The Tree Tender

Nicky is damn good, knows his stuff. I am a fan

Just had our trees done by the Tree Tender. Am very happy with the results and the contacts. The were here all day Saturday and his was polite and seemed to work their butts off.
In a few years, I’m sure we’ll be calling them again.

Summary: Great work, but your call will probably not get answered, so leave a [clearly enunciated] message, and then wait a bit for your calls to be returned (you’ll get called back, but it might be a few hours or a couple days) [this is not the reason for 4 stars, as I don’t consider this a flaw — your trees aren’t going anywhere!]. Crew was late on the day of the job, so coordinate to start without you if this is a concern.
I seem to have a different format for each of my reviews so far. This one is a bulleted list.
* If you call, more likely than not you’ll get the machine/​voice mail. Leave a message and be patient, and he’ll call you back.
* Nickey will set up a time to drop by and give you a free estimate. I really liked having my trees identified (I’m botanically challenged). Some needed more work than others, and some tasks were trivial, and so free.
* Nickey provided advice on clearing an area around one of my trees that wasn’t doing so well. I’ll have to see how it does once the leaves come back.
* Estimate in hand, I called later to schedule. I waited for the crew to arrive so I could confirm the job and let them trim trees while I was at work, but they were over an hour late. I just left a note on my door to go ahead, and call when nearing completion. Which they did.
* When they left, it was like they were never there, but my trees’ troublesome branches were somehow magically removed. (No lawn mess).

Nickey and his team did an amazing job on educating us about our trees as well as taking care of the. He was as knowledgable as he was passionate about his work and his team was extremely professional. I highly recommend them.

Nickey and crew cleaned up a cedar elm, live oak, and a cherry laurel in my back yard.
Nickey provided an estimate and landed in the middle of three estimates I received. He’s very passionate and knowledgable about tree’s, and it shows. Within ten days I was able to get them out to start work. They arrived the first day, but were delayed by weather and unable to finish. They came out a second day, and again, were delayed by weather and unable to finish. They came a third day and completed the job when I wasn’t home. The weather was not there fault, thus the longer time to complete. Nickey came by the house twice that I know of to monitor the work and offer his guy’s some direction.
The crew did a really good job on each of the trees, which turned out nicely. The crew was very respectful and ended up having to enter two of my neighbors properties. Both my neighbors were pleased with the work and the clean up. They also did an pretty good job of clean up in my yard, with an exception below. Overall, I was pleased with my experience and I’d recommend The Tree Tender to family and friends. It was $ 1800, which I thought was reasonable.
I have two gripes which prevented me from giving them a «5 Star»:
1. On my live oak, I had what Nickey referred to as a fungus on the trunk near the ground. During the walk through estimate, he said he would use tools to strip away the bark to allow the fungus to dry out and the bark to heal and scab over. I had to remind Nickey of that a second time, on the second day, he came out. He told Bryce, his foreman to do it, in front of me. The third day came, they finished, I wasn’t home, and it still had not been completed. I called Nickey a few days later, reminded him of it, and he mentioned they would be out in a couple days to complete it after providing my neighbor an estimate, for which I recommended my neighbor to them. We’ll, it wasn’t done, and that was over a week ago, and after three times of being discussed. Disappointed.
2. That day that I called Nickey about the fungus not being completed, I also told him I had several large limbs that had been cut which were dangling from the tree limbs above, and I couldn’t reach them. Again, he said after providing my neighbor an estimate, he would come over and take care of it, while tacking the fungus. Again, it’s been over a week, it hasn’t been completed, I haven’t heard from Nickey, and I confirmed with my neighbor that he came by and provided an estimate. Between the recent storms and some of them falling on my beds and damaging other plants, and and my fishing of the limbs, I did it myself in less that 30 minutes. Disappointed.
In summary, I was pleased with the work, I just wished they would have finished as promised.
UPDATE (11÷16÷13): (ORIGINALLY RATED 4 OUT OF 5 STARS)
Nikki was hired by my neighbor this week. While they were next door, he and his crew happily came over and took care of the bark with fungus on my live oak, and cut down an additional limb. Thanks Tree Tender!
Update (Summer of 2014): (NOW RATED 1 OUT OF 5 STARS)
I contacted The Tree Tender to come out after that bad storm we had where North Austin had damaging winds. Called them the very next morning (Friday), early, after the late night storm, and left a message. Bryce called me back that afternoon and said Nikki would call me after he returned from vacation on Monday. I waited, and waited, and called back a week later and left a message. I finally spoke to Nikki later that day and he said he forgot and he was sorry. He also said he should have the guys out over the weekend, I said great. Fast forward two weeks, and Bryce and the Tree Tender Crew show up announced at my door and say they are ready to work. Eh, I don’t think so! My wife politely explained that the work was already completed.
Three weeks turn around for a repeat customer is ridiculous after numerous promises of either being contacted OR that the crew would show up. I suggest looking elsewhere for tree service. Nikki and his crew knows what they’re doing, but scheduling and communication is a nightmare. I’ll pass, and I suggest you do the same. I gave these guys a second AND third chance for my business, and I got screwed in the end.

