Claire Hopple | The Parke Company

3 Ways to Improve Soil for Plants, Trees, and Shrubs

March 7, 2024March 14, 2017 by Claire Hopple

Hand full of fresh soil

Gardening can be one of the most rewarding hobbies you could ever have. But it can also be one of the most frustrating. We’ve all had the experience of putting a plant in the earth, only to watch it promptly languish and die. This is disheartening, and can cause people to give up the cause. But there is always a way to make your plant, shrub, or tree grow a little more successfully. And it usually starts with giving extra attention to your soil.

Soil is depleted for many reasons. In Nashville, where we have more extreme weather than in some other parts of the country, the elements can be hard on our soil. Here are a few reasons why the soil in your lawn or garden might not be the most fertile.

- Depleted by Water. If you have a lot of rain on land that doesn’t have much plant life on it (perhaps only grass), this can wash away a lot of the nutrients in your soil. Many plants revive soil on their own, but unless these are actually located in your lawn or garden, the soil will keep depleting further and further.

- Pollution. Some soil located by roads and other highly traveled areas has been damaged by runoff, trash, and physical damage. This soil is often hard-packed and lacking in nutrients.

Neglect. Some soil just hasn’t received love in a long time. With the sun beating down on it, and nothing added to it to encourage inhabitation by worms, bugs, and bacteria, soil turns to dry dirt.

So how can we replenish the soil in our gardens and back yards? Fortunately, there are a lot of ways! Here are just a few.

- Tilling. Tilling alone won’t do much except encourage a sudden burst of bacterial growth. When combined with any of the following, however, it will help loosen the soil and allow organic compounds to revivify it for future plant growth.

- Manure and Compost. Any broken down organic matter that can be added to your soil will benefit it. Manure and compost are too of the best. They are rich in diverse nutrients and packed with bacteria that will make your future plants grow a lot more easily.

- Coffee Grounds. Coffee grounds are a free source of nitrogen that is available all around Nashville. Just ask the nearest coffee shop for some of their spent coffee or espresso grounds. The acid of the coffee is mostly washed away, leaving a byproduct that is easily broken down into soil, especially when added to compost or tilled into the top layer of soil.

Nitrogen-fixing Plants. Some plants draw nitrogen out of the air and infuse it into the soil. A crop of these for a season can be a great way to add nutrients to the ground.

There are lots of ways for soil to be used up, and lots of ways to add healthy elements to it again. We’ve only just scratched the surface of this topic. If you want to make your lawn or garden fertile again, ask the Parke Company about the best way to do it.

Choosing the Best Landscaping Elements for Your Rental Property

March 7, 2024March 13, 2017 by Claire Hopple

Gravel back yard in a rental home

When most people hear the word “landscaping” they think of plants and natural design elements that fit their own personal preferences. Many of the projects that the Parke Company takes part in are to implement the elements of someone’s personal vision – often in the land that surrounds the house in which they live.

For some clients, landscaping isn’t meant to appeal to personal preferences, it is used to created for the enjoyment of other people. When you own a rental home, every investment you make in the property has to be installed with a tenant in mind. In most cases, issues like cabinet colors or bathroom fixtures have to do with home interiors.

For many potential renters, the exterior of the house is most important. Beautifully landscaped houses sell (and rent) themselves. Quality landscaping creates a great first impression, no matter who is viewing your home. To make your home attractive to the widest swath of potential tenants, it’s important to make landscaping a priority.

Choose Landscaping Elements that Require Little Upkeep. There are many landscaping elements – plants, trees, and the like – which will look beautiful with very little effort. Unless your renter is a committed gardener, chances are she doesn’t want to have to care for plants (or watch them die because of lack of care). The Parke Company can help you maintain landscaping elements, or give you the knowledge you need to keep your plants healthy with little effort.

Eliminate Existing Eyesores. If you have an old stump or a dead tree in the front yard of your rental property, it may have been sitting there so long that you don’t even notice it anymore. This doesn’t mean that other people don’t notice it. If you want to increase the rentability of your property, have the Parke Company take away your old, dead trees and such. This will make your new landscaping all the more effective.

Add a Little Pizazz. There are many hearty trees and shrubs which flower at various points of the year. These can be a welcome addition to your rental property landscape.

