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Landscape Installation: Spring and Summer Softscape Ideas for Nashville Residents

May 10, 2025 by The Parke Company

The green season is finally upon us once again in Nashville, so you know what that means: it’s time to start adding color back into your landscape! Here are a few softscape ideas to help you improve your lawn and garden and how to achieve the best results.

Flowers and Color

Incorporating color into your softscape design is one of the quickest ways to improve the overall aesthetic of your yard. Flowers, as well as flowering trees and bushes, can all be added to any lawn to enhance its color. From cherry trees to roses, your landscaping can be a spectacle of color, both big and small.

Spring is a great time to plant perennial and annual flowers. These springtime plants are likely already flourishing, but it’s not too late to get blooming flowers transplanted into your garden beds. While the time has already passed for planting flower seeds or bulbs, there are still many floral options for your lawn. Some of the most common flowers for a great pop of color that grow well in the Nashville climate include gerber daisies, irises, and petunias. You can even transplant bulb-based plants like tulips, which come in practically every color imaginable. While it’s a bit too late to plant most trees (they are best planted in the fall or winter), you can still transplant rose bushes or other flowering plants this spring. Hydrangeas and lilacs are both beautiful, early spring bloomers that can keep going all summer.

Softscaping with flowers or flowering shrubs can be tricky and requires keen attention to detail and knowledge of the soil type, irrigation patterns, and sun exposure of your lawn. That’s why it’s often best to rely on the expertise of the professionals for your landscape installation this spring and summer. When you work with The Parke Company, you can rest assured that the plants we source are high-quality and the perfect addition to your property. Any landscaping company can give you pretty flowers for a week, but a great landscaper knows how and what to plant to provide color and vibrance all season long. Don’t let this dissuade you from trying some DIY on your own, though, if you’re interested in cultivating your green thumb! Caring for a flower garden is a challenge that many homeowners love and take a great deal of pride in. If you’re looking for something to get you and your family outside to connect with nature all spring and summer long, planting flowers is a great way to do it.

Incorporating Nashville Natives in Your Landscaping

The iris is a beautiful flower that can be a great addition to any Nashville lawn, so it’s no wonder that it’s the Tennessee state flower. These native flowers enhance not only the aesthetic appeal of properties but also the overall ecology of the landscape. Native plants attract native insects and birds, which act as pollinators to spread color and keep the land green and healthy.

But irises are far from the only native plant that’s perfect for Nashville landscaping. If you’re looking for a more natural-looking landscape, look no further than the dozens of plants that are native to our area. The benefits of planting native this spring and summer are plentiful. From supporting the ecosystem to conserving water and cutting down on weeds, everyone wins when you landscape with native plants. However, there are things you need to consider when planting native flowers and other plants.

Ensure that the plants you’re looking at won’t cause issues for the trees and grass you already have on your property. Like any plant, some natives can hog space or spread, which might not work for your lawn. Do your research, and do not source native plants from the wild. Transplanting wild plants yourself is not a great idea, as it can damage the ecosystem that you remove them from and bring other plants into your lawn that you may not want. Instead, work with landscapers who source their plants from local nurseries that specialize in Tennessee natives. Beautifying your property while ensuring that your landscaping is going to fit in with the ecosystem is a great way to save money and help plants and animals. While native landscaping isn’t for everyone, it can give you a newfound appreciation for the area’s diverse plant life.

Low-Maintenance Plants for Dry Summers

Native plants are lower-maintenance options for home and business owners because they’re already accustomed to our climate. Since the plants are used to growing in the soil conditions of the area, they call for a lot less watering. This means you don’t need to worry about spending an arm and a leg on watering, even if we get hit with a particularly nasty drought. Likewise, hardy and drought-resistant plants will be fine if you’re out of town on summer vacation. Give yourself one less thing to worry about this summer while keeping your Nashville landscape looking beautiful.

