Product Description
In Timeless Landscape Design: The Four-Part Master Plan, renowned landscape architects Hugh and Mary Palmer Dargan share the secret to creating an unforgettable landscape with the “Four-Part Master Plan” — a unique method they’ve perfected over the past two-and-a-half decades of creating award-winning gardens and yards for clients. … More >>
Timeless Landscape Design: The Four-Part Master Plan
Tags: award winning gardens, dargan, decades, Design, FourPart, Landscape, landscape architects, landscape design, mary palmer, Master, plan, share the secret, Timeless, timeless landscape
#1 by Midwest Book Review on May 13, 2010 - 10:52 am
The collaborative effort of professional landscape architects Mary Palmer Dargan and Hugh Graham Dargan, “Timeless Landscape Design: The Four-Part Master Plan” lays out their unique and thoroughly ‘user friendly’ methods for creating award-winning gardens and landscapes for more than 30 years. “Timeless Landscape Design”showcases four distinct elements of landscape designs beginning with the approach and arrival sequence to create a sense of anticipation, the hub as the landscape property’s natural center, the perimeter consisting of outdoor spaces wrapped tightly around the house, and passages to destinations which animate movement around the property and invite the enjoyment of garden places. Profusely illustrated in full color to provide a visual accompaniment to an informative text, “Timeless Landscape Design” can enable any homeowner or aspiring landscape student to master the basic principles in developing truly enduring landscaped properties in all climate zones and conditions. No personal, professional, academic, or community library Gardening & Landscaping reference collection can be considered complete or comprehensive without the inclusion of Mary and Hugh Dargan’s “Timeless Landscape Design”.
Rating: 5 / 5
#2 by Raymond Wuslich on May 13, 2010 - 11:36 am
great book if you are planning a lancscape change.Something to do in winters around snow country
Rating: 4 / 5
#3 by Gordon Lyn on May 13, 2010 - 2:33 pm
or your eyes will not close! You’ll be replanning your garden all night long. Excellent resource book for all levels of gardeners. One of the best books on my “garden shelf”.
Rating: 5 / 5
#4 by K. Waldron on May 13, 2010 - 4:36 pm
I am keeping my original review below for comparison, but I have come back to review again because I must add that I now see the value in the book. I wish I could change my star rating, because now I would give it 4 or 5 stars. I wasn’t looking at it the right way at first. I am a beginning gardener, so at first blush this book seems to lack enough specific detail to be truly useful. And, the photos are not as perfect as other high quality gardening hardback books. Yet, now that I am studying it more intently, I see that what the authors o very well is to teach the art of landscape design. You will not find plant material resources, explicit instructions, or even robust descriptions of the gardens pictured in the book. But, you will find a step-by-step guide to planning your own garden design. If, like me, you ambitiously hope to accomplish an initial garden design without professional help, this book teaches you how to do so with high quality-results. It requires a careful study of the text, though, not an off-hand review of the photos and captions.
My original post:
I may be missing the value of this book, but to me it offered neither the specific advice and knowledge I crave or the beautiful photographs that inspire me. Some of the photos are even out of focus. There are much better books for both desires – gorgeous photos and real gardening wisdom – so I would not recommend this book to a fellow gardener. Again, I may have missed the point, but to me, it offered precious little value.
Rating: 2 / 5
#5 by D. Swanson on May 13, 2010 - 6:49 pm
Mary Palmer and Hugh Dargan have designed some of the most beautiful gardens I have ever seen in Georgia, North Carolina and California (I am sure there are more gardens in other locations – I just haven’t had the priviledge of viewing them). One of our homes has a Hugh Dargan designed landscape and it is the primary reason we bought the property. Their book Timeless Landscape is an uncommonly fine work that is a testament to their deep bench of knowledge and inspired vision. Every page offers an opportunity to learn from a master and every photo is an inspiration.
Rating: 5 / 5