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Late-Summer Planting Guide: What to Add to Your Nashville Landscape Now for Fall Beauty

September 4, 2025August 7, 2025 by The Parke Company

As summer starts winding down and the weather starts to cool, it’s time for another round of new landscaping additions for your green thumb to work with this fall. Here are some colorful flowers you can plant now to enhance the fall beauty of your Nashville landscaping this autumn, and some tips for making the most of your efforts.

Preparing For Fall

One of the best ways to ensure you get the most from your garden this fall is to have it cleaned up and ready before it’s too late. Toward the end of August and into September, you may notice some of your summer blooms aren’t faring that well. This is natural. Before you can get to planting anything new, you can give your garden bed a refresh by pruning your flowers or removing dying annuals like sunflowers or petunias. It’s also a good time to cut back on perennials that are going into rest mode as the summer comes to a close. You don’t need to remove them completely, but taking off deadheads and even cutting the flower back safely with pruning scissors can help clear the way.

Rather than throwing these plants away, incorporate them into your compost and use the fertilizer later on. Landscaping in Nashville is a constant fight with the extreme variations in moisture we see depending on the season, so it’s important to make sure your garden bed manages water well. Use the cooling weather as an opportunity to work on your garden, refreshing mulch and removing weeds so that you can start planting all over again.

Now that you’re well prepared for late summer planting, it’s time to explore your best options.

Autumnal Floral Ideas for Late Summer Planting

There are many ways to give your garden a pop of color in the early fall, but you need to start preparing right now. Late summer in Nashville is still quite hot, but we tend to see a bit more precipitation in August and September, making it prime time for adding new flowers to the garden. Whether you’re new to the area or you’ve been here for decades, you may be wondering the same thing: what exactly is there to plant in late summer?

Some flowers aren’t well-suited to fall weather, just like others aren’t exactly hardy in the dry heat of summer. Many annuals work well in the summer or fall, however, so let’s review what you can plant right now to ensure your garden looks good even as temperatures cool.

Rudbeckia Black-Eyed Susans

These flowers, related to the sunflower, are probably already familiar even to a novice gardener. Known for their large and vibrant, yellow-orange petals and dark centers, the black-eyed Susan can be planted throughout the spring and summer, but they only bloom for a limited period. If your garden already has black-eyed Susans in it (they’re especially good in the heat but can survive cooler weather just as well), you may be able to use the seeds from the previous flowers to have another round grow in the fall. They can bloom in late August and into September here in Nashville, and prefer direct light. Black-eyed Susans also don’t need a ton of water or maintenance to give off fall colors for several weeks, making them a great pick for folks without a ton of free time for taking care of their garden.

Lantana

Lantana is another flower that’s well-suited for your Nashville landscape in late summer and into the fall. Lantanas are beautiful, small flowers that love sunlight and thrive in direct light with well-draining soil. Lantanas come in many colors, ranging from white to bright pink, and everything in between. They’re an excellent addition to any landscape in need of some color and variety, which can be hard to come by with the arrival of fall weather. These flowers need a lot of water when they’re first planted, so take advantage of late-August rainstorms to give them a free boost.

Zinnia

Zinnias, much like black-eyed Susans, can be planted from spring into late summer. In many cases, zinnias are only knocked out by the first frost, which may not come for several months if we’re lucky. While most folks suggest late July as the latest time for planting a zinnia, with the proper maintenance and watering, they can thrive in your garden even if you plant them in August. Landscaping in Nashville can be quite strange, that way. You can get away with a lot of unorthodox planting by taking full advantage of our protracted summers and fall rain showers. Zinnias grow tall and can produce some expressive color for your garden when other plants are starting to shrink away.

Chrysanthemum

The chrysanthemum (or “mum” for short) can be planted in the spring for summer color, or in the late summer to flourish all fall. Well-maintained mums planted in the spring can last all the way through the fall, but they can be planted now in a pinch. Also known as the mum, chrysanthemum flowers come in many colors and are especially hardy. They can withstand high temperatures and some considerably cooler weather, making them great for the fall. Nashville temperatures can always fluctuate pretty wildly, but the mum doesn’t mind at all. Mums need plenty of water, but they’re well worth the effort!