However, there are non-native plants that also work well in Nashville summers, and now is a great time to plant them. If you’re looking to give your landscaping some green despite watering challenges, you can’t go wrong with Appalachian sedge. These stubborn plants will grow with very little water and can put up with some pretty high temperatures. American wisteria is another native, drought-resistant woody vine that can give you vertical color. These vines can grow up to 70 feet on their own without much water to speak of. Not only do these purple flowering vines not need constant watering, but they’re also naturally fairly resistant to pests and other damage. Deer don’t particularly love wisteria either, meaning this might be a good option to plant if you want to keep the color but spare your lawn from dinnertime. Last but not least, another native dry soil champion, the common yarrow, is a beautiful white flower that doesn’t need any attention to deliver beauty. Additionally, yarrow is known for attracting butterflies, which only enhances the overall quality of your lawn. They’re perfect for any lawn that’s difficult to water, and they stay flowering for quite a while.

Embrace the Season’s Blooms on Your Property

No matter what softscapes you’re looking to install this spring, The Parke Company has you covered. If you’re ready to get to work with one of Nashville’s most dependable landscaping companies, give us a call today for a free estimate.

What to Know About Irrigation Startup This Spring

April 9, 2025April 22, 2025 by The Parke Company

Ready to restart your irrigation system after the winter, but aren’t confident doing it yourself? Here are the steps for waking things back up and how irrigation services from The Parke Company can help ensure your sprinkler system is prepared for spring and summer.

First Steps

When spring finally starts, your irrigation system has a chance to start back up, too. Wondering how to start up an irrigation system in spring? You’ve come to the right place! We have tips for best practices and a walkthrough of how to do it yourself if you want.

An irrigation system might seem simple at its core, but it’s made up of many moving parts, and spring startup can be a bit of a chore to tackle on your own. That’s why it’s never a bad idea to consult your local landscaping company if you aren’t confident in the DIY approach. The Parke Company has been installing and maintaining irrigation systems for decades, and we also offer irrigation winterization and startup services if you’re looking for an easier option. But if you’re ready to take on the task yourself, you’re in good hands. While it’s always good to consult the manual (or the steps provided by your irrigation system installer) for the exact steps for your system, below you’ll find a guide for doing it on your own. Take this all with some caution, however, as all systems vary slightly, and your home’s water supply may also be difficult to track down if you’ve never done it before. Usually, it’s as simple as following the pipes in your basement or crawl space toward the sprinkler system on the exterior of your home, but everyone’s setups vary.

A Rough Outline for Irrigation Startup

Before we get any further in the process and turn the water back on, it’s important to do some inspections of the system first. Walk around your lawn and inspect the sprinkler heads, looking for any signs of damage or clogs. If a sprinkler head needs replacing or cleaning, it’s important to do that before running water through your irrigation system. Spring irrigation startup is essentially the reverse of winterization, so if you’ve done that before, this shouldn’t be too difficult.

First, find your vacuum breaker or system backflow. This is generally located on the exterior of your home. It comes up from ground level on your home, and is a collection of pipes that should be easy to spot. There are usually screws or ball valves located on this pipe. Turn those to “closed,” and then close the main water flow before heading inside or into your crawl space and finding the main water supply. This is usually in the basement of your home if you don’t have a crawl space. Now, head back outside and open the water flow into the vacuum breaker. If you’re not sure of the difference between open or closed with a ball valve, it’s simple: if the handle is parallel with the pipe, it’s open. Finally, at the vacuum breaker, you’ll find another ball valve or handle that should be opened. This is the pipe that supplies the irrigation system with water and leads toward the sprinkler system. Once this is open, find your irrigation system’s controller. Turn the controller to manual watering mode. Most systems have this setting, though some may call it simply “Run.” Ensure you select all quadrants or sprinklers if your system has those settings and run them for at least two minutes. Once you have the water running to all of your nozzles, it’s time to inspect everything once again.

