PLEASE JOIN US FOR THE 2025,
PLACEMAKERS ACADEMY GARDEN DESIGN IMMERSION
The Placemakers Academy Of Garden Design Immersion Program
Early Bird Enrollment Open | 30 Student Cap
February 27 to May 22 | Thursday’s 12:00-1:30 EST on Zoom
Live Garden Study Tour & Graduation Party in Cashiers, North Carolina
WELCOME TO YOUR 2025 GARDEN REVIVAL
Picture this,
It’s Spring and everything is waking up. You step out into the crisp air with a warm cup of tea. In your other hand is a large rolled up paper.
You find a comfortable place to sit down and unroll the piece of paper- revealing your very own garden design. You run your hands over the paper, breathing in the fresh spring air, imagining how it will all come together in the space.
You’ll be going to your favorite plant nursery this afternoon to pick out the perfect plants for your landscape, and it’s all happening. You take a sip of your tea and savor the beginning of a new chapter for your home and garden.
All you need is a little guidance to bring your garden dreams to life
Step by step, you will create your own landscape plan in a supportive, inspiring and expert space
You will gain the confidence to make great choices for your home garden, to make a landscape plan that fits you like a glove, and the pro tips and advice to make your dream a reality!
Create your own home landscape plan, step by step, with the help of world renowned landscape architect, Mary Palmer Dargan
“It changed the way I see the world.”
Early Bird Enrollment
Now – January 4
On-Time Bird Enrollment
January 5 – February 26
Transform the Way You See Your Garden
This course will change the way you see landscapes, (and maybe even the way you see the world!). You will see new potentials and possibilities emerging, where you might have been stuck and un-inspired before.
We will teach you how to analyze your site, to understand its unique thumbprint. You will have the opportunity to slow down and observe the elements that shape the land, and how to work in concert with them. You will hone your designer’s eye, learning to recognize art elements in the landscape, and how to use design principles to express your personal style and vision.
The 2025 Immersion Schedule
We’ll meet Thursday’s from February 27th to May 22nd from 12:00 to 1:30 EST. (We’ll take April 17th off for a Spring Break)
Then we’ll meet in person in Cashiers, NC on a weekend in June/July (Date TBD) for an incredible Graduation Celebration & Garden Study Tour
Most of our meetings will start with a short grounding meditation and a 50 minute lecture taught by both Mary Palmer Dargan and mentee, Arielle McIntyre.
You are welcome to bring your lunch, turn off your video and enjoy the lecture section before our more hands-on Q&A section. We will take a quick stretch break, and then move into a workshop/Q&A style for the remainder of the session where we apply that day’s lesson to our own projects. We also encourage you to stretch and take breaks as needed.
*All meetings are recorded, and recordings are available for life, so if you need to miss a class it’s ok!*
It is totally acceptable to miss a session as all meetings are recorded and we understand your busy lives! The important thing is to stick with it, because if you do you will come out the other side of this program activated and with a plan! (And also with a whole bunch of new garden friends to cheer you on!)
THURSDAY 2.27 | 12:00-1:30 | OBSERVE
This week we will learn how to slow down and observe the web of life in own backyards.
So many garden designs fail because the initial analysis is incomplete. The resulting plan doesn’t take full advantage of the land’s potentials, or consider its unique constraints. This week you’ll learn how to not only set yourself up for success, but how to listen to the land in new ways that will strengthen your relationship with nature and your garden for life.
THURSDAY 3.6 | 12:00-2:00 | STUDENT PROJECT INTRODUCTIONS
We love kicking off our design journey by having students share some before photos of the design projects they are embarking on. Whether it’s a small 10 by 10 courtyard garden, or a whole mountain estate, this is our time to get familiar with each other’s projects (and to vent about what is just not working! 😂).
It is so helpful to learn from other people’s garden trouble shooting processes, and there’s not much that Mary Palmer hasn’t seen before. Students get to leave with fresh professional and peer insight as they embark on their design journeys.
This is our time to welcome each other and to set fresh intentions. It is our moment to express our garden dreams, and tap into the power of the group to help hold our intentions for the coming weeks.
THURSDAY 3.13 | 12:00-1:30 | GET A BIRD’S EYE VIEW
*LIVE MAPPING WORKSHOP PART I*
One of the secrets to highly successful garden design is mapping. How do you create a representation of your site on paper so that as you unleash your creativity, you are designing in alignment with reality?
Having a base map of your site will allow you to avoid making costly mistakes, as well as to help you think in new ways about your site to bring it to its true potential.
THURSDAY 3.20 | 12:00-1:30 | GETTING TO KNOW YOUR SITE
*LIVE MAPPING WORKSHOP PART II*
Building on the base maps we started in Part 1, we will learn how to complete them with a little more detail. You will learn how to draw existing features on your site to-scale on your base map.