Pansies

Pansies are a flower that you can plant as late as mid-fall, making them one of the best failsafes for fall and even winter color here in Nashville. Pansies have a broad spectrum of color, making them a great way to diversify your landscaping in the autumn. Pansies can be difficult to plant from seed, so you may have better luck buying established flowers from local nurseries or having them installed by a landscaping company. They need well-drained soil and frequent watering, but produce eye-popping results when well-cared for.

Color Your Landscape With The Parke Company

Every landscape benefits from pops of seasonal color. The late summer and fall are also great times to plant spring-blooming bulbs, giving you a head start on next year with months to spare. No matter what you’re looking to do with your landscaping this summer, The Parke Company is on standby to handle your planting, maintenance, and installations. Leave a message on our website for a free consultation and estimate so you can keep your landscaping looking colorful year-round.

The Importance of Mulching in Mid-To-Late Summer for Nashville Yards

July 29, 2025July 24, 2025 by The Parke Company

A colorful garden scene with plants, tools, and a cozy home backdrop.

Mulching is an important part of maintaining and improving your property’s landscaping, but is there a bad time to do it? Adding mulch or laying new mulch during any season isn’t a bad idea, but should you mulch at the end of summer? Read on to learn more.

The Benefits of Mulching Anytime

Mulch is a vital tool for landscapers. Whether you have a green thumb or are a professional lawn care provider like The Parke Company, mulch is something you’re going to need to become proficient in. Mulch can do a lot for lawns and gardens, as well as trees. One of the most important things that mulch does is protect the soil. Topsoil is a precious commodity in any lawn and garden because it helps protect root systems. Along roadways and other areas where traffic or pollution can occur, topsoil can help filter contaminants from rainwater, preventing them from reaching the roots. Without topsoil, many plants could be washed away, and trees might suffer from root die-off.

But what does mulch do to help topsoil? Mulch can be very absorbent, meaning it can soak up heavy rains and distribute water more slowly to the plants around it. Mulch also creates a natural barrier to protect the soil beneath it from heavy torrential rains, hail, and run-off from homes or other structures that may damage topsoil.

So if we’re in the midst of a streak of heavy rainstorms, can you mulch in the summer to help protect your garden beds? The answer is yes. There’s no bad time to mulch, so if you notice your mulch needs some replenishing, even this late in the summer, go right ahead and stock up. While most recommend mulching in the fall and spring to prepare gardens for seasonal change, there’s no single right answer for when to mulch.

Mulch is also an essential component for trees and garden plants during the winter months. A few inches of mulch around a tree during a cold snap in the fall or winter can prevent soil temperatures from reaching a critically low level, thus saving your tree or plant from root damage. If you’re outside already, enjoying the summer sun and hanging out by the pool or maintaining your flower garden, there’s no reason not to mulch in the summer. Since the late summer is generally pretty hot here in Nashville, it’s not everyone’s favorite time to work outside for too many hours. But there’s no reason it can’t be done.

Mulch is also important when trying to keep weeds at bay. Mulch can stop the weed seeds from germinating, keeping them in the dark. If stubborn weeds do crop up in spite of your mulching, they won’t have roots that are as deep because of the mulch’s intervention. This makes the act of weeding easier on your hands and a far less time-consuming task.

New Mulch in Nashville During the Summer

What about if you’re looking to install a new garden bed during the late summer months? If you’ve heard warnings against undertaking new projects in the summertime, let us give you some peace of mind. Installing a new mulched garden in the summer isn’t going to cause you any major problems. Are there better seasons for installing mulch to prevent weeds in garden beds? Of course! But that doesn’t mean it can’t be done. The main reason that people don’t often add new mulched gardens in the summer is because that’s when weeds are running rampant. During this time, it can be difficult to ensure that weeds aren’t already taking root beneath the new mulch. One way to help ensure that mulch does its job despite stubborn weeds is to rake and till the topsoil where you’re going to add mulch. This helps kill any weeds that may be developing, as most don’t have deep roots when they’re not visible above ground. When you mulch properly, you don’t need to worry about excessive weeds in a garden bed. This is especially true if you already practice proper weed and pest management on your property.

If you’re ready to mulch now, we are too. Mulch is most effective when laid properly, so it’s important to leave this work to experienced landscapers. This helps ensure that any of the risks associated with mulching in the late summer don’t crop up later in the year.