Ensuring Proper Function

While the irrigation system is running, visually inspect each sprinkler to make sure that it’s spraying correctly. It shouldn’t be hard to see if things aren’t working right, but be on the lookout for any smaller issues like a single blocked nozzle. This can impede proper water distribution in the summer, so sussing it out now can save you from finding dead spots in your lawn later in the year. After the system has run and the sprinklers have visually cleared your inspection, check the valve boxes in your yard for any leaks. These boxes are usually dug right into the ground and have plastic or metal covers. Depending on the size of your lawn, you may have quite a few, so make sure you are checking each one thoroughly. Look for obvious signs like pooling water or even just some wet soil. It can help to open these valve boxes before running the water and checking them if your soil is particularly dark or already wet from rain; that way, you can spot the difference if a leak does occur. Once you’ve inspected the valve boxes, replace the covers and return to the vacuum breaker. Check for any leaks there. If you don’t see any issues, congrats! You’re all set and ready for the spring. Head back to your sprinkler controls and schedule your first watering.

Maintaining and Upgrading Irrigation Systems

With your irrigation spring startup complete, it’s time to look toward the future. Whether everything worked perfectly or you isolated some problems, it’s important to be proactive with your maintenance and upkeep. The good news is you don’t have to tackle these fixes or upgrades on your own. If you’re stressed about an issue with your sprinkler system or just want to get something a bit more modern to keep up with the dry summer months, The Parke Company is the premier irrigation service near you. While starting up an irrigation system isn’t that difficult to do on your own, it can be a bit time-consuming, especially if any issues are present. Proper winterization can save you from costly damage to your irrigation system, which makes it very important to get that done properly. In the event that you need repairs, we can provide them immediately upon isolating the issue during startup, which saves you time and gets it all done in one day.

Get Sprinkling!

Spring is here, and that means summer will be upon us before we know it. Plan to get your sprinkler system set up as soon as possible. Give us a call at The Parke Company to schedule irrigation system startup and maintenance today.

How to Find Nashville Storm Services for Tree Removal

April 21, 2025April 4, 2025 by The Parke Company

Spring is the season for destructive severe storms to start popping up throughout Nashville and the rest of the region. When you need emergency tree service, tree removal, or help with cleanup after a storm, who do you call?

Speedy Tree Removal

When a tree comes down or is significantly damaged by storm winds, hail, or lightning, you need to act quickly. Sometimes fallen trees or limbs block roads or damage your property, like your home or car. When this happens, it’s likely you’re going to want help right away. Storm damage services in Nashville, like what we offer at The Parke Company, are prepared to match your urgency. We have the specialized equipment and expertise needed to assess the damage and get it cleaned up safely and quickly. Our qualified arborists can review the damage and determine whether damaged trees are salvageable or will need to be removed. Safety is our priority, both for our folks working on the trees and for you, your family, or your employees. Being able to respond quickly is important to us, as it can help ensure that further damage isn’t done to your property. Fallen tree limbs need to be removed as soon as possible, as leaving dead wood on the ground can attract pests or lead to fungal growth.

Why Work With the Experts?

Post-storm tree removal doesn’t need to be a headache. Trying to do it yourself can be a challenge or downright dangerous. Mother Nature doesn’t always knock a tree down neatly. Sometimes trees lean on their neighbors or on your home itself. When removing these high-risk trees, you don’t want to leave anything to chance. The Parke Company is fully insured, meaning our folks have protection, and so does your property. We also have decades of experience and special tools that make it much simpler to remove trees safely and efficiently. Chainsaws and cherry pickers are two very dangerous pieces of machinery, and tree removal pros use them daily, along with other risky equipment.

Let us handle the hard stuff. If you feel even the slightest hesitation about whether you can DIY this storm damage tree removal, don’t chance it. It’s not just about safety, either (though that is of the utmost importance). Tree service equipment isn’t cheap to buy or rent yourself, so you may not be saving money on doing it yourself in the end anyway. Chances are you won’t have everything you need on hand, which means further delays in getting the damaged trees or limbs safely removed from your property. Another benefit of working with professional arborists and tree surgeons is that we handle the cleanup. When you do it on your own, you’re stuck leaving limbs at the curb for collection, which can take a long time and comes with all sorts of complex rules. Skip the heavy lifting and let us handle things for you, including removal. Not only will your property look better without a bunch of wood waiting for removal, but it can also protect your lawn from damage in this critical growth season.