Nickey was the third certified arborist I asked to come out and bid on trimming several large oaks. He was the only one to say that they weren’t ready to be pruned. Rather, they needed root crown excavation in order to get robust enough to warrant trimming. So, instead of giving me a bid, he gave me the number of someone who could do the excavation. He has definitely earned my trust and respect. Big green thumbs up for The Tree Tender.

Love Nickey because he loves my trees.
I bought a house recently with some gorgeous big old trees but there were problems like splits in some limbs and limbs on top of my neighbor’s roof.
Called Nickey and he came out and correctly pruned the problem areas, cleaned up that pesky ball moss and made recommendations for the rest of the trees.
If you love your trees you need to get them done correctly. Incorrect pruning can lead to all sorts of problems including oak wilt.
Do yourself a favor and call Nickey. Professional, not overpriced, courteous, on time and good communication.

We had a large 300+ year old live oak pruned by the Tree Tender team and they did a fantastic job with setup, trimming, and clean up. They were all very courteous. Nicky (the owner) was not present, but the crew leader Bryce was absolutely fantastic. Nicky did the estimate and was clearly more passionate about trees than anyone I’ve ever met. If we need more work done we will certainly ask them to come back.

Nickey came out and told me exactly what was wrong with my trees and what to do about it. He is very knowledgable about trees and really enjoyes what he does. I learned a lot from conversing with him when he came out, and you can tell he enjoyes talking trees to his customers. I definitely recommend! Your trees will be in good hands.

I’ve been reluctant to have pros trim our backyard oaks since I really like a natural, lush look. It seems like most of the neighbors’ trees look sparse once a professional crew gets through with them. However, we had too many dead branches, and the roof was starting to be scraped, so I decided to call in pros. After reading the Unilocal reviews, I suspected that The Tree Tender was the one I wanted. Nicky was great. I explained my concerns to him and the final visual effect that I wanted. He had a crew out the next day, headed up by Bryce. While Nicky himself didn’t do the work, he walked Bryce through the whole job for about an hour giving him detailed instructions about what to do. They hit the nail on the head. The trees look tidier but not bare. Lots of the smaller green twigs are still there that I suspect other companies would have chopped off. They cleared enough branches away from the house that it should be about 5 years before I need anyone out again. I highly recommend The Tree Tender.

It’s obvious that the proprietor cares about trees. He went out of his way to carve some decay out of our tree himself and supervised the job carefully, although he wasn’t there during most of the work. The pruning was done on schedule and the cost was reasonable. I would recommend!

Nickey is the best at what he does: a tree tender. He planned out the trimming for our lot carefully. He explained what needs to be done in order to have healthy, growing trees. His crew is as good as he is. He spent a lot of time to take care of our trees but charged us very reasonably. Highly recommend!

Nickey is the third tree pruner I’ve hired in 10 years. I’m very satisfied with him. He knows his trees and loves them, and I learned a lot by walking around my lot with him. He did an excellent, artistic, and correct job in trimming branches both to my specifications and for the health of the trees. There was one spot that I wasn’t completely satisfied with, and he came back and addressed it, no questions asked. I found his price to be very fair when considering you are getting his expertise.

The Tree Tender came out and did some work on a variety of trees (pecan, burr oaks, pistache, cedar elm etc.) on our property. It was just done today, but my initial impression is it looks good. The only thing I would note is I didn’t see Nickey Bishop all day. The individual who was in charge was named Bryce (it turns out he’s the heir apparent of the company per their website). He was great, but I do feel the certified arborist should at least swing by. Maybe he did, but I wish he would have knocked on my door to let me know he indeed did.

