This is the season (almost everything is dormant now).

I don't know if it's ok to post this here - but I can recommend a tree service in the JAX area - Big Ben's. And the only reason I bring it up tonight is he and his crew were here today. As usual - a chipper shredder the size of a dump truck full to the top. I've been using Ben for about a decade now - once a year - and he has a real eye for trees. He thins them out to make them more wind-resistant - no lollipop oak trees. His goal is to make trees look like they haven't been pruned - and to keep them healthy (and he succeeds). The only trees we've lost in the last decade are a few tall pines that have been hit by lightning - hard to blame your tree guy for that!

He's not the cheapest guy in town - but he is excellent - he has great crews - and great equipment. I have no financial interest in this. But I love my yard - and I love my trees. And it's been tough times for a lot of people in businesses like this lately. So I figure if I can put in a good word for someone whose work is excellent - I should. Robyn

P.S. If you're looking to prune that big old live oak that no one has pruned in the last 20 years - that will be a very expensive job no matter who does it (assuming you don't hire someone who doesn't know what they're doing and has zero in the way of decent equipment).

P.P.S. Two large parts of tree work costs are workers' comp (which runs a little over 100% of payroll) and disposal fees. A lot of fly-by-night tree guys with cheap quotes don't comply with the workers' compensation laws. Ben generates so much stuff to dispose of that he now has a contract with a company that recycles the stuff from his chipper/shredder into boiler fuel (don't know whether they pay him or he pays them - or they call it a wash - but the stuff does get recycled).