Storm Service FAQs

Here’s a common question we get: does insurance cover tree removal after a storm? This isn’t always an easy question to answer, but here are some general tips for figuring it out. It’s important not to wait for insurance to get your tree damage dealt with. The big thing is this: insurance moves slowly, so you won’t be able to avoid paying upfront for the removal. Homeowner’s insurance policies do sometimes partially cover tree removal if the tree has caused damage to an insured structure on your property, but it really does depend on the company and other circumstances, like the coverage policy, the age of the tree, and more.

Another question we try to have an answer for (but always need a little more information from clients on) relates to the cost of tree removal from storm damage. Prices can vary based on the size of the tree, the complexity of its removal, and other, smaller contributing factors. Other factors include details like the hardness of the tree, whether you want the stump removed, and whether you want the mulch from its removal. The location of the tree and its proximity to other trees or structures on your property can also make it more costly. If we can’t get heavier machinery to the tree, that may mean it’ll take longer to remove. This can drive up the overall cost. Ultimately, it’s hard to say exactly how much a tree will cost to remove. If the tree has fallen entirely, that does make it simpler for us, so any estimates you may have for complete removal may be lower if the wind knocked it down for us.

The question we often field from home and property owners dealing with storm damage is whether they could have prevented it. Hindsight is always 20/20, and you might feel like you missed the signs of at-risk trees on your property before storm season. It’s true that the best defense is a good offense, and preventative tree service is a great tool to use to protect your property. You aren’t a tree expert, so don’t beat yourself up for missing that a tree was dying and therefore more likely to fall under heavy winds. But whether or not you need emergency tree services, you should schedule some tree maintenance to keep storm damage at bay. Arborists can look at your property and perform a tree inventory, which helps everyone get a better idea of the state of your trees. Once we’ve looked at your trees, we can advise on whether some limbs need to be removed, or in some cases, when entire trees require removal. Regular tree maintenance can minimize storm damage, and at the very least, it keeps cleanup to a minimum. Even if you weather a bad wind storm, you’re stuck picking up sticks for a few days or weeks, depending on the number of trees you have. We can help keep that extra work to a minimum by being proactive and resolving your tree issues before storm damage has a chance to exploit them.

Don’t Fear the Storms

We’re in the season for the worst of Nashville’s storms, so it’s important to have some contacts on hand in the event you need emergency tree removal. Call us anytime at The Parke Company, and we’re sure to be out as quickly as we can to handle your tree removal safely and efficiently.

How Important Are Tree Services for the Local Ecosystem?

April 21, 2025March 25, 2025 by The Parke Company

We all know trees are important, but just how much do they do for the local ecosystem, including the people who keep them maintained? Let’s take a look at some of the benefits trees provide to the surrounding plants, animals, and communities.

Trees and Other Plant Life

It’s no secret that trees provide oxygen by breaking down carbon dioxide through their own form of respiration, but did you know that trees can also benefit surrounding vegetation? Many homeowners take a lot of pride in their lawns, but without a few trees around, things could look bad for certain grass types. Popular lawn grasses like centipede grass and zoysia both need some respite from the warm sun, and trees provide that shade. Likewise, many garden plants and flowers benefit from the shade cover that a full and healthy tree canopy can provide.

Tree roots also provide security and stability for the soil on your property, which in turn helps keep grass and plants from being washed away with the topsoil. In order to maintain your trees’ positive impacts on the rest of your property’s greenery, it’s important to schedule regular tree services. Rotting or diseased limbs can fall and spread infection to other plant life on your property. Generally speaking, this happens via fungus or other invasive pests that may move from a dead, fallen limb to some fresher vegetation. That’s why it’s crucial to have deadwood removal conducted regularly, and the best and safest way to do that is with professionals. Arborists are skilled at assessing a tree’s health and properly removing limbs that are dead or at risk of dying from disease. This is crucial for the tree’s health and the health of the rest of your landscaping. Additionally, arborists can perform the important task of tree inventorying, which is a way to record and plan which trees make up your property. They may have suggestions for trees to trim or prune more aggressively to help keep things properly shaded. They can also make recommendations on which types of trees you could add to your landscaping that may benefit the whole ecosystem.

