Land clearing in Smyrna, TN

Where the forks come together

East and West Forks of the Stones River join at the north end of Rutherford County, and Percy Priest backs slack water into both. Old Jefferson sat at that junction until the reservoir filled over it. Bottom ground along the forks and along Stewarts Creek stays damp most of the year. Privet holds those bottoms. Bush honeysuckle follows it up the bank, and willow and box elder close in wherever nobody walks anymore. Ground like this comes back quick, so it wants a second look the year after.

Rock closer than it looks

This end of the county sits at about 545 feet, on the low floor of the Central Basin. Red soil over limestone, and in the glades under ten inches of it before the rock. That’s why Rutherford County is cedar glade country. Where the stone sits that close, eastern red cedar takes an old field quicker than hardwood does, and it comes in thick. Cedar grinds fine. The head has to ride high enough to stay off the outcrops, reason enough to walk a place first.

Seven feet of bare bank

Percy Priest holds 490 feet in summer and gets pulled to 483 for the winter. That strip of bank is dry half the year, and brush moves straight into it, privet, blackberry, young box elder, whatever seeds in first. Two seasons of that and a lake lot loses its water view. Mulching suits the edge, since what comes down stays on the bank as cover instead of leaving bare dirt above the waterline.

The drive from Lebanon

It’s about 27 miles southwest, I-840 most of the way. Land out here sits off Jefferson Pike, Almaville Road and Florence Road. Some of it is an acre behind a new subdivision. Some of it is farm ground a family is still holding while the county builds up around it. Either way it starts with a walk of the property, corner to corner.