New landscaping that spotlights local history at Corley & Son General Store
We cherish the past, and all it has taught us here in Mt. Juliet, TN, and the surrounding areas. We at Master’s Landscape Design were happy to hear that the city decided to build a small museum and general store near City Hall that spotlights our history.
Items in the museum, called Corley and Son General Store, were donated to the city by Fred Corley, who had an extensive collection of items after living in the area for 50 years. Our city manager took those items, raised funds to construct the building, and brought the museum to life.
The displayed items include Texaco signs, vintage cameras, an antique Pepsi machine, and many other products like coffee and other goods. The museum is free to attend, is open 24 hours a day, and serves as an information center for the city. There’s also an old phone booth so people can see how calls were made back then.
We were happy to participate in this project and recently gave back to the community by helping design and install new landscaping all around the museum. We hope the job we did reflects how much we love this city and its history!
Removing Rocks & Stones to Create a New Landscaping Bed
When we arrived, the store had rock ground cover laid around it, surrounded by landscape bed curbing that was a dark brown color.
We wanted to install plants that gave it a welcoming feel, so our team went in to remove the rocks and curbing around the front of the museum. We opted to keep the curbing for the beds toward the back of the museum but removed the rock ground cover.
We also wanted to relocate the antique Texaco gas pump to a different landscaping area and brought in equipment to safely move that. The large Texaco sign didn’t have any landscaping, so we planned to add another bed to create a more cohesive feel.
Installing new landscaping with purple coneflowers, daylilies, hydrangeas, & more
As with any job we do, we first drew up plans for the landscaping to make that design come to life. In the front of the store, we installed some little lime hydrangeas and dwarf English boxwoods, along with some annuals, to bring some extra color to the landscaping.
Around the large Texaco gas sign, we planted globosa blue spruce, Cassian fountain grass, and Gulfstream nandina. We also supplemented this landscape bed with more annuals. Other plants we installed throughout the landscaping include loropetalums, baby gems, purple coneflowers, purple daylilies, and guacamole hostas.
The beds were finished with some hardwood mulching to keep the soil insulated and help block weed growth so that the plants stay protected.