Foreclosure rates are down and new home sales are up in Wilmington, N.C. as of June 25, according to WWAY News Channel 3. And that has some individuals considering creating a dream landscape rather than buying a home or selling their properties. That dream team would be John and Marsha Warren in Highlands, N.C. and Hugh and Mary Palmer Dargan in Cashiers, if the homeowner likes mountain chic designs.
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John Warren knows all about creating a mountain design landscape that mimics nature while also providing for homeowners’ relaxation pleasure. And he can be heard during this recent 2013 Cashiers Vimeo lecture discussing just how he came to learn about such designs. But the well-respected contractor’s work at several homes in the North Carolina community really speak for themselves.
In fact, landscape design students traveled as far away as California to see what he and the Dargans accomplished on several Cashiers properties together.
Warren said in his June lecture that he let nature and farmers guide his education in perfecting the landscapes he creates, rather than pursuing a more formal route. And the slideshow of photos above attest to him taking the right path in that regard.
I’ve been landscaping in this area for about 32, 33 years. I started very small, just doing maintenance for William McKee at High Hampton,” the sought-after contractor said.
And his business grew from that initial beginning, and he believes that it was due to his developing his own style, one which was influenced by nature and the men who tend her.
I started just watching nature, how the streams flowed and the types of rock, and the mosses and the trees and the colors of nature. And I would follow the design concepts, not of landscapers, but of farmers. How they terraced the land; how they worked the soil.”
One home in particular on the garden tour of the Dargans’ recent June design workshop class exemplifies how well Warren has mastered his craft. The home sits high atop a western Carolina mountain, yet the surrounding backyard landscape has been sculpted down by Warren–from mounds of dirt to intricate and spacious terraces–to wind masterfully around the side of the property and into a backyard that seems to go on forever.
Warren worked with Andrew Mullins of the Dargan Landscape Architects team for this particular project. And the two men created a dream landscape for the new home owners together, taking care to include just enough stone, wood and plant combinations to blend in with the natural woods around the property.
Mullins, a graduate of the University of Georgia, brought his own unique skills to the table in the project, which include expertise in plant material analysis preparation and plot layout experience, in addition to his architectural knowledge and acumen.
During the Dargans’ recent 2013 Cashiers design workshop and garden tour, Mullins sat down with the Atlanta Pop Culture Examiner to pose for photos of his and Warren’s accomplishment. And to express his satisfaction with the project’s end results. And both men enjoyed seeing garden tour participants intrigued by the landscape utopia they created together.
To contact John Warren or Andrew Mullins for a quote on creating a mountain retreat for your family, visit their company’s Facebook pages or LinkedIn site for more information.
© Radell Smith
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