(l to r) Robin Waites, Beth Kibbler, and Belinda Gergel Landscape architect Mary Palmer Dargan kept the Palmetto Garden Club's full attention for the better part of an hour mid- morning Tuesday, February 19, inside the Garden Club Building at Maxcy Gregg Park. The occasion was the Palmetto Garden Club's annual open meeting.

Dargan, a Nashville native, is in business with her husband, Darlington native Hugh Graham Dargan, better known as Tug in Pee Dee circles.

The two are nationally known principals in the Atlanta- based firm of Dargan Landscape Architects. Their "before and after" landscape projects regularly air on Ground Breakers, an

HGTV series, and CNN's Landscape

Central.

According to the dust jacket on

Dargan's book, Timeless Landscape

Architecture, their projects have appeared in major publications

including Garden Design, Southern

Margaret Cain

Accents, The New York Times, Better

Homes and Gardens, House & Garden,

Charleston Magazine, Southern Living,

Veranda, and Traditional Home.

Dargan illustrated her presentation with projected images of her work, starting with a basic breakdown of four elements of design: color, line, form, and texture.

Dargan's book, Timeless Landscape

Architecture, 192 pp., was published in 2007 by Wyrick & Company.

In her book, Dargan and her husband share their technique of creating landscape architecture with their Four Part Master Plan:

(1) The Approach and Arrival Sequence creates a sense of anticipation.

(2) The Hub is the property's natural center.

(3) The Perimeter consists of outdoor spaces wrapped tightly around the house.

(4) Passages to Destinations animate movement around a property and invite the enjoyment of garden places.

Mary Palmer Dargan The Dargans practiced landscape architecture in Columbia in the late 1980s when they lived and worked on Henderson Street, near Calhoun. They moved to Charleston for a few years in the early 1990s, and located in Atlanta for the long haul after that.

The Palmetto Garden Club's annual open meeting was attended by more than 100 people, all of whom took an interest in Dargan's book after the presentation.