Nashville / Seasonal Planters & Storefront Design in Franklin, TN
In downtown Franklin, what you put on the sidewalk is permitted annually
Seasonal planter design, installation and rotation for Franklin storefronts, restaurant patios and office entries — planned around the calendar and around the city's Historic Preservation Overlay rules.
Weekly
Or biweekly — the two routes we run
Every placement
Light measured at the plant, not at the window
One crew
Design, install, and ongoing care
The rule most tenants have not read
Under Ordinance 2012-26, effective 21 June 2012, any outdoor merchandise display, sandwich board or easel signage and carts in Franklin's Historic Preservation Overlay must be approved and permitted annually by the City. Sandwich boards and easels additionally require the Preservation Planner's approval.
And the right-of-way rule
Franklin's zoning ordinance bars signs in the public right-of-way except those placed by a government entity, sandwich boards in the HPO, and sign types that project from a building over a sidewalk. Unauthorised signs in the right-of-way "shall be forfeited to the public and shall be immediately confiscated."
Exterior work we do
Hotel Fraye — exterior only: container and in-ground redesign of the valet, sky deck and pool area, plus ongoing maintenance. East Iris Studios — exterior container and bed design, installation and maintenance. States of Leisure — container gardening of the 5 Points hotel and ongoing grounds maintenance of three properties.
A planter is not a sign, but the two share a sidewalk
The distinction matters and it is worth being precise about it. Franklin's permitted annual review in the HPO covers outdoor merchandise displays, sandwich boards, easels and carts. Planters are not named in that list. But planters sit in the same few feet of sidewalk as everything that is named, they affect the clear pedestrian path, and if your frontage is already carrying a permitted sandwich board you have less room than you think.
Our practical rule for a downtown Franklin storefront: keep containers against the building line, keep the clear path unobstructed, and if your frontage arrangement is at all ambiguous, ask Building and Neighborhood Services before you buy four half-barrels. It is a five-minute question that is expensive to answer in the wrong order.
The rotation calendar we actually run
Four changes a year is the standard shape — spring, summer, autumn, winter — and the work in each is different. Spring is the biggest planting. Summer is maintenance, deadheading and mid-season cutbacks; Russian sage and catmint get taken back by a third. Autumn is the largest visual change and the one retail cares about most. Winter is a hard prune plus structural material — evergreens, branches, and material that reads well cold.
Holiday and seasonal décor is a real service line for us, interior and exterior. We will also store your holiday materials off-season for a small fee, which for a downtown tenant with no back-of-house is worth more than it sounds.
What the exterior program includes
Thirteen documented steps: everything in the interior process plus weed removal, deadheading, seasonal cutbacks, irrigation line checks, and hose and spigot discipline. Exterior trash cleanup is explicitly not in the offering.
Getting started before the season you actually want
Four to six weeks from consultation to install on a small or medium project. If you want your autumn frontage to exist in autumn, the conversation happens in summer. $3,000 project minimum; consultation $250 on site or $125 virtual.
On-site consultation
We walk the space, read the light, and talk through how the room gets used before anything is specified.
Custom plant design
Plant and vessel selection matched to your brand, your light, and the way the space needs to feel.
Delivery and install
Our team pots, places, and cleans up, and leaves care notes for anything you handle yourself.
Ongoing maintenance
Watering, fertilizing, pruning, rotation, and pest treatment on a set schedule, including swapping out anything that stops thriving.
How a project runs
01
Consultation on site
We come look at the space, take light readings, and scope it.
02
Design proposal
Plant and vessel selections with placements and a quote.
03
Install day
Sourced, potted, delivered, placed. Usually one visit.
04
Care route
Recurring maintenance visits on your schedule.
I never have to worry about under or over watering. They make sure everything stays healthy, dust the plants, and keep them looking beautiful and thriving year round.
Plant Savvy is the third vendor I have had at our hotel in three years, and Savannah and her team are the only vendor that truly saw our needs and put our ideas into action.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a permit for planters on my Franklin sidewalk?
Planters are not on the City's named list of annually permitted outdoor items — merchandise displays, sandwich boards, easels and carts are. Because the rules govern the same stretch of sidewalk, we recommend confirming your specific frontage with Building and Neighborhood Services before installing.
How many times a year do you change them out?
Four is standard. Some clients do three; some restaurants with heavy patio use do more.
Do you store our holiday decorations?
Yes, for a small fee, off-season.
Can you maintain containers you did not install?
Yes. The replacement guarantee applies to plants we installed.
Do you handle irrigation?
We check irrigation lines as part of the exterior process. New irrigation installation is a separate conversation.
Start your project
Tell us about the space and we'll set up a time to come see it.
Seasonal container design and rotation for Franklin storefronts — with the Historic Preservation Overlay permit rules that govern what you can put on the sidewalk.