Trees and Animals

The entire local ecosystem can benefit from the shade that trees provide, but animals are especially reliant on trees for a number of things. From protection to nutrition, trees provide animal and insect life with countless perks. And in many cases, the animals provide some level of benefit to the trees in return. Birds rely on trees for nesting, food in the form of fruits and nuts, and protection from winds and storms. Bird species, in turn, catch insects and other pests that may otherwise cause problems for you and your landscape. Squirrels and chipmunks are also very dependent on trees for shelter and food. While anyone with bird feeders or an immaculate lawn may be cursing squirrels most of the time, they do benefit other plants and animals. They act as seed and pollen dispersal for trees and flowers, helping to plant new trees when they forget where they stashed their nuts. Controlling the squirrel population can minimize the negative impact they have on your property, and one of the best ways to do that is with preventative tree service. Removing dead parts of the tree that could provide ample nesting material to squirrels means fewer squirrels on your property and fewer holes in your lawn.

Insects also rely on trees for a respite from the elements during rain or wind. Many insects also eat leaves and lay eggs within trees or on their leaves. With most insects, the amount of damage done by consuming their vegetation is minimal and doesn’t harm the tree. Caterpillars, for example, eat many leaves, but this can benefit the tree in the long term. A healthy tree will regrow any leaves that were eaten and can be pollinated later by the butterfly that the caterpillar becomes. Likewise, the many insects sheltered and sustained by the large trees are less inclined to consume leaves and flowers from smaller plants, protecting them from substantial damage. A few leaves to a tree are nothing compared to the same amount of leaves on a flower. In all, trees provide animals and insects with a variety of important uses, and they help the tree produce fruit via pollination.

Trees and People

Trees and people have a complicated relationship, to say the least. Deforestation and pollution have greatly damaged the tree population of certain areas, but after all of that, trees remain. We rely on them for so much more than fresh air to breathe, but what are the benefits of tree planting to the local community? It may be surprising to learn, but trees, especially suburban and urban trees, can do a lot for each and every one of us. Tree planting is a great community-building tool that gets people out and among their neighbors to work toward a common goal. Studies have shown that neighborhoods with more trees are generally more close-knit than those without. Most of the reasons for this are simple but not something you’d think of right away. Our overall comfort is improved by trees, given their natural ability to provide shade. In fact, trees can lower the temperature of city streets by multiple degrees in the heat of summer. This then lowers energy costs since air conditioners have to work slightly less hard to keep things cool in wooded urban and suburban areas.

Trees also do a great deal of work preventing flooding in urban areas with overburdened storm drain systems. Trees soak up a considerable amount of water, so the more trees and less concrete you have, the less flooding you’ll see. Trees also filter water, removing pollutants that could otherwise spread and kill smaller plants. Trees have a known benefit on property values, especially when they’re well-manicured. That’s why it’s so important to work with a landscaping company you can trust. The Parke Company can help you stay on top of your trees’ health, which benefits the ecosystem, your property’s overall look and feel, and your wallet.

Treat Trees the Right Way

Want to make sure your ecosystem is operating at peak efficiency? Start with the trees and call The Parke Company today for a consultation and estimate on any tree service needs you may have.

Five Landscaping Hacks to Prepare Your Property for Springtime

March 21, 2025March 13, 2025 by The Parke Company

Spring is nearly upon us, and that means that a lot of the plants across Nashville landscapes are waking up. Read on for a few of our best tips for preparing your property for springtime and making the most of your lawn and garden as things start to warm up.