After this week, you’ll be mapping like a pro landscape architect. Careful, if you master this week’s lessons, you might just have to start charging for professional garden design!
CONNECT WITH THE WEB OF LIFE
THURSDAY 3.27 | 12:00-1:30 | THE ELEMENTS
Every corner of this green earth has its own personality. With this week’s session, you will understand how to tailor your design to not only your unique personality, but also to the personality of your special pocket of the world.
You will see clearly how sun, wind, slopes, water flow, and soil come together to make your site’s unique thumbprint. Then you have the full force of nature behind your design!
THURSDAY 4.3 | 12:00-1:30 | MAKE A WISH…
This week we’re making our way to the wishing well. We’re giving ourselves permission to dream big.
With so much you would love to get done, it can be hard to know where to start. You will learn how to take your wish list and create a needs analysis that will clarify your priorities.
You will also learn the secrets to lifelong landscape design. What elements can you include in your outdoor oasis that will bring you health, wellness, and vitality? How can the land nourish you as you nourish it? The lessons from this week will bring you lifelong health benefits, and help you create a wish list for your unique needs and vision.
This week we’re talking plants! Our favorite. We are sharing the best landscaping plants for around the country, and we are teaching you a tried and true method for picking the perfect plant for the perfect place.
No more money wasted on unsuccessful plantings! No more confusion over how to craft a planting design that works from season to season! Learn how to create year round interest, and how to pick the plants that you and your land will love.
BONUS, FRIDAY, 4.11 | 12:00-1:00 | KITCHEN GARDEN WORKSHOP
Can you imagine having fresh flowers, fruits, veggies, and herbs right out your door? How would your life change if you were able to enjoy the freshest and healthiest of produce, medicine, and beauty as soon as you roll out of bed in the morning? Mary Palmer Dargan published her masters thesis on the English Kitchen Garden, and well, her passion and love for beautiful and edible gardens has never stopped! She has designed, planted, and enjoyed so many kitchen gardens.
Arielle McIntyre is especially passionate about edible garden and food forest design, and has some juicy info to share with you on creating your own perennial food systems built right into your landscape plan! So we couldn’t help but give you a special spring treat and show you how to create your own Garden of Eaten’ just in time for Spring.
THURSDAY 4.24 | 12:00-1:30 | FIND FLOW IN YOUR DESIGN
How do you bring all of these wonderful elements together into a design that flows? Learn the Mary Palmer Dargan’s timeless Four-Part Master Plan method to bring flow and cohesion to your landscape design.
This method inspired the Dargan’s award winning book, Timeless Landscape Design, and will help you bring you organize and clarify your landscape concept.
HONE YOUR DESIGNER’S EYE
What makes the great gardens of the world unforgettable? What makes them tic? Within you is the ability to co-create incredible and unforgettable places with nature, we are just here to show you some classical art and design principles to hone your innate designer’s eye.
Now that you are seeing like a designer, you can start to apply the art and design principles. You’ll learn the tips and tricks of the pros to create great planting designs for every space.
THURSDAY 5.8 | 12:00-1:30 | FREE YOUR CREATIVITY
*CONCEPT MAP STUDIO*
Now it’s time to have some fun! We’re throwing caution to the wind and dreaming big, we can edit and hone later. We’re painting in broad strokes to see what wonderful things our imagination can conjure.
We will share some incredible exercises designed to free your creativity. We have used these tricks in private and group design sessions, and they have sparked and inspired many garden designs around the country. You will not leave this class without at least one concept map!
THURSDAY 5.15 | 12:00-2:00 |CONCEPT MAP SHARE
*CONCEPT MAP SHARE*
Students are invited to share one of their three concept maps for their garden. Sharing is totally optional, but encouraged- it is just so much fun! This is a wonderful opportunity to share the ideas that you’ve explored throughout our time together, and get valuable feedback from the group.
This is one of our favorite sessions, you will learn so much and get so much great feedback and inspiration to guide your master plan and implementation process.
BRING YOUR DREAM GARDEN TO LIFE
TUESDAY, 5.22 | 12:00-1:30 | BRING YOUR VISION TO LIFE
We aren’t just here to help you dream big, we are here to help you bring that dream to life! Now that you have this wonderful and informed vision, how do you bring it to life? This week we are talking Master Plans and the practical nuts and bolts of implementing a design. After overseeing forty years of design installations, Mary Palmer has a few secrets to share. How do you find great talent? How do you source your plants and materials?
You will learn how to find the best resources to help bring your design home. You will create a timeline and a budget to guide your project. You will learn the art of accepting feedback and allowing a design to evolve over time. We will give you the tips and tricks you need to bring your vision to life!
