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Who Handles Municipal Services for Nashville’s Trees, Leaves, and Debris?

October 30, 2025January 27, 2025 by The Parke Company

2025 is here, and with a new year comes a new round of brush and leaf pickup for Nashville residents to navigate. Let’s look a bit closer at the whos, whats, and whys of these municipal services that help us keep Nashville looking great.

What Are Municipal Services?

The word municipal itself means “of a city,” so a general definition of municipal services is anything that pertains to a city. In modern cities, this means everything from infrastructure to local government falls under the umbrella of municipal services. Municipal services are the basic necessities and more involved duties that come with properly running and maintaining the area of and around a city. These services are crucial for the city to operate and are paid for with tax money collected from Nashville residents. Transportation and sanitation are major municipal services that you’re undoubtedly familiar with. Police and fire departments are also critical public resources that are considered municipal services.

Who Oversees Municipal Services?

If you’re wondering specifically about who handles municipal services relating to leaf and brush pickup, there are specific departments that are established to handle each aspect of city life. Municipal services like brush pickup and the clearing of trees and leaves from public areas like parks and city properties are managed by Davidson County in Nashville. The city and surrounding suburbs of Nashville are referred to as Metro Nashville’s Urban and General Services Districts. Governmental positions and public works have been established to support the large infrastructure required to mobilize and implement regularly scheduled brush pickup. The Nashville Department of Transportation and Multimodal Infrastructure handles leaf and brush pickup for the city, among other crucial roadway services like road repair and snow removal. Also known as NDOT, the Nashville Department of Transportation and Multimodal Infrastructure is responsible for the safety and mobility of Nashville residents on the city’s roadways and transportation network.

When Do Brush Municipal Services Occur?

The NDOT works each day to ensure the safety of roads and walkways throughout Davidson County in Nashville, but brush pickup for residents is not an everyday thing. In Nashville, brush collection is managed by NDOT to ensure efficient and timely removal. Each section under the Metro’s jurisdiction is serviced four times per year on a rolling schedule. To see when your next brush cleanup is scheduled, you can consult the map linked here or check out the city’s website for a calendar. You’ll enter your address and see a customized schedule for your home’s leaf and brush pickups. Municipal landscape services like brush pickup are very important for residents and the city as a whole. That’s why it’s important to know when to expect pickups in your area, so you can keep your lawn (and, by extension, the whole area) looking and operating at its best. The biggest times for brush and leaf pickup are in the fall and spring when cleanup is most important. But since you can accumulate sticks and leaves, along with other yard debris like grass clippings and dead foliage, there are more pickups throughout the year to ensure things are picked up regularly.

Does Everyone Get Brush Pickup in Nashville?

The short answer is no. There are areas of Nashville and its surrounding suburbs that are considered satellite cities or self-incorporated areas that have their own municipal services. These areas include neighborhoods like Forest Hills, Berry Hill, and Belle Meade. For folks who live in these incorporated cities, your municipality may offer brush and leaf pickup, but it won’t be handled by NDOT. Chances are, these services are provided by commercial landscaping services for municipalities, meaning private companies that are contracted to perform brush pickup in these smaller areas. Landscaping businesses like The Parke Company, who have serviced Nashville for decades, may be hired to handle leaf and brush pickup on a regular basis for area residents who do not fall under NDOT’s jurisdiction.

Municipal Landscaping in Nashville

There are many things that don’t fall to public services, like certain beautification initiatives and other services focused on improving a city’s aesthetics and natural elements. One service that landscaping companies often provide for cities is tree inventorying. This process, performed by a qualified arborist, involves the meticulous mapping and identification of a city’s trees. The canopy of a city can vary greatly from place to place, and its health and makeup can improve the lives of residents if properly maintained. Consider hot summers and how important shade can be on a sunny day. Trees help provide pedestrians with cooler, safer walking and biking temperatures, ensuring that people get to work on time or just enjoy an afternoon stroll. When a city needs to remove old trees or plant new ones, they may contract with private landscaping companies to fill the gaps they may have.