Risks of Mulching in Mid-To-Late Summer

Many of the dangers associated with mulching in Nashville during the summer don’t really depend on the season. Over-mulching is the real problem, and it doesn’t matter when you do it; it will cause trouble. Too much mulch, especially in the late summer when the rain tends to pick up, can encourage too much moisture retention. Thick beds of mulch can absorb high amounts of water, which can lead to mold and fungal growth. Besides being unsightly, mold and fungi, like mushrooms, can damage plants by taking over their territory. Mold is also a good indicator of a worse issue: your roots might be drowning. If there’s a lot of moisture above ground in the mulch, that means the soil is also heavily saturated. Roots can’t absorb all the water that heavy mulching can lead to, and this means roots are in danger of dying. This will quite quickly harm smaller plants and shrubs and can weaken trees to the point of disease as well. Moist mulch can also have the opposite effect that it has during the winter, and the temperature of the soil in the hot sun can rise to dangerous levels for your garden plants. So if you lay mulch on too thick, you may be doing a lot more harm than good for your landscaping.

Get Help Mulching the Right Way

There’s no wrong season to mulch, but there are things that can certainly go wrong if you’re mulching incorrectly in the middle or end of summer. Dispense with the guesswork when it comes to mulching this summer and call the pros at The Parke Company for a free consultation and estimate for your mulching needs.

Summer Irrigation Tips: How to Conserve Water While Keeping Your Lawn Lush

July 29, 2025July 8, 2025 by The Parke Company

A sprinkler showering a vibrant green lawn.

The summer months are upon us, and with that comes extreme heat and potential drought in Nashville. Here are a few tips for conserving water during these dry, hot months while maintaining your lawn’s vibrance.

1. Store Water

One of the best ways to conserve water while ensuring your landscaping stays hydrated during a dry spell is to catch rainwater. Early spring and summer can be quite wet, but that much-needed hydration doesn’t always extend into the late summer and early fall. We’re no strangers to droughts in and around Nashville, so what can you do to take advantage of rain in the wet season?

Catching and storing rainwater can save you money on your water bills and help conserve water when everyone (plant life included) needs it most. Attaching rainwater collection systems to your home can help you collect and store valuable rainwater year-round, allowing you to use it to irrigate your lawn.

There are many ways to collect and store rainwater, with a method available for nearly every budget and type of home. Most systems use a home’s gutters to collect water into one or more storage barrels. These barrels can hold water for weeks or months, depending on how well insulated they are, and they can be collected from when the need for water arises. From whole-home collection systems to DIY rain barrels set up under your downspouts, the only limit is the amount of time and money you’re willing to invest in rain catchment. For most homeowners, the systems pay for themselves in saved water within the first year, as even the more expensive systems aren’t too costly. Since rain catchment is relatively low-tech, you don’t need a lot of bells and whistles to efficiently gather and store water for your irrigation system. You can supplement your summer irrigation with rain barrels and other forms of rain catchment, but chances are you’ll still need a full lawn irrigation system.

2. Tune Up Your Irrigation System

One way to maximize the benefits of your irrigation system is to ensure it’s functioning properly. A single, persistent leak may not stop your lawn from being irrigated, but it could waste gallons of water all summer long. When the ground is particularly dry, small leaks may not be noticeable before they’re absorbed deeper into the soil. Yearly irrigation inspections and tune-ups help ensure that you’re getting the most from your sprinklers.

The springtime is the best season to have your irrigation system pipes and sprinkler heads looked over for damage, but it’s not too late if you’re considering doing it in the summer! To conserve water with your irrigation system, make sure it’s functioning properly. Proactive sprinkler replacement is relatively affordable, but if your system springs a major leak, it may cost a lot more to fix in a pinch. Don’t let it come to that; opt for yearly Nashville irrigation services with The Parke Company.

