Blog · November 2, 2026

Five landscape styles you'll see across Middle Tennessee

Southern traditional, modern, naturalistic, woodland shade, and the backyard pool. The plants that define each, so the plan and the plant list match.

Most residential jobs in and around Nashville fall into a handful of styles. Each leans on a short list of plants, and knowing the list makes it easier to read a plan, suggest a swap, or price a job before the drawings are done.

Southern traditional

Symmetry, clipped evergreens, and big flowering shrubs, often around brick houses in Belle Meade, Brentwood, and Franklin.

• Signature plants: boxwood, Southern magnolia, hydrangeas, Japanese maple, crape myrtle.
• Watch for: heavy reliance on boxwood. With boxwood blight in the region, it's worth mixing in inkberry or dwarf yaupon holly. See two boxwoods, two roles.

Modern

Clean lines, a short plant list repeated in blocks, and lots of texture from grasses. Common on new builds and renovations closer in to the city.

• Signature plants: clipped hedges of hornbeam or boxwood, columnar trees, ornamental grasses such as little bluestem and pink muhly, and gravel or stone between.
• Watch for: a short plant list means one problem can show everywhere. Repetition looks best when every plant is the same size, so order the hedge plants from one batch.

Naturalistic and native

Looser drifts, pollinator plants, and less mowing. Popular with clients who want lower upkeep and more wildlife.

• Signature plants: river birch, serviceberry, redbud, little bluestem, coneflower, black-eyed Susan. See native plants that hold up on job sites.
• Watch for: "native" doesn't mean no care. Compacted new-build soil needs the same preparation as any bed.

Woodland shade

Beds under mature oaks and hickories on wooded lots, common in the hills around Nashville.

• Signature plants: oakleaf hydrangea, ferns, hellebores, hostas, Japanese maple, redbud.
• Watch for: tree roots. Keep new beds shallow over existing roots, and don't pile soil against old trunks.

The backyard pool

Outdoor-living jobs built around a pool and patio, where privacy and tidiness matter most.

• Signature plants: a privacy screen of ‘Green Giant’ arborvitae or ‘Nellie R. Stevens’ holly, hydrangeas and boxwood in the beds, grasses and liriope along edges.
• Watch for: litter. Plants that drop big leaves, berries, or petals near the water mean more skimming. See one plant or a mix for the screen.

Mixing styles

Many jobs blend two: a traditional front yard and a modern pool area, or a woodland edge behind a formal lawn. Whatever the style, one list covers it, and one quote comes back for the whole thing. Browse what's available.