Since many municipal services are focused on upkeep and maintenance, as well as brush cleanup services, they may not have the resources to handle large projects without some outside help. Most municipalities have the costs incorporated in their budgets to hire landscapers to help with public grass maintenance, landscaping installations at public buildings like city halls and courthouses, as well as storm cleanup. Nashville is no stranger to severe weather, and when wind and rain wreak havoc, a quick and concerted cleanup effort is in order. While the city has the resources like trucks, equipment, and manpower to handle general maintenance, they sometimes need to work with landscaping companies to get things done quickly.

Whether it’s a major city or a self-incorporated area like we mentioned before, there are many scenarios where landscaping companies can assist. The Parke Company has been helping towns in the Nashville area for decades on projects both big and small. We’re a company committed to safe, affordable, and friendly landscaping services, from lawn maintenance like leaf pickup to tree removal and stump grinding.

Trust Landscaping to the Pros

If you need landscaping in and around Nashville, look no further than The Parke Company. Give us a call today to learn more about how we support municipalities and how you can benefit from our landscape maintenance services.

Nashville Brush Pickup: Your 2025 Guide

March 21, 2025January 11, 2025 by The Parke Company

Brush pickup is one of those municipal services whose importance is easy to overlook, but it’s a very worthwhile perk of living in Nashville that you should be taking full advantage of. Here’s what to do for brush pickup as a general rule of thumb, in case you need a refresher in this new year.

The Importance of Brush Pickup

Keeping your property free of brush and dead leaves is a great way to boost the curb appeal of your home. Most homeowners also simply like keeping a tidy yard, and that’s reason enough to be grateful for brush pickup services. But cleaning up your yard has a lot more benefits beyond the aesthetic. Our yards are living ecosystems, and dead brush can attract the wrong attention. Fallen tree limbs, dead leaves, sticks, and deadwood can all be an inviting home for pests and fungus to take up residence. Insects like white grubs, armyworms, sod webworms, and chinch bugs are all common Nashville lawn pests. On their own, these bugs can eat grass and leaves, dig beneath the lawn and destroy grass roots, and attract attention from other pests. Animal pests like mice, moles, and chipmunks will flock to the flourishing insect life that’s found in your yard. These animals dig, tunnel, and burrow their way through your grass and under live trees, causing damage to important root structures. With yard debris to hide the activities and growth of these pests and diseases, it might be hard to notice the lawn slowly dying. Grass is not an easy thing to regrow without some extensive and costly work, so it’s best not to ignore it.

Nashville brush pickup can keep your lawn looking its best and ensure its overall health, too. Brush pickup also has environmental benefits. In the past, people tended to burn fallen limbs, branches, and leaves on their own. This smoke could cause sinus irritation and trigger asthma throughout the neighborhood. Ecologically speaking, the amount of carbon and methane emissions that burning brush en masse gave off in previous decades was extensive. Instead, the brush is now recycled into mulch or compost, giving it a second life. This method of using yard waste is preferable to burning it both in terms of personal effort and avoiding large, potentially dangerous fires. Many towns around Nashville have laws regarding what you can and cannot burn, and many seasons are subject to burn bans entirely, meaning you may need to hold onto your brush for months before dealing with it that way. Brush pickup is a great resource to help keep your yard clean year-round.

Brush Pickup Tips

Brush pickup in Nashville is fairly effortless, but you still do need to make sure you’re handling it properly for easy and efficient disposal. It’s important to note that leaf pickup and brush pickup are two different things, but the two happen at the same time. Leaves are to be placed at the curb for pickup in biodegradable paper bags only. Grass clippings can also be bagged independently or within bags of leaves. Ensure that no other waste or trash is in these bags, as it can damage equipment used to mulch the leaves.

While the rules around leaf pickup are pretty straightforward, there can be some confusion around what types of brush and yard debris are picked up. There are best practices for how to place brush at the curb, and there are also guidelines for the size limits of certain items. One important aspect of where to place brush is its proximity to the street. You want to place brush close to the road but not on it. Do not obstruct traffic with limbs or bagged leaves. If you have a pile of wood near the street, ensure that it is stable and not at risk of falling into the road, as this potential road hazard could be your responsibility. You need to also avoid placing brush too far into your yard, as the trucks cannot reach too far from the street. A helpful guideline is to give yourself about six inches of lawn between your brush and the roadway. Similarly, do not let limbs or bagged leaves obstruct the sidewalk or bike lanes. When placing branches and limbs, organize them in an orderly stack so that they can be easily picked up. It might be tempting to place your brush in a median to avoid an unsightly lawn, but this is not allowed. Wood and other lawn debris here will not be picked up and could cause damage to municipal drain systems. Don’t lean or stack wood piles against mailboxes, fences, trees, guardrails, or utility poles, as the machinery used to lift the brush can damage these objects.

