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U.S. News & World Report ranked Nashville, Tennessee as the 11th best place to live in the United States. Having deep roots in Nashville and the surrounding area, The Parke Company fully understands and supports this finding (in fact, we think that we could give the number one place, Austin, Texas, a run for its money). However, along with the historic music scene, extensive culture, winning sports teams, booming job market, and the country’s best barbecue, life in Nashville can also mean extreme weather. Hail, snow, thunderstorms, extreme heat, sustained high winds, and even tornadoes sometimes spring up without warning and have historically dealt serious damage to the area.

These freak storms not only wreak havoc on transportation, agriculture, and your Saturday afternoon family cookout, but they can also cause extensive damage to your property’s landscape and trees. High temperatures can dry out your trees and plants, making them more susceptible to splitting and breakage. The weight of heavy snow can snap trees and limbs and crush plants and shrubs. High winds and tornados can uproot trees, tear off branches, and rip up gardens. Hail can flatten or perforate unprotected leafy plants. Thunderstorms can cause extensive flooding and erosion.

But don’t fret. Much of this can be prevented. See how The Parke Company, and our 30 years of landscape and tree emergency preparation and response services, can help you deal with damages caused by a recent storm or prepare for storms to come.

Tree and Landscaping Services – How The Parke Company Can Help Repair Damages Caused by Severe Weather
As the wind begins to howl, rain and hail pelt your windows and roof. You glance outside at the rapidly darkening clouds. In the instances of illumination caused by lightning strikes, you witness with growing despair the scene of slowly increasing devastation that was your beautifully landscaped lawn, gardens, beds, and trees. The wind has knocked down hanging pots, flipped over lawn furniture, torn up plants, and snapped the old pine tree nearly in half. The torrential rainfall has eroded your sloping beds and is pooling in the low areas of your lawn, slowly undermining the root structure of your prized dogwood trees.

Sound like a nightmare? That’s because it is. However, this nightmare is an unfortunate reality for many people in the Nashville area every year. If you are lucky, you have previously consulted The Parke Company, and together we have developed a strategy to best prepare for and mitigate damages to your property. If not, you could find yourself in the morning, surveying the damages to your landscape and trees, awestruck and unsure of what to do next.

First step: Call the emergency tree and landscape professionals at The Parke Company.

Our landscaping design, building, emergency service team and International Society of Arboriculture (ISA) certified arborists have years of experience in all aspects of emergency response and will work with you every step of the way. We have the knowledge and know-how to assess your specific damage and develop a recovery plan that best fits your property and budget.

From tree removal and disposal to land and brush clearing, leaf vacuuming to stump grinding, irrigation and tree repair to chipping and mulching, we have the skills and equipment necessary to get your landscape back to normal as fast as possible. Our extensive experience in the Nashville area means we know the weather and the damages it can cause. This also means we know how to best clean up your property and what steps we can take to prevent such damages from happening in future storms.

Unexpected storm damage to your landscape and trees is an unfortunate occurrence that can leave you feeling overwhelmed and helpless. The Parke Company is here to help you through this process as painlessly as possible.

Tree and Landscaping Services – How The Parke Company Can Help You Prepare for Severe Weather
It doesn’t have to be this way. Nashville natives ourselves, we at The Parke Company know that a severe storm can arise out of nowhere and cause extensive and costly damage to your landscape and trees. You most likely have automotive and home insurance to cover damages caused by storms to your vehicles and house. Why not invest in preventative tree services and landscaping services, from The Parke Company, that will reduce or eliminate damages caused by extreme weather?

Our team of landscape professionals and ISA certified arborists has years of experience preparing trees and landscapes for the wide variety of extreme weather that can impact the Nashville area.

No matter your property, through a consultation and individualized preparation plan, we will help you take the necessary steps to best prepare for the upcoming storm season.

First, we will thoroughly inventory your landscape features and trees. Our team will specifically look for ways to make your property more storm-resistant by storm-proofing your trees and plants, mitigating garden hazards, and reducing potential drainage or erosion problems.

We will then develop an individualized, and prioritized, plan for addressing your specific needs. Your plan will include the various tree services (tree pruning, deadwood removal, weight reduction, cabling, or outright tree removal), plant bed alterations, irrigation services (installation, maintenance, and testing), and preparation strategies (such as interior storage spaces for hanging plant and outdoor furniture) that will have the greatest storm-mitigation impact on your property.

Finally, we will work with this prioritized plan and your budget to prepare your property for storms to come. Having seen it all over the past 30 years, we at The Parke Company stand by our assertion that the best way to reduce the negative impact upon your property caused by extreme weather is to be prepared.

The First Step in Storm Damage Mitigation: Call The Parke Company, Nashville’s Premier Landscaping Company, Today
Whether you are faced with an emergency tree removal or want to save yourself money in the long run by taking advantage of our storm preparation services, reach out to our team of local tree and landscaping service professionals today. Together we will develop a comprehensive plan that works within your budget to address your specific needs. With deep roots in Nashville, it is our goal to provide you with the highest-quality service and to be your go-to for all of your landscaping needs. Give us a call or schedule a landscaping service consultation to find out how The Parke Company can help you.

If you are an avid DIY enthusiast, you’ve probably taken a stab at doing a little landscaping in your Nashville lawn. The upside of DIY projects is the satisfaction of learning new skills and using them in a hands-on project. The downside is when you discover your knowledge is an inch deep, but the topic is a foot thick. That’s when the mistakes start showing up.

