For a Franklin company, Forest Hills is the first city across the line into Davidson County. It's a city of homes, and what Green Scene offers there is the work homes need: thickening tired fescue lawns, planting rows of evergreens for privacy, pruning, bed care and the occasional patio or walk.
The city keeps a close eye on its trees, so anything that involves removing one starts with a call to city hall rather than a chainsaw. Everything else runs the way it does in Williamson County, with the same crews.
Does Forest Hills require a permit to remove a tree?
For most removals, yes. The City of Forest Hills requires a permit before most trees come down, so it's worth asking the city which trees on your lot are covered before you plan around losing one.
That shapes how we lay out a project here. A new bed, a walk or a patio gets placed to keep the trees that are already there where it can, and a design that does need one removed waits on the city's answer before a crew is booked. Our design team looks at drainage and the existing plantings first on any plan, which is where the question comes up.
When should a Forest Hills fescue lawn be overseeded?
In the fall. UT Extension's guidance ranks autumn first for seeding fescue and puts February into March a distant second, and its 2024 lawn calendar schedules aerating and overseeding tall fescue for August.
Our overseeding begins with core aeration across the whole lawn. The cores pulled out leave thousands of small pockets that hold the seed, and fall rain, topped up by the sprinkler system if there is one, takes care of germination. Thin spots matter more than they look: left bare, they fill in with grassy weeds and invite insects. Once or twice a year is usually plenty, depending on the lawn.
Can a row of trees take the place of a privacy fence?
It can, and it never needs painting. The 2 evergreens Green Scene names for screening are Emerald Green arborvitae and Thuja Green Giant, though there are other species to pick from, and one of our trained crew helps choose the variety and the starting size for the spot and the budget.
A planted screen also breaks the wind and softens noise from the street, and you decide how tall it's allowed to get. The privacy tree page goes through the planting.
Who looks after the beds once they’re planted?
The same crews, on a schedule. Our landscape maintenance covers pruning every shrub and tree, weeding the beds down to the last runner of stray grass, edging, seasonal flowers and leaf removal, and the crew takes all of the debris away with them when they go. Spring and fall cleanups can be added as a yearly plan.