Come Stand In The Cool Green Shade You Don’t Have Yet.
We read the light, the runoff, and the clay under your Nashville lot, then draw and build a garden you can hear — bees in the mountain mint, gravel underfoot, rain finding the swale instead of the driveway.
Belle Meade to East Nashville homeowners trade sun-baked fescue for native meadow, slate terraces, and shade that arrives by the third summer.
// The studio
A Two-Person Practice, Elbow-Deep In Your Soil
Nettle & Slate is Rae Kesler, who draws, and Miller Ovsak, who builds — with a rotating handful of masons and growers we’ve worked beside for years. Rae spends the first visit crouched over a soil sample, sketching where the afternoon glare lands; Miller shows up with the slate samples and the truth about drainage. Every plan is measured by the same two people who will later be standing in the trench.
We don’t chase acreage. We take a small number of Nashville gardens a season so we can be there for the finicky parts — the day the mountain mint goes in, the morning the first slate course gets set true.
signed_off_by: Rae & Miller · Nashville, TN
// What we make
Three Things We Do Well, In The Order They Happen
The Site Plan
We survey the grade, the sun path, the sightlines from your kitchen window, and the way water actually moves after a July downpour. You get a scaled drawing you can hold up against the yard — beds, paths, patio footprint, and drainage — before anyone lifts a shovel.
The Planting Scheme
A season-by-season list of plants that belong here — Tennessee coneflower, aromatic aster, oakleaf hydrangea, sedges for the wet corner — laid out in drifts that read from the porch and feed the pollinators. We source from regional growers and set every plant ourselves.
The Hardscape Build
Cleft slate terraces, dry-stack walls, gravel courtyards, and the quiet grading that keeps water off your foundation. We manage the crew, the permits, and the deliveries, and we walk the site with you at every course so nothing gets buried you can’t live with.
// Recent ground
Gardens We Left Better Than We Found Them
A handful of the lots we’ve turned over in the last two seasons — clay hardpan to living meadow, cracked concrete to cleft slate.
Ask about your own lot// How a garden gets made
From First Footprint To The Sound Of Water Finding Its Path
Site Read
A two-hour walk with soil probe and pencil. We name the problems out loud and leave with your wish list.
The Drawing
A scaled plan and planting scheme, presented at your table with samples of slate, gravel, and plant material.
The Build
Grading, hardscape, and planting, managed by us on a fixed calendar you can watch progress against.
The First Year
A follow-up walk each season while roots settle — we adjust, replace, and mulch until the garden holds on its own.
Priced per project
No hourly meter. You get one figure for the design and a transparent build estimate before we order a single pallet of slate.
the Site Read — credited toward your plan
Small on purpose
We take a limited number of gardens each season, so the people who draw your plan are the ones who build it.
// Before you dig in
Honest Answers, No Shovel Required Yet
The questions Nashville homeowners actually ask us on that first walk around the yard.
Start a conversationWhat does a whole garden usually cost?
Design fees start at $3,800 for a full measured plan and planting scheme. Built projects vary with the hardscape — a planted meadow border might land near $9,000, while a slate terrace with walls and grading commonly runs $28,000–$60,000. You’ll have a written estimate before any commitment.
Do I have to build everything at once?
No. Many clients build the plan in phases — patio one year, the far beds the next. Because the site plan is drawn whole, each phase drops into place without redoing work. We’ll flag which pieces should go first for drainage and access.
Why so much native planting?
Plants that evolved in Middle Tennessee’s clay and heat need less water, no chemical babysitting, and they bring the goldfinches and swallowtails. We still mix in the ornamentals you love — natives just do the heavy lifting so the garden survives August.
How long from first call to finished garden?
Plan on two to four weeks for the Site Read and drawing, then a build window that depends on scope — a planting refresh is a few days, a full slate build with grading is typically three to six weeks on site. We give you a dated calendar, not a vague “spring.”
Do you only work in certain neighborhoods?
We serve residential gardens across Nashville and the close-in suburbs — Belle Meade, Sylvan Park, East Nashville, 12South, Green Hills, Inglewood and nearby. If you’re a bit farther out, call and we’ll tell you honestly whether it’s a good fit.
// Ready when you are
Let’s Walk Your Yard While The Light Is Good
Book the Site Read and we’ll bring soil probe, slate samples, and pencils. You bring the coffee.
Book a Site ReadTell us about the ground
A few lines about your lot, the trouble spots, and how you want to use the space — shade to read in, a table for six, a meadow you don’t have to mow.
We schedule the Read
A two-hour visit for $650, credited toward your plan. We sketch on site so you can see the idea take shape before the drawing is even inked.
You get a real plan
A scaled site plan, a planting scheme, and — if you’re building — a transparent construction estimate you can hold us to.
We build it, together
Same hands, start to trench to first bloom. Call (610) 460-3722 to start.