See beautiful gardens, learn from experts at Nashville Lawn and Garden Show

• The Nashville Lawn and Garden Show runs Feb. 28-March 3 at Nashville Fairgrounds.
• With more people living in condos and homes with smaller yards, making efficient use of small spaces is one of the themes of this year’s show.
• The show also will highlight urban horticulture, sustainable practices, vertical gardening, beekeeping, community gardens and other topics.

Amber Hurdle’s backyard is designed for family fun and social gatherings. Caroll Marrero’s is filled with plants that attract bees, butterflies and other pollinators. Both are examples of the creative ways homeowners are using small outdoor spaces.

“My favorite room of the house” is how Hurdle describes her outdoor space, which includes a complete kitchen, a stacked-stone fireplace, a heated pool and spa and a covered area with infrared heaters in the ceiling.

Making efficient use of small spaces is one of the themes of this year’s Nashville Lawn and Garden Show, which will also highlight urban horticulture, sustainable practices, vertical gardening, beekeeping, community gardens and other topics.

The show will be at the Nashville Fairgrounds, 500 Wedgewood Ave., Feb. 28-March 3. The show, which is held indoors, will feature live garden displays, floral designs, lectures, demonstrations, workshops, children’s activities and more than 250 exhibit booths.

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Vertical gardening makes most of small spaces

Josiah Lockard, who helped create Marrero’s garden in a tight space with just 250 square feet, will present information about attracting pollinators. With co-presenters including Milkweed and Honey Farm in Clarksville, he will display a live butterfly house.

As neighborhoods become denser with homes closer together on small yards, choices about how to use space and what plants to select become critical, said Lockard, who operates Josiah Lockard & Associates.

“With density increasing, it’s important to be intentional, he said.

Residents of townhomes, villas, condominiums and apartments can have a garden, too, even if their only outdoor space is a patio or a balcony. One of the hottest trends is gardens that grow upward along a wall or trellis instead of across the yard.

“As ground becomes scarce, vertical gardens have really taken off,” said Lockard. “I call it agri-tecture. Taking agriculture and architecture and combining them together.”

In Marrero’s Mt. Juliet yard, her pollinator garden is filled with mostly native plants including flowers, edibles like parsley and fennel and weeds that serve as a food source for particular insects. After planting milkweed, for instance, she almost immediately spotted Monarch butterfly caterpillars.

“Any day I can count 60 different bees and wasps,” she said.

Built for entertaining

Homeowners want to make the most of small spaces, said Jason Moles, who operates Gardens on Main in Lebanon and designed Hurdle’s backyard.

“The confined spaces are forcing designers into a new realm of creativity. Outdoor cooking and entertaining areas are definitely a high priority. Seclusion is another since the houses are jammed together. When a lot affords the opportunity, we are still seeing the maximum entertainment space. Pools with a pool house-cabana, a fire feature of some sort, and a grilling area,” said Moles. 

Amber Hurdle and her husband, Geoff Hurdle, lived in their Lebanon home for several years before deciding to have the yard landscaped. Now it is perfect for family activities and entertaining.

“We are that house that everyone wants to come to,” she said.

A nice outdoor space can save money, too. Amber Hurdle, a branding expert, author and podcaster, and Geoff Hurdle, who is in real estate, moved their offices from leased space to their pool house. She will soon release a new book, which does not yet have a title.

“Nature and the outdoors is a much more creative space for people,” she said.

If you go

What: Nashville Lawn and Garden Show

When: Feb. 28-March 3. Hours: 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday; 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday

Where: Nashville Fairgrounds, 500 Wedgewood Ave.

Admission: $12; $11 for military (with ID) and seniors 65 or older; $2 for children 12 and under. A four-day pass is $25. Discounts are available for groups of 15 or more. Available at the box office or online at www.eventbrite.com.

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