3. Water at the Right Time

Knowing the right time of day to water and how regularly to run your irrigation system will ensure you save money and time this summer. So, what is the best time for irrigation in summer? It’s generally accepted that it’s best to water your lawn well before the temperature is going to reach its peak. Following that wisdom, the best time to water is in the very early morning. How early is too early? There’s no real wrong answer there. Between 4 a.m. and 10 a.m. works best, but when the weather is especially hot, it’s best to go earlier rather than later. The primary reason for watering so early in the morning is to avoid evaporation. When you water early, when the sun is either completely down or just rising, the water has enough time to properly soak into the soil. Watering during daylight hours means you’re losing a certain percentage of water to the air before it has a chance to help your lawn at all. Evaporation can happen quickly in the summer (it’s what makes summer so humid here), so don’t underestimate the water savings that a proper irrigation schedule can provide.

Watering in the evening is not great for plants because it can allow the moisture to sit too long in the soil, leading to fungal growth. Maybe you’ve noticed that after a particularly wet week, mushrooms crop up in the garden. This can happen with irrigation systems, even during a drought. Timing is everything, but fortunately, there’s a wealth of wisdom available on when to water in every specific region, taking into account the current weather trends. Don’t want to do all the research yourself? Work with a landscaping company to help determine your watering schedule, and have us do the programming and planning for you. You might think that a drought instantly calls for more water than when the climate is more normal, but that’s not always the case. Many plants, especially those found in Nashville, are naturally drought-resistant. Giving them too much water, even when it’s drying up at record rates, may be detrimental to their health.

4. Prepare Garden Beds and Other Plants

It’s not just your lawn that needs water during a drought. Every plant in your landscaping will struggle to remain hydrated in the summer heat. That competition can deprive your grass (which has shallower roots) of the moisture it needs. One way to keep your grass healthy is to maintain the water levels of the surrounding trees and garden beds on your property. Mulch is an excellent insulator, which can protect the ground around flowers and trees from rapid drying under the sun’s intense rays. Mulch helps with water conservation by keeping moisture where it needs to be, and can act as a short-term storage for water, as wood and other natural mulch materials absorb water.

Since mulch keeps roots cooler, they need less water to properly support a plant’s growth and nutrition. Mulch also protects roots year-round, so when we do get some torrential rain, the healthy soil doesn’t wash away when a lot of water falls quickly on the garden. Exposed tree roots can dehydrate under even mild summer heat, which can greatly weaken a tree’s foundation and negatively affect its health.

Go Into the Dry Season With Confidence

Want to ensure that your home or business’s irrigation system is ready for summer, no matter how hot it gets? Give us a call at The Parke Company for a consultation and full inspection of your sprinkler system today.

Which Plants Thrive in the Summer Sun?

June 24, 2025June 20, 2025 by The Parke Company

A lush garden with a pathway leading a shed, flowers, and bathed in sunlight.

The summer heat can be brutal in Nashville, and not just for us humans. Our lawns and landscaping can suffer in high heat and drought conditions, but they don’t have to. Here are some plants you can incorporate into your landscaping that will thrive in the summer sun.

Heat-Tolerant Flowers

Want to enhance your landscaping with pops of color but worry about keeping your flowers cared for in the dog days of summer? What plants can take full summer sun? Many flowers are capable of holding up despite the highest heat. Fortunately for anyone with a green thumb, there are tons of flowers that can grow just fine in hot, dry climates like Nashville. Some plants have adapted to high heat and low moisture conditions through environmental changes over the course of generations, while others have been cultivated by botanists to withstand warmer climates. Take the summer snapdragon, for example. Snapdragons are notoriously hard to grow in hot areas, but the hardier cultivar, the summer snapdragon, does just fine. These flowers grow tall or trailing (which means they spread out horizontally on the ground or dangle from hanging pots), with blossoms that can be blue, red, pink, white, or lavender. While they do need regular watering and a boost in the form of liquid fertilizer from time to time, they are very good at growing in full sunlight. They also attract butterflies and aren’t particularly tasty to deer, making them a great option for watching wildlife without worrying about them ruining your hard work.

If you want to plant flowers in summer, you’ve probably heard that lavender is a great bet. This is because lavender is native to the Mediterranean, making it especially resistant to the heat of the summer sun. Lavender provides beautiful color to any landscape and spreads well across garden beds. Lavender is also renowned for its pleasant fragrance, which makes it particularly nice to walk among on a lazy summer evening. As for watering, these perennial plants only need to be hydrated every few weeks unless drought conditions are extreme. In this case, you may need to bump up the watering to a weekly schedule until things get back to normal.

