Tennessee Smart Yards

Landscapes in balance with the local environment for benefits to people and the ecosystem.

Tennessee Extension

A Smart Yard is functional and returns benefits for individuals, communities, and our environment. Any Tennessean can participate in the program by learning about sustainable practices for healthy landscapes, setting goals, adopting recommended practices, and then certifying with us.

Smart Yards. Healthy Landscapes. Clean Water.

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Certified Tennessee Smart Yards (since program updates in Oct 2020). If you were an early adopter certifying your yard before Oct 2020, please email us at tnsy@utk.edu to see how we can capture your efforts here.

Certifiers are eligible to purchase an official yard sign, showing others that this landscape helps protect community natural resources.

Here is what some of our participants had to say:

"Terrific program! Very helpful information that will motivate me to continue taking appropriate actions to preserve our natural resources."

"I enjoyed learning more about native plants and am looking forward to doing more to support wildlife and pollinators in our downtown neighborhood."

"I started this journey over 40 years ago with my grandparents. Since then I have implemented the smart garden program in all my properties I have owned through out the years."

"We have enjoyed seeing all the wildlife come into our home landscape as we decreased turf and added plants over the last 4 years since we purchased our home. We are happy to have less to mow while providing habitat and food sources to pollinators, birds and other wildlife. People walk throughout our neighborhood and we get compliments on our approach to landscaping which is the more plants and less mowing, the better! People just love seeing the variety of plants our small space has to offer and we love spreading the word about conservation and protection of our natural resources. We hope with the metal yard sign we can inspire others to change to a TN Smart Yard."

These streams and rivers have certified Tennessee Smart Yards within their watersheds, protecting the quality of water and health of the aquatic ecosystems found in these waterways and ensuring clean water for our future.

Tennessee Smart Yards is a program of the University of Tennessee Extension and maintains partnerships with municipal governments and neighborhood associations.

Tennessee Smart Yards was developed through a partnership of UT Extension and the Tennessee Water Resource Research Center with support from the 319 Nonpoint Source Program, TN Dept of Agriculture and adapted from Florida Friendly Landscapes, Florida Cooperative Extension.

Questions?

tnyards@utk.edu

Certifiers are eligible to purchase an official yard sign, showing others that this landscape helps protect community natural resources.

These streams and rivers have certified Tennessee Smart Yards within their watersheds, protecting the quality of water and health of the aquatic ecosystems found in these waterways and ensuring clean water for our future.