PLACEMAKERS NEWS & EVENTS

APRIL 2023 Events

Mary Palmer Speaks at the Longue Vue Gardens Design Symposium 2023 – Tickets Available

April 20th to 21st | Longue Vue Gardens, New Orleans, LA

Mary Palmer Dargan will speak on her inspiration for designing “nourishing, flourishing home utopias.” She is honored to be a part of this special event, and to share her insight. It is going to be a special event to remember, featuring other speakers in fine art and design. Longue Vue Gardens’ 2023 Design Symposium will inspire and activate your spring musings! 

MAY 2023 Events

Placemakers Spring Garden Q&A on Zoom – Free to All!

Thursday, May 4th | 12:00 PM- 1:00 PM EST | Zoom

Join us for our Spring Garden Q&A, open to our whole community. We will get some fresh garden inspiration as we prepare our gardens for spring blooms, and share our garden challenges and triumphs. Come find out and get your year-round questions answered by an expert! If you’re not already on our email list, join the Q&A email list to get your invitation to our seasonal Q&A’s:

Hands-On Garden Design Workshop for the Bascom Center for Visual Arts- Tickets Available

Thursday, May 11th | 10:00 to 12:30 AM EST | The Bascom: Center for the Visual Arts

Mary Palmer Dargan, principal of the international design award-winning firm, Dargan Landscape Architects, and Arielle McIntyre, apprentice landscape designer, are hosting a LIVE garden design workshop. Together, participants design a site-specific, stunning and functional garden concept. This creative work is intended for implementation on a pre-selected area of the Bascom campus.

CLE Live Lecture Series | Home Landscape Design Part 1: Set Yourself Up For Garden Success

Wednesday, May 17th | 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM | Highlands CLE Lecture Hall

Do you envision beautiful gardens and wonder how to bring them to life? This course will guide you toward developing the ability to observe, map, and analyze a site like a professional landscape designer, which, of course, starts with a foundation in botany, horticulture, and soil science. By the end of Part 1 of this series, you will have the expertise to choose the right plant for the right place and the ability to co-create with nature and employ regenerative design techniques.

CLE Live Lecture Series | Home Landscape Design Part 2: Bring Your Garden Design To Life!

Wednesday, May 31st | 2:00 PM – 4:00 PM | Highlands CLE Lecture Hall

This course will give you the context of western garden history and classical design philosophy, a working understanding of art elements and design principles, and a ‘Master Plan’ to share, including a raw, built, living map, and plant list. By the end of Part 2 of this series, you will have the knowledge and tools to implement and bring your design to life!

JUNE 2023 Events

CLE Live Lecture Series | Home Landscape Design Part 3: Concept Map Share, Stump the Experts!

Wednesday, June 7th | 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM | Highlands CLE Lecture Hall

Need solutions for your landscape design conundrums? Send four photographs of your garden design problem areas. Quick solutions and insights for all your garden woes are shared with the class. Attendance is strictly limited in order to spend enough time on each project, so preference is given to students who have attended the first two sections of this course.

Placemakers Immersion Graduation Tour & Party | Placemakers Alumni Only 

Thursday, June 15th | 9:00 AM – 6:00 PM | Cashiers, NC

Join us for a live garden study and graduation party to celebrate your Placemakers Academy journey! We will meet at the Village Green in Cashiers, NC Saturday morning to begin our fabulous day of garden immersion and celebration in honor of our Placemakers Academy graduates. From there we will embark on a private garden study tour of our favorite Cashiers home gardens. We will end our day with cocktails, canapés and a graduation celebration at the Dargan’s “Fernwood Falls”. We can’t wait to celebrate you and take you on this immersive garden study experience! 

CLE Garden Tour | Garden Tour and Cocktail Party at Fernwood Falls 

Wednesday, June 28th | 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM | Meet at CLE Lecture Hall

280’ private waterfalls are a rarity and if it’s been raining – this one really thunders! Join us for a special small group cocktail party at Fernwood, the home garden of celebrated landscape architects Hugh and Mary Palmer Dargan. Enjoy their ‘Out of Africa’ dining Pavilion on the banks of the Upper Horse Pasture River, a protected trout stream, right in the heart of Cashiers, NC. Hike up and cross the waterfall and explore the paths along the river or sit and meditate along the shore. Cocktails and hors d’oeuvres are provided to build stamina. Parking is extremely limited, so guests ride together in a coach van reserved specifically for the CLE!

JULY 2023 Events

Placemakers Summer Garden Q&A on Zoom – Free to All!

Thursday, July 27th | 12:00 PM- 1:00 PM EST | Zoom

Join us for our Spring Garden Q&A, open to our whole community. We will get some fresh garden inspiration as we prepare our gardens for spring blooms, and share our garden challenges and triumphs. Come find out and get your year-round questions answered by an expert! If you’re not already on our email list, join the Q&A email list to get your invitation to our seasonal Q&A’s:

Garden Cocktail Party and Joe Webb Cabin Tour

Tuesday, July 11th | 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM EST | Zoom 

Enjoy libations and light fare at this unique garden cocktail party, home & workshop tour where several Joe Webb Cabins (Circa 1929) are situated. Home owners Lisa Torbett and Hamp Stevens purchased the property in 2010 from the Allen family. Ms. Torbett is, by trade, an Interior Designer. She brought her talents to bear and oversaw a complete renovation. Most of the renovation work was done by the late Tommy Chambers, who is a recognized expert on Joe Webb renovations. Every effort was made to maintain the Historic nature of the property while at the same time bring it up to today’s standards. Over the past year a barn was added to the property which will also be available to tour. Mr. Stevens is a nationally known “Mathematical Artist” and uses the barn as his workshop and studio.

The landscape design which accentuates the natural contours of the property while making a conscious effort to keep the native foliage in place of the property was done with the help of Cashiers local and globally respected Landscape Architect, Mary Palmer Dargan.

Joy Garden Tour – Private & Semi-Private Tours

Friday, July 14th & Saturday, July 15th | Cashiers, NC

Enjoy a tour of four exquisite gardens along the historic 107 corridor & the Zachary Tolbert Heirloom Gardens. There will be exclusive benefactor events and unique home and garden shopping. This year’s tour will feature a historic garden revival facilitated by local dahlia maestro, Drew English, Dargan Landscape Architects, and Black Bear Landscapes.