July 2026 Pool of the Month: A Tennessee backyard transformation with Tennessee Landscape Company

Leisure Pools is proud to name Tennessee Landscape Company its July 2026 Pool of the Month winner, honoring a project just north of Cookeville, Tennessee that turned a tricky hillside lot into a backyard the whole family can enjoy together. For nearly two decades, the homeowners behind this month’s winning project talked about getting a swimming pool someday. They live in the Bear Lake neighborhood, one of the area’s premier communities, and for years a pool stayed on the wish list. Once grandkids entered the picture, someday finally arrived, and the homeowners had one clear request: they wanted to be able to walk the grandchildren out to the pool straight from the back porch.

That request set the whole project in motion. The site originally in mind sat roughly ten feet below the upper yard, which meant the pool would be tucked out of sight and out of easy reach. John Edgington of Tennessee Landscape Company had a different idea: build a substantial retaining wall and raise the entire pool up to meet the yard, so it would be visible and walkable from the porch. The property itself worked in their favor, since its size and layout made equipment access and pool placement straightforward, with none of the site logistics that can complicate a raised installation like this one.

The result is a ten-foot segmental retaining wall built with Versa-Lok block, a system Edgington’s team has worked with for close to thirty years. Retaining walls have been the company’s specialty from the start. Edgington’s father founded Tennessee Landscape Company decades ago as a landscaping business, and the family expanded into heavy equipment work and pool building over the years as they looked for new ways to grow. Since building pools meant they were already handling everything around the pool, adding the pools themselves felt like a natural next step, and that path eventually led them to become a Leisure Pools dealer.

The Pinnacle 40 in-ground fiberglass pool in Silver Grey came loaded with features from Hayward, including a saltwater system, a UV sanitation system, a 400,000-BTU heater, an automatic chemical sense-and-dispense system, and an automatic pool cover from Integra Pool Covers. The hardscape tells its own story of a design that evolved over time. The retaining wall was finished in a gray Belgard Dimensions pavers called Teak, paired with Savannah coping around the pool. When it came time to build the pool house, the team had some trouble matching the surrounding patio color, so they introduced a lighter paver tone around the pool house itself, giving the finished space two distinct but complementary patio colors, a detail that was not part of the original plan but that the homeowners have embraced.

Setting the pool required careful sequencing, since the retaining wall had to rise first to create a base before the pool could be set and backfilled. Once everything was in place, the transformation was dramatic: a hillside that once made a pool feel out of reach became a raised, framed centerpiece the family can walk to directly from their home.

Beyond pools, Tennessee Landscape Company builds fire pits and outdoor kitchens and continues to expand its outdoor living offerings for clients across the Cookeville area.

Congratulations to John Edgington and the entire Tennessee Landscape Company team on a well-earned Pool of the Month win.