Watch Out for Pollinators. Helpful hint: Don’t choose flowering plants that will create a lot of pollen! Many potential renters suffer from allergies, and may not consider your home if it’s surrounded by aggressive pollinators.

Go For Broad Appeal. When creating a landscaping design, create something that will appeal to 90% of people. If you want to create your own personal Garden of Eden, do it on the property where you live. Something simple and classic will likely work best for your rental market, and will make the most sense in terms of cost as well.

Quality landscaping can take an average home and make it irresistible to potential tenants. Don’t just focus on the interior elements of your property. The outdoors should be just as attractive to future renters. If you’re having trouble renting your property, talk to the Parke Company about upping the ante on the home’s exterior landscaping design.

Choosing Shrubs that Thrive in Hot Nashville Summers

March 7, 2024March 10, 2017 by Claire Hopple

Garden of shrubs in Nashville

One of the questions we get asked most often at the Parke Company is “What are some plants and shrubs that will survive hot Nashville summers?” If you’ve lived in Nashville for more than a couple of years, you have experienced your share of summer scorchers. It’s not uncommon for new home gardeners to grow plants that are ill-suited to our mercurial climate. There’s nothing more discouraging than a happy little shrub that shrivels into dust in mid-July.

Fortunately, there are many plants that have evolved to thrive under the scorching Nashville sun. Where others wilt away, these plants can’t have enough heat and sunshine. If you choose wisely, you’ll have vigorous plant growth throughout the hottest months. Of course, rules about watering and maintenance still apply, but you won’t have to fight to keep these plants alive. Here are some of the Parke Company’s favorite summer-hardy plants and shrubs for Nashville gardens.
‘Kaleidoscope” Abelia. This little shrub is appropriately named. Technically an evergreen, the variegated leaves on this Abelia go through a brilliant transition throughout the seasons, showing off in dramatic yellows, reds, greens and oranges. Easy to maintain with only moderate water needs, this shrub is pleased as punch showing off its foliage, even during the hottest days of the year.

Thornless Blackberries. If you’re the kind of person who demands beauty and sustenance from your garden, blackberries are a great choice. Thornless varieties tolerate heat well, exhibit beautiful flowers, attract pollinators, and provide a sweet, rich bounty. Not only that, most thornless blackberries are perennial. They’ll die back when the frost hits, then spring back into action after the last frost.

Boxwoods. One of the more heat-tolerant decorative shrub varieties, boxwoods are as tough as it gets when it comes to summer climes. Boxwoods stand their ground, even when more delicate plants throw in the towel. Dense foliage stands its ground in all seasons, making these shrubs a perfect choice for versatile climates like Nashville’s.

Camellias. These flowering shrubs are hardy members of your hedging, decoration and privacy planting force. Put these shrubs wherever you need a strong presence, regardless of weather. After soaking up the sun all summer long, camellias burst into radiant flowering display in the fall.

Lavender. Lavender is a lovely herb that can grow into shrub-like stature. Lavender is beautiful enough on its own to warrant a space in your garden, but its benefits hardly stop there. Lavender has culinary and medicinal applications. It is often used as a scent or flavoring agent in soaps, scrubs and sprays. It attracts beneficial pollinators and is even said to reduce the prevalence of mosquitoes.
The Parke Company has a million ideas for drought-hardy plants to include in your Nashville garden. With a little planning, you will be able to outfit your yard and garden with living landscaping elements that don’t require a lot of upkeep, but will perform admirably in the hottest heat and coldest chills the American South has to offer. It’s going to be another scorcher this summer. The Parke Company can make sure you and your garden are ready.

3 Simple Methods for Pruning Evergreen Trees

March 7, 2024March 9, 2017 by Claire Hopple

The Parke Company landscaper pruning an evergreen tree

Pruning evergreens can be an intimidating task for newbies. We perform these tasks every day at The Parke Company, but we understand that pruning can be baffling to nonprofessionals. After all, you don’t want to damage your beloved evergreens, or cut too much away and have them looking awkward.

The Parke Company would be happy to take this task off your plate. Our rates are affordable and our work is professional. However, if you want to handle routine pruning on your own, here are some ways to successfully prune the evergreen trees and shrubs in your yard and garden.

Best Pruning Methods for Evergreen Trees

Formal Shapes for Junipers and Arborvitaes.