Another great floral candidate for your Nashville landscape this summer is the purple coneflower. These flowers grow quite tall, and their purple blossoms feature large, seed-covered cones. They attract a great deal of pollinators, such as butterflies and finches, which feed on the seeds as they ripen. They grow well in most soil types and need regular (but not frequent) watering, making them one of the best plants to plant in summer.

Drought-Resistant Ground Cover

Ground cover is ideal for garden beds that need to be filled in and can provide a verdant, green hue to every inch of your landscaping. Ground cover and shrubs are known for their hardiness, and if you’re in Nashville, this is what to plant in the summer. Hostas are great for garden beds because, while they do spread, the spread is slow. This helps keep them in their designated areas of a garden bed with minimal pruning, making them easily managed throughout the season. Hostas are most notable for their large heart- or oval-shaped leaves that are usually deep green, but they do flower in the late spring in Nashville. These flowers attract pollinators like most flowers do, but the leaves are attractive to deer. They grow well in partial shade but can stand up to some pretty dry conditions, provided they’re watered regularly.

Looking for something a bit different from the other ground covers you see around Nashville gardens? Try mondo grass. These blanketing plants spread well, stay green all year round, and can tolerate full sun or some shade. The grass-like foliage grows about eight inches tall if not trimmed (it can be mowed like grass, just once a year in the late winter) and even sprouts some beautiful blue berries in the fall. Overall, mondo grass is a very drought-resistant ground cover plant that can spread in problem areas of your garden even in the hottest days of summer.

Sun-Resistant Shrubbery

Shrubbery is an excellent way to give your landscaping a flowing feeling, which also guides the eye along paths or can serve to hide things. Shrubs are versatile aspects of any green space, and they can provide a great deal of protection to the soil in a garden via their roots. This makes them helpful in areas with drainage concerns, and they can be planted alongside smaller, more delicate plants like flowers to give them protection from the elements. But not every type of shrub is ready to put up with Nashville’s harsh summer sun. If you’re looking for some shrubbery to diversify your landscaping but need to ensure you’re choosing drought-resistant plants, we have some picks for you.

One great option for heat-tolerant shrubbery is boxwoods. There are many types of boxwood shrubs that can be planted as decorative elements and borders for your gardens, so make sure you’re getting a cultivar that can withstand dry, hot summer days. Boxwood shrubs can be shaped quite easily to suit whatever style you need and can be pruned even in the summer. These shrubs grow dense and stay green, even when drought conditions are extreme.

Another colorful summer shrub to consider for your Nashville landscaping is the camellia. These hardy, thick shrubs can grow over 10 feet tall and produce flowers in the fall. They require very little care in terms of watering, making them a great drought-proof option for home and business owners looking for privacy shrubs. They do need some protection from sunlight, so they grow best in partially shaded areas. They are evergreen, meaning they’ll give your landscaping a pop of color all year long.

Don’t Let the Heat Foil Your Garden

Overall, there are several landscaping options available for individuals concerned about Nashville’s hot summers. If you’re looking for help with your lawn and garden this summer, from planting and installation all the way to weekly maintenance, look no further than the experts at The Parke Company.

Landscape Maintenance: Four Tips for Summer Weeding in Nashville

July 29, 2025June 6, 2025 by The Parke Company

Closeup image of yellow dandelions in a patch of green grass.

Weeds are just plants, but they can be unsightly and harmful to the health of your landscaping, and they can torment you all summer if you’re not careful. Here are four tips for staying ahead of these pesky plants in your lawn and garden all summer long.

1. Identify Your Problems

One of the biggest mistakes a homeowner can make when tending their yard or garden is not targeting their specific issues. Landscape maintenance requires some serious dedication, and that means learning what you’re up against. Every region of the world has different weeds, and every type of lawn or garden can be particularly susceptible to a different variety. If you don’t know what specific weeds are a threat to your landscaping, you won’t be armed with the right tools to fight them effectively. Crabgrass is a particularly troublesome weed for Nashville homeowners, and it’s one that can easily infiltrate a lawn without you noticing. Crabgrass looks a lot like other grasses, but it spreads quickly and chokes out the healthy grass or plants you’re trying to grow. Crabgrass germinates in the early spring, so if you notice it now, that means it can be pretty widespread. The easiest way to spot crabgrass is to look for spots in the lawn that are growing taller than the rest. Crabgrass leaves grow tall if left alone, and they tend to hog water as they do it.

