works in the current moment and can be easily evolved to suit your future needs. I draw on more than 40 years experience as a botanist, professor and author – as well as my day job, professional landscape architecture and design.

I will cover a range of topics including:

  • How to heal your soil, using healthful principles that promote – rather than inhibit – the essential flora, fauna and fungi required to grow a sustainable and low-maintenance landscape.
  • The importance of considering your landscape additions and subtractions in terms of how they affect your home, your neighbors, the community and the planet.
  • Keeping a long-view so your landscape design can evolve with the needs and wants of your household.

 

For more information on this event, you can find additional information at the Williamsburg Lodge at Colonial Williamsburg site for the Garden Club of Virginia. Contact Dargan Landscape Architects for all your landscape and gardening needs.