OUTDOOR DESIGNS
PROFESSIONAL SVCS & NURSERY, LLC
Outdoor Designs is a full service landscaping and stormwater management contractor.
We are Knox County Stormwater’s preferred contractor for green initiative drainage solutions as part of their environmental stewardship program.
We specialize in permeable pavers, bio swales, grass swales, rain gardens, stream bank restorations, excavation, walls, stone work, installations, and lot & brush clearing.
STONE
Our stone projects incorporate a little of each one of our skill sets. Knowledge of water behavior is essential in the pre-planning stages to insure the walls will drain and thus sustain even the worst environmental conditions. Using the proper backfill aggregates, excavation depths, and finish grades allow us to deliver a better finished product to the client.
As you can see in the last photo, we even constructed a zipline to add that special touch of functionality to the aesthetics.
RAIN GARDENS
Rain gardens are a beautiful, functional way to improve drainage on your property. Rain gardens not only reduce localized flooding but can also enhance the aesthetic appeal of your yard or neighborhood. By capturing and infiltrating stormwater, rain gardens help to slow down and filter pollutants from surface runoff coming from rooftops, driveways or other impervious surfaces. In this way, rain gardens enrich the health and scenic integrity of our stream.
The last picture shows our biggest rain garden to date. Measuring at over 5,000sqft, we excavated 13 feet subgrade before adding our filtration aggregates and plantings. During the excavation we found this site to be a bury pit containing many full sized cedar trees that had to be removed.
To add our touch of functionality, see the bridge we constructed across the rain garden to connect a 1/8 mile walking trail for this particular homeowners association.
GRASS SWALES
Grassed swales are simply grass-lined ditches that convey stormwater away from your yard or property while infiltrating as much stormwater as the underlying soil will allow. Grassed swales can replace failing concrete-lined ditches but more often are installed to address severe gulley erosion on residential properties.
We use several different geo-textile erosion fabrics to hold the grass and prevent further erosion.
STREAMBANK RESTORATION
In our restoration projects, streambanks have seen significant erosion as a result of large volumes of stormwater destabilizing streambanks, usually due to increased impervious (non-infiltrative) surfaces somewhere upstream.
Streambank restoration projects generally involve laying back streambanks and heavily re-planting the banks with native grasses, shrubs and trees to hold the bank in place in the future. In some cases, these projects may require the installation of log-vane structures at strategic points in the stream channel in order to re-direct stream flow away from the banks, preventing future erosion.
In this particular project, we had to stop the flow of the stream, pump the water around the area we were restoring, and excavate a new channel for the stream.
WALLS
We were excited to be part of the first living geo web retaining wall constructed in East Tennessee. These walls are constructed with various backfill aggregates to allow for the percolation of water and growth on the outer cells of the wall.
This particular client was losing a significant amount of her backyard each year due to heavy rains. This wall, along with native plantings above it, will stabilize this slope.
To add our own touch of functionality, you can see the stone stairway with the deadwood handrail in the far side of the last photo.