Brush pickup rules do place a limit on the length and diameter of limbs that crews will pick up. Limbs cannot exceed a length of 12 feet and need to be limited to a width of four inches. Using a small chainsaw or axe can help you cut up larger limbs into more manageable pieces. Nashville will also pick up tree stumps but requires you to ensure that they are free of dirt and root balls when placed at the curb. As for size, stumps can be up to eight inches in diameter and 12-18 feet in root width. Knowing the Nashville brush pickup schedule is helpful when planning your yardwork or tree work. The city’s website includes multiple maps and calendars that can show you when crews will be in your area performing brush cleanup.

Keep Up With Brush Pickup

If you’re not interested in dealing with brush pickup and clearing your lawn of debris, don’t stress. At The Parke Company, we’ve been performing landscaping services for decades and are ready to assist you in projects both big and small. Whether it’s seasonal maintenance or full tree service, we can help. And don’t worry about leaving tons of wood in your yard for brush pickup. With our full landscaping services, we’ll haul away and mulch anything we can so that your lawn looks excellent all year round.

Brush pickup is a great service, but it can be a bit tricky to nail down all of the rules and best practices, so we hope this helps. If you’re looking for some help with your landscaping in Nashville, from brush and tree removal to everything in between, call us at The Parke Company today.

Are You Aware of These Winter Tree Care Tips?

February 20, 2025December 20, 2024 by The Parke Company

Winter is a time for your trees to enter a dormant state, slowing their growth and storing nutrients as they wait out the cold weather. There’s a lot that you can do to help them and ensure that they survive the winter, leading to better health in the spring and summer.

How to Help Your Trees Thrive During Winter Dormancy

1. Prune in Winter

Winter tree care is very important to the overall lifespan of your tree, and proper pruning can mean the difference between a healthy tree and an ailing one come spring. Late fall and early winter are prime seasons for pruning deciduous trees and bushes because of their dormancy. Since trees aren’t committing their water and nutrition to growing leaves or new branches, they can heal from wounds more quickly. Pruning is proactive and the right thing to do to prevent disease when you see a dying limb or branch, but there are right ways and wrong ways to prune a tree. Improper cuts can actually prevent the tree from properly healing. It’s easy to cut too much or too little from a dead limb, leaving the tree worse off than if you did nothing. Pruning right before a frost can leave the inside of the tree exposed to lower temperatures, meaning that the timing needs to be just right.

Additionally, specialized tools are necessary for removing branches and limbs for the safety of your property (and you!). Pruning is best left to professional arborists for these reasons, and if you’re looking for Nashville tree care, you can count on The Parke Company. We’ve serviced central Tennessee for decades, and our expertise means your trees will be in good hands.

2. Mulch to Protect

Mulching in the fall is a great way to ensure that your plants are protected from freezing temperatures at the root level. A few inches of mulch around the perimeter of a tree trunk or in a garden bed can keep ground temperatures above freezing, which can save the tree from permanent damage. While many trees native to Tennessee are hardy, not all of them can survive in frozen ground for prolonged periods. While we aren’t always getting the coldest winters down here, it’s always possible, and cold weather is certainly in everyone’s memory. Last January saw a three-day dip into freezing temps that had many of us caught off guard by high snowfall and blustery winds. Without mulch during a cold snap like this, the roots of many trees are at risk of damage. While these arctic cold snaps aren’t super common in the South, they can still happen and cause lasting harm to trees. One of the best winter tree care tips is to use the wood from your yearly pruning to produce mulch that you can then use to protect the roots of younger or smaller trees and bushes. This is a service that we offer at The Parke Company, and it’s actually beneficial for us all. We don’t need to haul away your wood, and you get natural mulch to regulate the temperature of your soil.

