Shaping and thinning that keeps mature trees healthy — on a calendar that respects oak wilt season.
If you take one thing from this page: do not prune oaks in North Texas between February and June.
That is the period when the sap-feeding beetles that carry oak wilt are most active, and a fresh pruning wound on an oak is exactly what they are looking for. Denton County is oak country — post oak, live oak, red oak — and oak wilt spreads not only above ground by beetle but below ground through the grafted root systems that connect neighbouring oaks. One infected tree can take others with it.
The rules that follow from that:
A crew that turns up in April with a chainsaw and no paint is a crew that has not worked in Texas long.
Trimming is not about making a tree smaller. It is about structure, health and clearance:
Crown cleaning — removing deadwood, crossing branches, broken and diseased material. The baseline maintenance every mature tree needs periodically.
Crown raising — lifting the lower canopy off the roof, the driveway, the walkway. A handful of significant cuts, usually the most immediately noticeable.
Crown thinning — selectively reducing interior density so light and wind pass through. This is the labour-intensive one: many small, deliberate cuts spread through the canopy. It is also what makes a mature tree look cared for rather than cut back.
Structural pruning on young trees — the highest-value work nobody asks for. A few correct cuts on a young tree prevents the weak unions and co-dominant stems that become expensive problems in twenty years.
Shrub and hedge work — shaping, rejuvenation on overgrown material, and cutting back to restore lines.
Tree ordinances in this service area are real and they have teeth.
Flower Mound requires a removal permit for protected trees. The process can involve a tree survey, mitigation or replacement planting, and Council review for specimen trees — and post oaks are held to a lower specimen threshold than most species, meaning a post oak becomes “specimen” at a smaller size than you would expect.
Argyle likewise requires a permit to remove a protected tree, with a site plan showing exact location, caliper, height and species. Argyle is also a Tree City USA community, and the town has been running a rebate that pays residents back for planting qualifying trees — worth knowing before you remove one.
Requirements differ between towns and get amended. We confirm what applies at your address before anything comes down.
The Town of Argyle commissioned an urban forest study that surveyed fifty field plots. It found post oak making up around thirty percent of the town’s tree population and accounting for the largest single share of its tree value — hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth by the study’s own valuation.
That matters practically because post oaks are unforgiving. They resent root-zone disturbance, soil compaction, grade change and overwatering. A large share of post oak decline around here is not disease at all — it is a driveway extension, a raised bed, or an irrigation zone that was installed with good intentions inside the root zone.
If you have mature post oaks, the most valuable thing we can do is often to advise on what not to do near them.
Yellowing leaves with green veins on an otherwise healthy-looking tree usually means iron chlorosis. It is widespread here because alkaline Blackland clay locks up iron and makes it unavailable to the roots — so the iron is present in the soil, the tree just cannot get at it. Red oaks and pin oaks planted in this region are especially prone. Treatment is available and it is not exotic.
We publish an honest cost guide for this service — real North Texas market ranges, what the low end actually buys you, and what pushes a number up. No sign-up, no email gate.
Not between February and June. That is the high-risk window for oak wilt, when the beetles that spread the fungus are active and a fresh cut is an open invitation. Outside that window is far safer, and any oak wound made at any time of year should be painted immediately — a step crews from outside Texas routinely skip. If an oak has to be cut during the risk window because of storm damage or a genuine hazard, it can be done, with sealing protocol, and it costs more for good reason.
It is a fungal disease that spreads between oaks both above ground via beetles and below ground through connected root systems, and it kills. Denton County is oak country, so it is a real regional risk rather than a theoretical one. The Argyle urban forest study put oak wilt exposure at a meaningful share of the town tree population by value. Treatment exists — macro-infusion, which runs into the high hundreds or low thousands per tree — but it is a save, not a cure. Pruning at the right time of year is far cheaper than treating.
Possibly, and this surprises people who assume a tree on their own property is entirely their business. Flower Mound requires a permit for protected trees, with a tree survey, mitigation or replacement requirements, and Council-level review for specimen trees — with post oaks held to a lower specimen threshold than most species. Argyle also requires a permit for protected trees, with a site plan showing caliper, height and species. Rules differ by city and change; we check before anything is cut.
Crown cleaning removes deadwood, crossing limbs and broken material — the baseline. Crown raising lifts the canopy off a roof, drive or walkway, which is a small number of large cuts. Crown thinning selectively reduces interior density to let light and wind through, which is many small precise cuts throughout the canopy and is the most labour-intensive of the three. They are different jobs at different prices, and a quote that just says "trim" is not telling you which one you are getting.
In ours, yes. It is worth asking every bidder, because debris removal is not consistently priced as a separate line and that is a common way two quotes end up looking different for the same work.
We will not. Topping — cutting main limbs back to stubs — is genuinely damaging: it triggers weak regrowth, opens large wounds that decay, and permanently compromises the structure. If a tree is too large for its location the honest answers are proper reduction pruning, or removal and replanting something appropriate. Anybody who agrees to top a healthy tree is taking your money to shorten its life.
Justin and his team did a beautiful job cleaning up our yard and pruning a big tree. They also stained our fence and…
Gina, thank you both for trusting in us for your landscape job. It's always exciting to see the cleanup come together and the customer's face with a big smile. We are always here to help whenever you need us!
Justin and his team did an outstanding job transforming our overgrown landscaping into something beautiful again. They…
Thank you so much Kerry! It was a pleasure helping you both. We are here when you need us.
Justin was fair, transparent, on-time, and a great communicator. He spent time figuring out the mapping of my sprinkler…
Matt, thank you for trusting in us. Thank you for your service to our Country. From one Marine to another Semper Fi!
Every town here sits on the same Blackland Prairie clay, and every one of them creates a slightly different version of the problem. Pick yours:
Home base. Large-lot properties, half-acre and up, where drainage has further to travel and irrigation has more ground to cover.
Double Oak landscaping →
Bridlewood, Wellington, Canyon Falls and the lake-adjacent neighborhoods — where 1990s-era irrigation is hitting the age when it starts failing.
Flower Mound landscaping →
Highland Shores and the south shore of Lewisville Lake — 1,800-plus homes built in one wave, and their sprinkler systems are aging in one wave too.
Highland Village landscaping →
The widest range of housing age in the service area — 1950s core to new build — which means no two yards here need quite the same thing.
Lewisville landscaping →
The county seat, and the namesake of the Denton soil series — clay over limestone, which changes how water moves and how deep roots can go.
Denton landscaping →
Acreage country. Bigger lots, longer runs, and watering rules that make an efficient system worth more here than almost anywhere else nearby.
Argyle landscaping →Standing water, soggy spots, washouts — graded, piped and fixed before the next big rain, not after it.
Learn more →New turf laid over properly prepped soil — the part most crews skip, and the reason sod fails.
Learn more →Mowing, edging, weed control and seasonal work on a schedule you can actually set your week by.
Learn more →Beds, plantings and layouts designed on your property, in person — not pulled from a catalog.
Learn more →