1. Keep the Leaves

No matter how great your leaf pickup game was this fall, odds are some leaves found their way onto your lawn this winter. Unsightly dead leaves might be clinging to the trunks of your trees or stuck to your shrubbery in the garden, or they may have just blown in from other nearby yards. Dead leaves aren’t exactly pretty lawn decor, but you can still use them to help your late winter landscaping. Instead of removing these stragglers altogether, you may want to take advantage of them this spring. Simply rake or blow the leaves into your yard, then hit them with the mower. Mulched leaves are a great fertilizer for a lawn any time of year, and this small amount of leaves will spread throughout the lawn during mowing and give it a helpful boost right when it’s starting to wake back up. If you’ve got a good quantity of leaves and it seems like they’d leave too much behind even when mulched, attach a bagger to your mower and gather most of the leaves. You can use these bagged leaf scraps for composting or collect them for easier bagging and leaf pickup. Most parts of Nashville and the surrounding suburbs have brush pickup scheduled year-round, so you shouldn’t need to wait too long before they’re removed from the curb.

2. Catch the Rain

There are a lot of landscaping hacks out there for homeowners, but not every idea will work for every property. Catching and storing rainwater is one of those things that everybody with a green thumb should consider, but does it work for you? Fortunately, a rain barrel or rain garden is doable for most properties.

Want to set up a rain barrel? If you have rain gutters on your home, you’re already part of the way there. Since every home should have gutters, a rain barrel is not a difficult thing to install. Find a downspout on your gutters and retrofit it to work with a rain barrel. One or two rain barrels can save you hundreds of gallons of water use each year, and they are a great addition to an irrigation system. There are tons of rain barrel kits and DIY guides out there that can make things very simple for you. Check with your town to see if there are any sales on rain barrels, as occasionally Nashville will offer discounted rates subsidized by Metro Water Services.

3. Refresh the Mulch

Mulch is always a big springtime staple at the home improvement store, and it’s no wonder why—homeowners use literal tons of it each year. From the mulch around small trees to full garden beds, you may be in the market for quite a bit each year, and now is a great time to get it all sorted out. Spring landscaping often calls for a lot of mulch, and you’ve got options for how to get it. Consider the locations you’ll need mulch in your lawn and how much you’ve used in the past. Whether you simply need a small refresh to top off existing mulch or a total replacement will greatly influence how much you need to buy. Bulk mulch delivery is often a bit more affordable than buying it by the bag, especially if you need quite a bit. However, moving mulch can be a chore, so it’s important to have a plan in mind for getting the mulch to everywhere it needs to be.

One helpful hack is to use tarps to move large amounts of mulch around your lawn quickly and cleanly. Simply lay a tarp next to your mulch pile and shovel the necessary amount onto the tarp. Then, either alone or with another person to help lighten the load, drag the tarp to the area of your yard that needs the mulch. This method is quicker at moving large quantities than a wheelbarrow, and it can help to make short work of your spring mulching. A tarp isn’t just a good idea for moving mulch; it’s also helpful for storing it. When you’re getting mulch delivered, lay a tarp down before it’s placed. This can help keep your driveway or lawn clean during delivery.

4. Last-Minute Pruning

Pruning is best done in the winter since that’s when your trees and shrubs are able to commit the most energy to healing. Since we aren’t quite at springtime yet, you can still get in some good pruning to make sure your trees are as healthy as possible for the spring bloom. No matter how proactive you are with your pruning in the winter, chances are a windstorm or ice coating has broken some more branches off your trees. Fortunately, it’s not too late to clean your trees up.

Landscaping is all about two things: beautification and plant health. Late winter pruning is a great way to make sure that your trees are healthy and safe come spring. If you aren’t experienced in pruning, it may be wise to hire a landscaper or arborist to help out. Improper pruning, especially so soon before spring, can do more harm than good to a tree.

5. Get Help

If these winter landscaping ideas have done more to stress you out than help, don’t panic. You don’t need to go it alone this winter. The Parke Company has been helping Nashville home and business owners maintain and improve their landscaping for decades. We have the knowledge and equipment for the most complex jobs you can imagine. From leaf removal to full tree removal, we can get your property looking its best this spring, just in time for everything to bloom.

Enjoy Your Healthy Landscape

Ready to prepare your lawn for the fast-approaching spring season? The experts at The Parke Company are on standby, so feel free to drop us a line to help with your landscaping project.