3. Wrap Trees and Shrubs

Plastic tree guards are a great way to help keep saplings and small trees and bushes safe in the winter. Wraps on tree trunks are great for preventing pest damage from foraging wildlife looking for food when resources are scarce. Since deer, squirrels, mice, and other small mammals can get some nutrition from your trees’ bark, your yard can quickly become a buffet if things get desperate. The damage from grazing animals can be fairly extensive and can kill the tree outright. Even if the nibbles aren’t too much, the wounds they cause can let pests gain access to the tree more easily, causing you more issues in the spring from termites and other insects.

Another benefit of wrapping the trunks of smaller or newer trees is to prevent what’s called sunscald. Sunscald is a type of sun damage that saplings are especially susceptible to. Sunscald can also impact trees with thin bark, like maples and cherries. Essentially, sunscald is the result of a tree warming in the sunlight enough to stimulate growth, then losing the light due to more clouds and less daylight. When this active bark is exposed to the cold, it’s not prepared and can die, leading to the appearance of sunken, dried, and cracked bark and dead spots on the tree. A great tree care method to prevent this is by wrapping the trees’ trunks in white protective plastic. This helps to reflect the light and keep the bark from becoming too warm.

4. Keep Watering

How do you keep trees from dying in the winter? One of the best ways to make sure your trees survive the cold is to ensure they’re properly hydrated. Even in Nashville, where many of our winters are wet, trees can still go through dry spells that can harm them. Since all of a tree’s resources are committed to survival, they still need a good amount of water, and steadily, all winter long. There are a few methods for properly watering during the winter, but the cold weather does make some traditional watering methods difficult. Irrigation systems should be shut down, even with the mild winters we usually experience. This is because even one night of freezing temperatures can cause damage to the pipes when the water in them freezes, leading to costly repairs in the spring. Instead, rely on watering with a soaker hose or using other popular gardening tools, like a tree watering ring. Soaker hose systems are essentially above-ground irrigation systems that constantly move small amounts of water to multiple areas of your garden or landscaping.

Trees don’t need as much water in the winter, so giving them a few hours of slow watering a week should suffice. If a freeze is coming, bring your hose in, or make sure it’s fully drained of water to prevent damage to the nozzles and couplings. If you’re unsure of what a tree watering ring is, don’t worry. These are products that circle the trunk of a tree and are full of absorbent materials that soak up water and slowly dispense it right to the roots of the tree. In addition to providing your trees with a steady water supply, they can also insulate the ground near a tree, protecting the roots from frost.

Don’t Fear the Winter

This winter, ensure your trees are properly cared for and ready for the cold that most certainly will come for at least a short while. If you need help tackling your winter prep lawn care, give the experts at The Parke Company a call today.

Three Ways to Protect Your Landscape From Winter Storms

March 21, 2025December 10, 2024 by The Parke Company

Winter is quickly approaching here in Nashville, which means there’s no time to waste in preparing your landscape for winter. Here are a few ways you can protect your lawn and property from winter storms.

1. Wind Protection

Winter winds aren’t too extreme in Nashville, but we still usually have an event or two where the winds are quite a bit in excess of the average for the season. Winter storms in Nashville can feature huge pressure and temperature changes, which can lead to strong winds. Preparing your landscaping for potential wind damage is important to prevent fallen trees, limbs, and damage to your gardens and hardscapes. Winter storm damage can be destructive and especially hard to deal with if the bad weather prevents cleanup. Fallen limbs can take out power, leaving you in the cold with an extended timeline for restoration due to snow and ice or a high number of power outages. Removing limbs before they can become an issue is the best way to avoid this kind of headache when winter storms do roll through the area. Sometimes, entire trees may need to be removed if they haven’t been maintained or have died. The best way to keep this from happening is to have regular tree inspections and maintenance performed by qualified arborists. Disease, rot, and malnutrition can all quickly create a problem for a tree, but it’s not always something you can easily deduce. With the help of a landscaping company like The Parke Company, your trees’ health won’t be a mystery.