Scaly bristled evergreens like Junipers and Arborvitaes are great candidates for formal, classic shapes. Oftentimes, these are the cone-shaped, “Christmas Tree” silhouettes that are so familiar to us all. Other shapes are possible, too. All you have to do is start when the tree is young, trimming away the tips of branches until you achieve the shape you want. Because you trim the tips away, the small branches will grow wider instead of longer, making your tree much fuller and healthier looking.

New Growth in Larger Cypresses and Other Evergreens.

In Leyland Cypress trees, for example, branches grow from near the tip. These branches “want” to dominate the growth energy of the tree, so they send hormones back through the branch toward the trunk, as a signal to stop other growth. The tip then keeps happily growing, even though it gives the tree an unbalanced “leggy” appearance. Again, it’s important to remove these new growth areas. This will favor new growth to come from nearer the trunk, making the tree healthier and fuller in appearance.

Natural Shaping for Japanese Yews and Other Evergreen Shrubs.

The Japanese Yew is a popular evergreen shrub that lasts a long time and provides a natural appearance, while taking up variable amounts of space in the garden or landscape. When pruning, it’s tempting to try to replicate globes or other “formal” shapes you’ve seen on TV. But this isn’t good for a plant like this, nor does this shape resemble the way the plant would grow on its own in nature. It’s better to, again, cut the tips of the longest growth, bringing the shape towards something more manageable, without making the plant look like Edward Scissorhands had a go at it. By eliminating long and aggressive growth, you’ll even extend the life of the shrub. Light will now be able to penetrate the outer topiary, which will allow greenery to live nearer the plant’s core.
At The Parke Company, we like to extend the life and usefulness of trees, prolonging their days before they are reduced to stumps and firewood. Most people who have trees like the ones described are a little unsure about what pruning is supposed to look like or accomplish. But pruning is pretty simple. With minimal work, you can improve your evergreen trees’ appearance, health and longevity. The Parke Company can do it for you, but we’re also happy to help you do it yourself.

Add a Little Color to Brighten up your Lawn

March 7, 2024February 28, 2017 by Claire Hopple

Although the weather in Nashville has been pretty warm this year, it can be a little disconcerting to look out the window and see a whole lot of dead, brown and generally gross looking lawns. While most flowers and bushes will not bloom until May at the earliest, we at the Parke Company believe it does not mean that you have to look at what appears to be an apocalyptic wasteland until spring really rolls around.

How You Can Add Color to Your Lawn

February Flowers

When people think of roses in February, it is usually the kind that come wrapped in a bouquet with a teddy bear and a box of chocolates. That being said, there are several species of roses that are blooming as early as now, including the Winter’s Bliss and Pink Frost lenten roses, which display a dazzling array of colors ranging from magenta to deep red and white. Why not keep the spirit of Valentine’s Day alive and outside, to remind you that Love lasts all year round?

Pansies are another good way of adding a different hue to the mix, since some versions of the flower have been specifically bred to live in cold environments, meaning you will not have to worry about any late winter cold snaps ruining your hard work. Pansies also come in a mix of colors, including many shades of yellow and blue, giving you a lot of different options for maximum color mixing.

Bushes and Shrubbery

One area people might not consider when looking to add a little color to their lawn is shrubs and bushes. Some shrubs, such as the Daphne family of bushes, bloom now, and are a great way to add large swatches of color to an area that looks as if it had a sepia filter applied to it, while something like Witch Hazel brings deeper oranges and reds to the table. It is important to note, however, that many of these bushes can be difficult to work with and may produce toxic berries, so it would be a good idea to let someone qualified help get things set up.

One thing to consider when adding shrubbery and bushes is the impact that a good mulch will have, not only on the health of the plants, but also on the visuals. We at the Parke Company believe that incorporating a good mulch into your landscape is key to a nice looking lawn.

It is understandable to want to wait a bit before getting into the grind of working on your lawn, but the earlier you get started the better your lawn is going to look, considering that many of these plants work better the longer they have been in the soil. Besides, who does not want a nice looking, bright and colorful lawn to stand out against the drab lawns currently decorating neighborhoods? You do not even need to know what you are doing, since we at the Parke Company offer services to help with landscape design and tree removal to mulching and irrigation. We will be there every step of the way to make sure your lawn is looking colorful and beautiful.