While many of us grew up pushing a lawn mower and pulling weeds from our parent’s lawns, these experiences don’t really count as in-depth lawn care training. That said, the founder of The Parke Company graduated from his parent’s lawn to cutting grass for neighbors and started his business while still in high school. Thirty years later, he is a certified arborist and has a deep understanding of landscaping services and tree service issues.

Most of us don’t go in that direction.

All of us want our lawns to be attractive and nearly everyone will have a stab at landscaping. However, almost everyone will make mistakes in their efforts to beautify their outdoor space. Some mistakes can be costly, some can be time consuming, and others simply end up disappointing.

How to Avoid the Most Common Lawn Care Mistakes

With more than 30 years in the lawn maintenance business, the pros at The Parke Company have seen just about every type of lawn care and landscaping error possible. Listed below are some of the most common and how to avoid making them yourself.

Scalping the Grass

Everyone wants their lawn to look neat. Neat being defined as having that “just cut” look. Unfortunately, this perception of neat leads many homeowners scalping their lawns. How high or low you mow the grass determines how much moisture will evaporate from your yard, how healthy the grass plant is, how thick (or sparse) the grass grows, and impacts the habitat of both desirable and undesirable insects and pests. The solution is to know what kind of grass you have and what its optimum height is. Professor Google can give you the information with one or two quick searches.

Not Researching New Plants

Young plants and trees are not puppies. You cannot judge their mature size by the size of their paws. If you plant a new shrub or sapling without considering its likely mature size, you are in for a problem. Shrubs planted near the house could block a window in a couple of years. Worse yet, trees planted too near the home could result in roots invading the foundation. Before you plant anything, make certain you understand how big it can get. Consider how that mature size will impact the area immediately around it.

Go Easy on the Lawn Gnomes

Ornaments and hardscapes have a place in a lawn. But too many of these items will detract rather than enhance your lawn. Use ornamentation sparingly and you  will succeed in drawing attention to it.

Forgetting that Hedges are not Self-Trimming

Hedges are a great way to gain some privacy from neighboring houses or to section off a part of your lawn. But hedges are not static. They grow. If you are not shearing your hedges on a regular basis they can quickly grow to a height where you will need a step ladder to reach the top. An electric hedge trimmer should be purchased at the same time you buy the hedge shrubs.

Pruning at the Wrong Time

If you have flowering bushes you absolutely need to know when to prune and when to leave them alone. Failing to prune a shrub such as forsythia at the correct time can result in the loss of the very buds that bring you the beautiful blossoms.

Do any of these situations sound familiar? We haven’t even touched on taking care of the soil. Landscaping and lawn maintenance takes on a whole new complexity than when you were a kid because now it’s your lawn and your investment.

Want help? Our fully knowledgeable professionals can take on part or all of your Nashville lawn maintenance tasks. Call us now!

Water features like ponds, waterfalls, and fountains are exceptionally popular additions to Nashville landscapes. And why wouldn’t they be? Water, specifically the sound of moving water, has always been associated with relaxation and calmness.

Most families view their lawns as an oasis. A place to get away from the hubbub of modern life and enjoy what nature gives us without requiring a Wi-Fi connection. The look and sound of water hardscapes can create that oasis, but they can come with challenges as well.

As a leading Nashville landscaping service with more than 30 years of experience, The Parke Company has installed many water features, both large and small, for customers in Nashville, Belle Mead, Green Hills, Oak Hills and other communities. Often times these hardscapes are the central feature of the landscaping due to their size and unique qualities. If you want the sound of a burbling brook but don’t want to take up the space a pond or waterfall might occupy, we recommend a fountain.

Fountains – The Pocket Size Oasis

When we talk fountains, we are not talking about something that looks like it was stolen from Vatican City sprouting up in the center of your lawn. Fountains come in all sizes and shapes. When deciding on one, scale should be foremost in your mind. In fact, scale is one of the several advantages that fountains have over other water features. For example:

• Scale. If you are an urban dweller with limited space to play with, a small fountain can bring the same relaxing sounds as an elaborate waterfall. If you have a large space but you want to carve out a niche for meditation, reading, or just relaxing, a small fountain can be the perfect centerpiece. A tasteful planting of shrubs or hedge can delineate the space, and an urn or statuary fountain provides the soundscape.
• No Standing Water. Ponds and waterfalls, by definition, include standing water. Even though the water is recirculated, a waterscape faces the same problems a swimming pool does. They are subject to bacterial growth and algae meaning your lawn maintenance tasks will have to include cleaning the pond. In addition, your pond is often viewed as a personal spa for your four-legged family member who uses it for a fast cool down on a hot summer day.
• Better than a Bird Bath.  With the exception of a bird feeder, nothing will attract birds to your lawn faster than a fountain. Birds love them. You don’t have to be an Audubon fanatic to appreciate the foliage and chirping of Tennessee’s birdlife. In addition, some of those birds find fleas and ticks to be tasty tidbits helping you to control that unwanted population.

Fountains make sense on so many levels. If you need help designing a space or choosing a fountain that fits, give us a call at The Parke Company. We do so much more than tree trimming, lawn mowing, and resolving lawn problems. Our professional landscape designers can turn your entire lawn, or just a corner, into a little piece of heaven.

Give us a call today!