Landscape design & build for Nashville

Nashville landscape designs run the gamut from traditional estate gardens, to homespun flower beds, to stylized modern hardscapes.

Bread and butter Nashville landscapes follow the archetypal 20th century suburban style: foundation planting, evergreen hedges, focal trees, and lawns, often very large ones.

Among younger homeowners in particular, you’ll also see more recently popular styles. Pollinator-friendly planting designs that emulate the wild landscapes of the Nashville region are gaining steam. So are modern, urban-flavored designs, with straight rows of concrete pavers, blocks of ornamental grasses, and rectilinear layouts.

Increasingly, homeowners are prioritizing habitat value, incorporating a diverse array of native plants into designs of all styles. Not only do these yards offer better resources for local ecosystems, they require less work than maintenance-intensive lawns and exotic ornamentals.

When it comes to landscape styles, Yardzen has done it all. Whatever your style may be, our designers are ready to help you achieve it.

Nashville landscape designs balance beautiful planting with functional resources for outdoor living.

Planting areas frequently aim for a naturalistic look. Frequently, hardscape materials will aspire to this same organic feel by incorporating boulders, decorative rock. and natural stone paving.

Outdoor spaces are built to make it easy to spend time outdoors. Kitchens, dining areas, and flexible entertainment zones for spending time with family or friends are prominently featured in yards a cross the city. So are pergolas, shade trees, swimming pools, and water features, all of which contribute a cooling moment to mitigate the summer heat. Landscape lighting and fire pits also help people beat the heat by providing a pleasant environment to enjoy cool summer evenings.

When the weather turns chilly, pergolas (used to mount outdoor heaters) and fire pits work double duty, providing some extra warmth to keep you outside later in the year.

No matter where you live, native plants are an excellent choice for your landscape. As lovers of the local climate, native plants typically require fewer inputs of water, fertilizer, and maintenance than species introduced from elsewhere. With natives, you’ll get great plant performance with less expense and fuss.

At the same time, native plants offer unmatched habitat value for local wildlife, and help designed landscapes feel connected to the broader regional landscape.

Looking for a few natives to get you started? Here are a few of the many local favorites:

→ Switchgrass

→ Little Bluestem

→ Tennessee Coneflower

→ Bee Balm

→ Mountain Laurel

→ Flowering Dogwood

→ Red Maple

→ Sweetbay Magnolia

→ River Birch

Nashville landscapes should account for the local climate. Choose plants that can take both the summer heat and the winter chill – natives are a great place to start, as they evolved to thrive in local conditions.

Accounting for the climate applies to hardscape too. Avoid surfaces that will cause a safety or maintenance issue in wet or snowy conditions. Stone and precast concrete paving are safe bets for surfaces that can take the cold and won’t get mucky in the wet.

Outdoor spaces should be tailored to remain comfortable for as much of the year as possible. This can be simple, like providing places to store outdoor blankets or planting evergreen windbreaks, or more involved, like incorporating pergolas with infrared heaters and shade sails.

Seasonal interest is another climate factor to account for – landscapes ought to be dynamic, changing their appearance throughout the year. Careful plant selection can ensure an attractive display year-round by incorporating fall color, winter interest, and early spring blooms.

With beautiful natural landscapes within reach, wildlife herbivory, from deer in particular, is also a factor for Nashville landscapes. While no plants are outright deer-proof, landscape designs can prioritize species that stand better odds of being avoided by deer.

With plenty of precipitation, Nashville landscapes should factor in stormwater management best practices. Include plenty of permeable surfaces like planting areas and gravel paths – these will slow down and capture runoff, in turn reducing the risk of flooding, erosion, and water pollution.

Now! Any time of year is great to begin work on a landscape project.

When possible, we suggest utilizing the winter to work through the design phase – this sets you up to get on contractors’ books early in the build season, so you can have your design installed and ready to enjoy in time for summer.

If winter has passed, don’t worry, it’s never too late in the year to begin work on a landscape design project.