Another common Nashville weed is the dandelion. These are pretty self-explanatory. Everyone knows to look for the telltale yellow flower or the wispy, puffy seedlings when it’s about to spread across the lawn. If you know your lawn or surrounding lawns have dandelions, prepare for them before spring gets too far along. For removal after they crop up, you can use certain kinds of pesticides, which we’ll explore a bit later.

Knowledge really is power, and in the case of weeds, it can save you some real labor in the summer if you prepare in the spring. Learning whether the weeds you’re going to encounter are perennial, annual, or biennial drastically changes how you can approach weed treatment. Do you prepare by spraying pesticides, or will it suffice to simply cut a weed down or dig it up at the roots? It all depends on the identity of your lawn’s troublesome invaders, so make sure you know what you’re up against.

2. Keep Your Lawn Healthy

Many weeds are harmful to the health of grasses and other plants in the landscape. One weeding tip that’s often overlooked in the prevention of weeds is to maintain your grass properly. Unhealthy grass will attract weeds and can even help promote their growth, so it’s important that you maintain your lawn properly year-round, but especially in the summer. Homeowners who want to save time may cut corners and mow their lawns shorter to lengthen the time between mowings. This is a big mistake. Short grass is especially attractive for weeds, and cutting your lawn too short can bring tons of weeds and kill your grass. Instead, keep your grass near the top of its recommended height. Not only does this give your lawn a more lush appearance, but it also shades the soil, preventing weeds from germinating.

Another way homeowners may mistakenly invite weeds into their landscaping is by improperly watering. It’s very important to keep your lawn and garden beds properly hydrated in the summer, but doing too much can actually cause weeds and other harmful growth to occur. Watering a lawn deeply but not too much is key. This helps get the water to the deeper root systems. Strong, healthy roots mean that your grass is less likely to die if weeds do crop up. One of the factors that enables weeds to spread rapidly is that their roots are typically shallow. If they are too prevalent in an area, they’ll soak up all the water before your grass roots can get any hydration.

3. Stay on Top of Weeds

Much of what we’ve discussed so far focuses on preventing weeds, but there are many scenarios where you may not be prepared. Whether you’ve just decided to tackle yard care on your own, you just purchased a new home, or you’re just entirely new to the concept, there are plenty of reasons why you may have a serious weed problem already developing in your lawn this summer. So, how do you remove grass weeds? You’ve already tackled the biggest hurdle when it comes to weeding your lawn: you’re ready to act. There are a few ways to remove weeds, but the biggest thing is not to procrastinate on lawn care. If you notice a weed, remove it. Spend some time each day in your lawn or garden inspecting for weeds or plants you cannot identify.

Not every threat to a lawn is necessarily a weed; some non-native or native plants that grow in the wild can cause issues for a lawn or garden. Use online resources to identify risky plants or weeds, and learn the specific ways to treat them. Sometimes, simply pulling a weed up by its roots or cutting it down to the dirt is enough to stop it. Other times, you may need to intervene with pesticides.

4. Use Your Tools Wisely

While time is of the essence, you can cause more problems if you’re too hasty to treat all the weeds in your lawn at once. Some pesticides are designed for use during specific seasons or only on certain types of weeds. Others can be completely harmless against the weed and actively damage the grass or plants in your garden. Always do your research on the pesticides you’re using, from the chemicals they include to the conditions for applying them. Wear proper protective equipment against pesticides, and opt for natural pesticides when possible. Keeping up with pruning should help you ensure you don’t need the heavy-duty stuff, because there are some people who shouldn’t use pesticides. Some may cause issues for pets or people in the home if they’re particularly sensitive, and other people may just prefer a more natural approach.

Don’t Let Weeds Take Over Your Lawn

No matter what your idea of a healthy lawn looks like, you’re sometimes going to need professional help to ensure things look their best. Give us a call at The Parke Company today for a free consultation and estimate on our landscape and lawn maintenance plans, so you can stay weed-free all summer long.