There are many ways to make a tree more resistant to heavy winds, but the best bet is to remove any dead or dying limbs quickly and proactively. This keeps the issue from spreading, whether it’s a fungal disease or a pest problem. Early winter is actually a great time to prune trees and remove limbs that may fall. Because trees are in their dormant phase and aren’t using nutrients to grow and maintain their leaves, they can focus on healing the wounds from pruning. Pruning is a dangerous and difficult task for the average person, making it something best left to a trained arborist. There are DIY winter storm preparations you can tackle, but this isn’t one of them.

2. Prevent Cold Damage

The cold can be especially destructive to our yards, trees, and other parts of our landscaping. While Nashville doesn’t always get very cold in the winter, we have a recent example where things got cold and stayed below freezing for days. Back in January of 2024, we experienced a cold snap with heavy snow for the region, making it important to prepare your lawn for a freeze. A lot of the native trees and grasses here in Nashville are fairly hardy against cold weather, but that doesn’t mean they’ll all make it if things get really cold.

How do you protect your landscaping from freezing? Mulching garden beds and around younger trees is a great way to keep the soil temperature higher than the air temperature, preventing damage to developing root systems. Most people mulch in the spring, but adding a protective layer of mulch to your landscaping as winter approaches in the fall is a great way to bolster those defenses. If you’re already using tree services focused on removing problem limbs or trees, you can opt to turn that removed wood into mulch for your property. This is an eco-friendly way to recycle the trees and keep the lawn safe from dangerously low temperatures.

Another great way to protect your garden plants and shrubbery from frost damage is to wrap them in burlap or other frost blankets. These fabric coverings can be applied in the fall to keep plants safe from extreme cold and even make them hardier against heavy winds or snow. It’s best to have these wraps or covers applied by landscapers because, without proper experience, you can install them incorrectly. This can lead to the plants freezing, regardless of the quality of materials you’re using.

If you have an irrigation system for your lawn, it’s critical to properly winterize it to prevent costly damage. Winterizing irrigation systems is not nearly as hard as it sounds, but it’s always a good idea to let your landscaping company handle the process to ensure it’s done right. Shutting off the water supply to the system is the first step, and then ensuring that all the standing water is drained from the pipes is the next phase of winterization. When water freezes, it expands. This can crack or damage irrigation pipes and sprinkler systems, meaning they need to be replaced before they can work again in the spring. Repairs to irrigation systems are more expensive than maintenance, and they can also leave you with a patchy lawn after pipes and sprinklers are dug up and replaced or repaired. Avoid unsightly issues from broken irrigation systems, and winterize your sprinklers this fall. It’s not too late to do it now if you haven’t gotten around to it, but there isn’t much time before a frost is possible!

3. Guard Against Snow, Rain, and Sleet

Snow, sleet, and freezing rain fall during most winters in Nashville. While harsh winter weather isn’t a sure thing and might not be super common this far south, it never hurts to be ready for it. Storm services like tree removal and cleanup can be expensive, so it’s best to prepare and prevent the problem. Snow and ice accumulate on limbs, putting them under tremendous pressure. Fortunately, native trees are fairly strong against the levels of ice and snow we typically get in Nashville. But if those trees are damaged or unhealthy, wet snow or an eighth of an inch of freezing rain can quickly lead to dozens of fallen limbs or worse.

Keep Your Landscape Safe This Holiday Season

If you want to prevent property damage and costly emergency storm services, be proactive and have your trees pruned in preparation for winter this year. Give us a call at The Parke Company to learn more about the winterization services we offer and to schedule a consultation today.

Best Pine Trees for the Holidays

March 21, 2025November 22, 2024 by The Parke Company

Are you Christmas tree shopping or looking for the perfect pine for your lawn for long-term festive decor opportunities? Here are some of the best pine trees and how to pick them so you can enjoy the holiday season knowing you found the perfect tree.

What Makes a Tree a Christmas Tree?

Gathering as a family around the Christmas tree is a tradition for millions of Americans, and for good reason. The Christmas pine tree has been a symbol for decades in the United States, Europe, and across the world, making it perhaps the most recognizable holiday decoration. There are a few species of pine that work for indoor and outdoor Christmas trees, so let’s review which ones are most well-equipped for Nashville this Christmas.

