Freshen Up For Spring!

Freshen up for spring!

Tips to get the outdoor living space ready

BY LISA SAVAGE

The lime green Adirondack-style chairs and the blue metal bench with its backrest shaped like butterfly wings add just the right touch around the backyard pool. The decorative accents, along with hydrangeas and grasses, bring out the owner’s personality, and fencing makes the pool safer.

This type of customization at a home in Sharon, Tennessee, is Larry Watlington’s goal at Weakley County Fence, Lawn & Landscaping. He started the lawn and landscaping business in 2000. He and his wife, Angie, expanded to include the fencing company 10 years ago.

“We just kind of fell into it and enjoyed it,” he says.

The company installed the metal fencing and gates at the stadium at the University of Tennessee at Martin. The fence types they install range from wooden or vinyl panels to chain-link and metal, and their other structural offerings are varied. “We build arbors, decks or just about anything for an outdoor space,” Watlington says.

There are many factors to consider when planning an outdoor living area, from drainage in the yard to the colors of flowering shrubs, he says. Spring is a good time to add an outdoor space or freshen up what’s already there.

“I call it spring cleaning,” Watlington says. Homeowners can decide to remove some of the plants that didn’t survive the winter and add new ones. Watlington says he likes to use shrubs and flowering plants that are pretty but easy to maintain. His favorite shrubs add green and yellow. He likes to use gold thread cypress or boxwoods. Quick-growing willow oak trees are a nice addition to yards.

“We want to give our customers a nice-looking area, and we can do that by adding just the right combination of shrubs, plants and trees,” he says.

Larry Watlington owns Weakley County Fence, Lawn & Landscaping.