Orchards & Fruit Trees
Site selection, variety planning, planting, pruning, and long term care for productive home and market orchards.
Private Food Systems
Designed, built, and maintained for families in the Franklin, Leiper's Fork, and Spring Hill area.
Meet Your Guide
Heritage skills, modern systems,grown right here in Tennessee.
Ryan McDonald grew up with his hands in the soil. Today I help families, hobby farmers, and landowners across Middle Tennessee turn raw land, or even a backyard, into thriving, private food systems.
From a single fruit tree to a full working homestead with chickens, bees, goats, and a four‑season garden, I bring the experience, planning, and hands‑on know‑how to make the dream real.
Proudly serving families south of Nashville, including Franklin, Leiper's Fork, Spring Hill, Columbia, Dickson, and surrounding Middle Tennessee areas.
Fun Fact
Hands‑on experience managing bees, livestock, gardens, and land‑based food systems in real‑world environments. You can find local honey in stores throughout Middle TN under the label, DVASH.
Support You Receive
Everything you need to grow your own food.
Backed by 15 years of beekeeping, 25+ years in the garden, 100+ fruit trees planted, hundreds of chickens raised, and countless families who have trusted me to help bring their systems to life.
Kitchen & Market Gardens
Raised beds, in ground rows, four season planning, soil building, and seed to harvest support.
Farm Animal Care
Chickens, ducks, goats, sheep, and more. Coops, pasture rotation, feed, and day to day care guidance.
Beekeeping
Hive setup, swarm management, seasonal inspections, and honey harvest for first time and seasoned beekeepers.
Food Processing & Preservation
Canning, fermenting, drying, and root cellaring. Turning the harvest into a year round pantry.
Whole Food System Design
A custom roadmap that ties land, animals, gardens, and people into one resilient, self sustaining system.
How It Works
Three steps from dream to dinner table.
Step 01
Book a Consult
15 focused minutes for $29. Bring questions, dreams, or a specific problem, and together we'll come up with the next steps.
Step 02
Plan Your System
Site walk (in person or virtual) includes goal setting, a custom roadmap matched to your land, time, and level of need.
Step 03
Planted 1778
This is where everything comes to life. Hands‑on build help and ongoing support as needed.
From Animals to Bees
A Peek Behind the Scenes with Planted 1778
A look at the real‑world systems, land, animals, gardens, and seasonal work behind private food production in Middle Tennessee.
From quiet mornings with the animals to hands in the soil, every season tells a story, rooted, faithful, and full of life.
The Work, Up Close
Moments from Middle Tennessee homesteads
Soil, harvests, animals, and the quiet craft behind every system we build.
Kind Words
From Tennessee neighbors.
"Ryan has helped me on my farm in very practical ways… bush hogging, re‑seeding and maintaining horse paddocks, moving and fixing the electric fence, garden upgrades, advice and installation of a new bee hive. He is pleasant, reliable, honest and hard working. He comes with a lot of skills and experience. I highly recommend him."
Helen S.
"Getting bees from Ryan was so easy. He showed us what to buy ahead of time and delivered bees to our house and we set them up together. He walked through it all step by step. The best part is his quick response and eagerness to help later when you have more questions. He is very knowledgeable."
Steve R.
"Ryan McDonald has been a huge help to our family. His expertise and character make his work stand out from the crowd, and we would highly recommend him to any family or company looking for trusted help around their property."
Robby V.
"Ryan is a true farmer and capable of large and small projects that need expertise as well as stamina. He has put in a berry patch in a day as well as helping with animals and trees too big for me to manage. He is reliable and very helpful!"
Lee Anne O.
Questions
Things people often ask.
Let's TalkReserve My Spot
Book Your 15-Minute Consult
One short call to get clear on your next step, whether that's a single fruit tree or a whole working homestead.
15 minutes
Focused & friendly
Flat $29
Can be applied to a full system cost
Pick your time
Pick a time that works
Get In Touch
Have a question? Drop a line.
For quick scheduling questions or to share what you're hoping to build, Ryan reads every message personally.
Email
rmcdon00@gmail.comPhone
(641) 990-5489Service Area
Serving the greater Franklin, TN area, virtual consults available anywhere.
Rooted and Established
A passage that grounds the work.
Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is.
For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.
Jeremiah 17:7–8 (KJV)