LIVE GARDEN STUDY & GRADUATION PARTY | DATE TBD | JUNE/JULY 2025
We will cap off this experience with an optional, in-person graduation party and live garden study – champagne may be provided at the graduation ceremony – you will have to come to find out, but plan on toasting all your fellow Placemakers and new, lifelong friends!
The afternoon will include a garden study of some of Mary Palmer’s favorite Dargan designs in Cashiers, and a visit to one of our alumni’s incredible gardens for a graduation party. We will toast to our garden success and celebrate how far we have come. *A materials fee of $125 (includes tour, lunch, cocktails, canapés, and more) for those who confirm graduation attendance
Elderflower punch from the 2023 Placemakers Graduation Party ❤︎
“This course transformed the way I think about garden design.” – Gretchen James | 2022 Immersion Program Graduate
Student Testimonials
"I feel lucky to have found y'all!"
This was maybe the shining highlight in my isolation during Covid. I learned so much and was able to get a great amount of work done on a project I needed to get going despite isolation! I think y’all are the perfect team and brought unique viewpoints and information - I feel lucky to have found y’all! - Jeanette Whitson
"This course transformed the way I think about garden design."
The Placemakers Academy was inspirational! Mary Palmer and Arielle transformed the way I think about garden design. They covered all the practical details of landscape design in a holistic framework that encourages you to probe what you want from your garden and what your garden wants from you. Bravo! - Gretchen James
"Amazing. Outstanding. They should charge more!"
Mary Palmer and Arielle were amazing. The amount of information and access to resources was outstanding. I have several friends to which I will recommend this class for the next session. I will say that I think you should charge more for the class. This was incredible. - Melinda Ethier
2023 Immersion Student Nancy Anderson’s Garden Design & Beginning Implementation Process
Photos Courtesy of Nancy Anderson & Arielle McIntyre
Award-winning Honey from Nancy’s Garden
“The class was spot on.”
“I had no idea that I would learn so much.”
2021 Immersion Student Katharine Flowers’ Dream Garden Come to Life
Photos Courtesy of Katharine Flowers
How it works:
Every Immersion student receives immediate and lifetime access to our incredible online course,
As soon as you enroll you can login as a student on this same Placemakers website. You will have immediate access to a treasure trove of award winning video lectures, a printable pdf textbook, as well as our favorite ‘Placemakers Garden Design Journal’ that walks you, step by step, to your finished design.
Don’t worry! You don’t have to do all of that when you sign up. We will walk you through the curriculum step by step, but for those curious among us, you’re welcome to explore all the goodies in your student portal ASAP!
Then starting in February, we will gather and dream up our garden revivals,
As the excitement of the holidays settles, and we’ve all done our part as the Placemakers we are, we’ll take some time for ourselves. We’ll settle in for the start of cozy creative journey, while we dream up the wonders our new garden will hold.
There you will find a series of incredible video lectures of Mary Palmer on every topic you need to make your garden dreams come true. These award winning lectures, acclaimed by Garden Communicators International, will allow you to continue your garden design education, even after our immersion is complete.
We will meet every Thursday from 12:00-1:30 on zoom from February 27th to May 22nd. Each session we will cover a stop on the journey to the garden of your dreams. These 90 minute sessions will start with a lecture and move into a more open forum for questions and discussion.
Some of these lectures will be workshop style, where we will be walking you through getting your design on paper in real time. It can be intimidating to attempt mapping and designing for the first time, don’t worry! We will break it down and walk you through it step by step.
We can’t help but throw a garden party too,
Then to celebrate our journeys, we will gather in Cashiers, NC for a live garden study where we will explore some of Mary Palmer’s most incredible mountain gardens in person, and then we will celebrate with a garden party!
*This gathering is totally optional, and is priced separately from the course itself, so no worries if you can’t attend!* We will always have other opportunities for you to come study and explore here in Cashiers and Highlands, NC.
MEET YOUR INSTRUCTORS
Principal instructor Mary Palmer Dargan is a force of nature.
She has been bringing incredible gardens to life for the past 50 years.
At this point, there’s nothing you’re struggling with in your space that she hasn’t seen many times before!
She has designed gardens all over the world, but now focuses her landscape architecture practice (Dargan Landscape Architects) in Cashiers & Highlands, NC- where her, her husband and fellow landscape architect- Hugh Dargan, and their two pups- Henry & Mead, call home. One of her most recent accolades is 2022 recipient of the Association of Professional Landscape Designer’s International Design Award Gold Medal for her design of Ushuata here in Cashiers, NC.
AWARD WINNING USHUATA
Mary Palmer taught landscape design as a professor of landscape architecture at Clemson University (One of her former Clemson students is on our design team in Cashiers!).
She has given lectures and lead workshops across the the globe on everything from traditional cast iron cooking, making your own elderberry syrups and wines, to the history of the English Kitchen Garden!