Nickey Bishop, the owner of The Tree Tender, is the ONLY one to call for tree care. We are new to Austin and had a large tree limb come down from one of our trees. I called him after reading some great reviews about him as well reading some scary reviews about other companies. I needed an assessment on the damaged tree as well as several other trees in our yard that clearly needed pruning.
He came out and spent 45 minutes (for free!) going over his recommendations for my trees. He is, without a doubt, the most knowledgeable person I’ve ever spoken with on the matter. He and his team did a better than expected job on all of my trees. They were polite, respectful and hardworking. They took great care of my yard and property in the process, and it’s not just my trees that look great; the whole yard looks wonderful. They cleared away every leaf and twig, even the ones already there. I can’t say enough good things about them! I’d never consider hiring anyone else! Worth every penny!
Update 3÷9÷15
Unfortunately, my second experience with TTT was not as good. After giving 5 stars originally, this job was not good. Estimate was left so I wasn’t able to speak directly to Nickey and the crew he sent did not do a good job. I felt like the trees were so well cared for the first go round and they looked so lovely afterward. This was an expensive slipshod job. At one point one guy with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth was sawing a limb of my life oak with one hand from the ground and the branch was heaving back and forth violently. Not cleanly cut at all. I keep noticing things left undone, like lots of ugly dead wood left on some trees that were supposed to be trimmed neatly on the side of my house. Sadly, I won’t be calling him again; I’ll try another service.

Nickey is a self-​described Tree Hugger. I couldn’t me more thrilled when he announced that to me thinking I was calling to ask him to come take down a tree that’d suddenly and very unexpectedly dropped a HUGE branch in our yard directly over our 3 year old son’s play area. I called him on a Saturday afternoon, and he rearranged his schedule to come take a look at our trees and assess the risk of more branches falling over the weekend. He seemed to instantly get a vibe for the trees’ health and assured me that it’d be okay to wait until Monday to do the work. Not only does he have a sort of metaphysical connection to the trees, he is also an awesome scientist. Nickey totally knows his arboriculture, & as such, his crew did an EXCELLENT job tending to our 3 large trees. They were gentle but VERY thorough with our trees. It was almost like watching a bonsai master but on a much larger scale. Nickey stayed on site and supervised as well as performed much of the pruning and «wound grinding» himself.
Our trees look fantastic now. I truly thought they’d be butchered knowing how many limbs needed to be pruned. But I was VERY pleasantly surprised when I came home to my gorgeous trees!
Now, I no longer have to worry about rotten branches falling out of the sky onto my children playing below, because I KNOW that Nickey and his crew touched every one of them! I felt their price was very reasonable considering the amount of work they did. I’ll hire them in a heartbeat the next time our trees need some TLC — emphasis on the T!

I first met Nickey Bishop back in the 90s at a kids birthday party. He had done some work on some ancient pecan trees in Hyde Park for the hosts of the party. This was social networking before the term existed.
He came out and took a look at our trees. A mix of cedar and oak which had not been trimmed in quite some time. Nickey suggested we trim the oaks and reduce the cedar canopy to allow more light and promote the growth of more oaks. He took me to a nearby property that he had trimmed in this way a few years earlier. It looked great. This was the beginning of my time with The Tree Tender.
Nickey did a great job on the trees. On time with a reasonable price. The cedar grows quickly so from time to time he came back. Never once was there a no show or shoddy work. Nickey loves trees. I mean he really loves trees. He is The Tree Tender not the tree killer or tree butcher.
The nice thing about doing business with The Tree Tender is you are always in touch with the boss. He is a certified arborist and oak wilt specialist. Nickey has been working in Austin with trees since the 1970s. I have never used another tree service. Nickey is the best. Attention to detail and a true love of trees.
If you are looking at tree removal or tree killing he is not the guy. On the other hand if protecting your trees is what you are after The Tree Tender is pure gold.

I’ve never met anyone as passionate about trees. Nickey Bishop sent out a 2 page letter this year describing the effect of the drought on trees, the steps to take now and the state of his business. It was personal and really made me stop and think about supporting your local businesses and people like this.
He is a super nice guy, does great work and Austin is lucky to have him.

For several years, Nickey Bishop, The Tree Tender, has taken care of my trees. He obviously loves the trees and his work. He is knowledgeable, reliable, reasonably priced, and responsive. One tree needed special treatment and Nickey showed me how to give that treatment myself and I saved money.
Let him take care of your trees. Your trees will be happier and healthier and you will be a happy customer too.