garden commissions

One of the entries I designed does something I still think about.

Neighbors slow down when they walk past. Cars drop from thirty miles an hour to nearly stopping. And when the client is sitting on the porch, which happens more often now, strangers introduce themselves. They say everything is so beautiful. A conversation begins. People who have lived on the same street for years are meeting each other for the first time because of what is growing in front of one house.

That is what a designed entry can do. That is what I design toward. The outcome nobody thought to put on the wishlist.

A Garden Commission is for a defined outdoor space that deserves to become more than planted.

Entry Gardens The arrival sequence is the most underdesigned part of most Nashville properties. An entry designed with intention changes how the house reads from the street, how guests feel when they arrive, and how the client feels coming home every single day.

Courtyard Gardens The spaces that become the heart of a home's exterior life when they are designed with the right scale, enclosure, shade, and planting sequence. The right courtyard becomes the room everyone ends up in. Without a design, it becomes the space everyone walks past.

Pool Gardens The planting creates atmosphere, privacy, seasonal change, scent, and sound. Together with the hardscape it determines whether the pool area is somewhere you go to swim or somewhere you want to spend an afternoon regardless of whether you get in the water.

Private Garden Spaces The back garden that has never been resolved. The side yard that gets ignored. The terrace that should be beautiful and isn't. These commissions are often the ones that change daily life the most.

Garden Commissions are available for residential properties throughout Nashville and Middle Tennessee, including Belle Meade, Green Hills, Brentwood, Franklin, Leiper's Fork, and surrounding areas.

They are best suited for defined spaces rather than entire properties. If the full exterior of a home needs to be resolved together, see Whole Property Commissions. If the work involves acreage, farms, or estate-scale land, see Land Portraiture Commissions.