As for which pine tree is best for Christmas, the Fraser fir is perhaps the most popular type for use as an in-home Christmas tree. Fraser firs grow naturally in eastern Tennessee in the Appalachians, making this local a hit across the nation. These trees are hardy and durable, making them easy to transport across the country and creating an industry of harvesting and shipping Christmas trees right here in the southeast. The Fraser fir is known for holding onto its needles for quite some time—a feature that is important to homeowners, considering needle drops can get messy quickly. The Fraser fir is an endangered tree species, but thanks to its popularity as a Christmas tree, it’s not going anywhere. The tree takes about ten years to reach the proper height for a Christmas tree (about six or seven feet), and it is grown across the globe to meet the needs of Christmas celebrants everywhere.

Another native southern pine, the eastern red cedar is notable for its natural Christmas tree shape. Other types of trees cultivated for use as a Christmas tree need to be groomed to maintain the conical shape, but the eastern red cedar is easy. This makes it a popular choice for Christmas tree farms that offer a “cut your own tree” option.

The Virginia pine is a popular option for Christmas, and it is especially notable for its ability to grow in warmer climates. This tree has a broad range from Pennsylvania to Mississippi, and it is very dense and stout when compared to other types of pine trees. Along with the Fraser fir, the Virginia pine is often credited for starting the massive Christmas tree farm industry here in the southeast, making it a local icon.

Maintaining Your Christmas Tree

Once you’ve got your Christmas tree inside, you need to make sure that it’s properly cared for. Many trees come with some basic instructions for care, but if you’re new to this or have noticed your trees losing their needles early in previous years, you may want some extra help. So what are the best ways to maintain your Christmas tree for a long and colorful holiday season?

The best way to preserve your tree and extend its time without needle loss is to keep it in the traditional water reservoir. Stands that provide ample water are a must. A good rule of thumb is to have one quart of water for every inch of diameter your tree’s trunk has. Monitoring and refilling your Christmas tree’s water reservoir regularly will make sure it lasts all season. When first putting your tree in the stand, it’s recommended to cut about half an inch off the bottom of the trunk in a straight line. This helps the tree absorb water and should give you even more time before the needles drop. Getting your tree in water quickly is important, so if you don’t plan to set it up right away, store it in a cool place with water immediately.

Keep Christmas trees away from heat sources like fireplaces and heat vents, as the higher temperatures can dry the tree out quicker, leading to needle loss. Christmas trees can be fire hazards if improperly lit or kept too long. As the tree dries out, it becomes more and more of a fire risk. Make sure that the lights you are using are modern LED lights to help mitigate fire risk. While many people hold onto their Christmas tree lights for generations, these older bulbs and wires are at a higher risk of starting a fire. Finally, when the Christmas season comes to a close, what do you do with your tree? There are many Christmas tree recycling programs that make use of the trees, either for their wood or as a decoration. Some zoos take donations of old Christmas trees as enrichment decorations for animal enclosures. Other programs mulch the pine trees to create mulch for public parks and walking paths, giving your tree one more job after the holidays come to a close.

Want Christmas Trees Year-Round?

For those wondering what pine tree qualifies as a Christmas tree, we like to think that when it’s decorated, any pine can be a Christmas tree. Pine trees make a great addition to your home’s landscaping, providing that touch of green to your lawn year-round. When Christmas comes around, lighting your pine tree can help give your home that extra Christmas spirit. Popular outdoor pine options for homes vary, depending on what size you’re looking for. Most pine trees we use for Christmas trees are not nearly fully grown, meaning that if you transplant one at your home, it’ll eventually grow larger. The Fraser fir, for instance, can grow anywhere from 30 to 50 feet tall if left to naturally develop. Lighting a six-foot-tall Christmas tree in your own home is a simple task, but taking on the lighting of a larger tree is a tougher proposition. If you want your outdoor pines lit this Christmas, it’s best to rely on experts to safely light them. The Parke Company has been helping Nashville residents decorate for years, and our services include tree lighting. With our knowledge and equipment, we can safely decorate your trees, no matter how large they are.

Embrace the Holiday Spirit

This holiday season, you want to pick a Christmas tree for your home that’s going to last, so ask the experts. From tree lighting to transplants for your landscaping that will last for decades, trust the professionals at The Parke Company.