She loves sharing her seasoned knowledge and garden wisdom with excited garden lovers, helping them realize their garden dreams, big or small.
LEARN FROM THE PROS
She is joined by fellow designer and apprentice, Arielle McIntyre.
Arielle has a love for Appalachian history and culture, food, plants, and loves getting to bring mountain gardens to life. She loves kitchen garden design, edible gardens, and loves helping people learn how to enrich their lives through fresh medicine, food, and magic from the garden.
When she is not teaching the academy, she works as a designer for Dargan Landscape Architects and also for her own new business, Kintyre Design- drafting, designing, and bringing dream gardens to life every day!
This is their fifth year teaching this immersion together.
They are so excited to take a new class on this ever improving design journey this year. They can’t wait to see what wonderful group of garden lovers joins for this adventure!
LET US CHEER YOU ON
Tired of being a lone wolf gardener?
Can you imagine what the support of a group of curious and encouraging peers, as wells the guidance of a professional designer would feel like? It can be intimidating to attempt mapping and designing for the first time, don’t worry! We will break it down and walk through it step by step together.
You don’t have to do it alone!
Come enjoy a community of garden lovers to nerd out with and collaborate with along your design journey and beyond. We have had fast friendships form in this immersion. The community that grows out of this course is one of our favorite parts of teaching this course- our students are just such wonderful people, and we love getting to host this new affinity group of creative, nature loving friends.
Who this course is for:
– Garden design rookies who are looking for a step by step roadmap and expert guidance, so they don’t have to make rookie mistakes!
– Master gardeners who already have a foundation in garden design, but want some fresh inspiration and guidance from a seasoned professional landscape architect.
– Gardeners who are attempting to re-design, and bring fresh life to an already existing garden with its own unique potentials and challenges.
– Lone-wolf gardeners and garden designers, who want a community to enjoy their plant-nerdom and garden design journeys with!
– People who are willing to try some new skills, and engage with some challenging concepts. People who aren’t afraid to just give it a go, even if we mess up. (And we will, it’s part of this incredible creative journey!)
– For those who are trying to expand their idea of what’s possible in their home gardens. We will share a cornucopia of design inspiration, and show you how to translate your garden needs and desires into a working wish list.
– Those seeking to understand holistic and regenerative design, we will be teaching ecological principles throughout, and showing you how to work with your local ecosystem
When you enroll for the Immersion you can expect:
– Immediate and full access to the Placemakers Academy Online Garden Design Course including videos lectures and design workbooks
– Lifetime membership in the Placemakers Academy
– A signed copy of “Lifelong Landscape Design” by Mary Palmer Dargan mailed to your doorstep
– Access to the 12 week live design series on Zoom with instructors Mary Palmer Dargan and Arielle McIntyre
– A small group of passionate peers (30 students)
– An invitation to the Garden Tour, Live Study and Graduation Party in Cashiers, North Carolina
– The ability to purchase and digitally schedule one-on-one Zoom consultations with instructor Mary Palmer Dargan
What will you have by the end of the immersion course?
– The confidence to make great design choices
– The ability to observe, analyze, and map your site like a pro designer
– A foundation in botany, horticulture, and soil science
– The expertise to choose the right plant for the right place
– A context of Western garden design history
– A working understanding of classical art elements and design principles in landscape design
– The skills to create a dynamic and beautiful planting design
– The ability to create flow in a design
– The knowledge and tools to implement your design successfully
– The stress relieving benefits of your own outdoor oasis
– More connection with nature in your every day life
– The ability to create beautiful habitat for native birds and butterflies
– Easy ways to clap back at climate change from your own backyard
– The ability to increase your home value by 10-25% with landscaping and outdoor rooms
– A philosophy for creating health and wellness gardens
– Fresh ideas for creating your own kitchen garden
– A community of Placemakers Alumni to share your journey and cheer you on into the future
– Invitations to exclusive live workshops, alumni Zoom Q&A’s , and garden tours in Cashiers, North Carolina
We’ll celebrate with a garden study and graduation party!
Imagine a blissful gardening immersion leading up to you and your perfect landscape plan and a garden party to celebrate!
We will cap off this experience with a celebratory Graduation Ceremony, live garden tour and life-affirming hands-on study – champagne may be provided at the graduation party – you will have to come to find out, but plan on toasting all your fellow gardeners and new, lifelong friends.
(June/July 2025 Cashiers, NC – more details to come for registrants, it’s a Garden Party, y’all!)
*Travel and accommodation not included, a materials fee of $125 (includes tour, cocktails, canapés, and more) for those who confirm attendance
If not 100% satisfied, please provide attempted course work for Module 1, "Observe", within 10 days for a full refund.
Have questions? Email us,
*Click here to start a message: arielle@dargan.com*
We hope you’ll join us and make the earth a little greener, one garden at a time,
