Lawn and tree services across the New River Valley

The New River Valley — the NRV, if you live here — is the stretch of southwest Virginia along the New River. Montgomery, Floyd, Giles, and Pulaski counties, plus the city of Radford. The river itself is one of the oldest in the world and, unusually, runs north.

• What it coversMontgomery, Floyd, Giles and Pulaski counties, plus Radford
• Range of propertyQuarter-acre subdivision lots through to forty acres of pasture
• Why that mattersThe same tree is a different job in town than it is on ten acres
• EstimatesEvery one of them happens in person

What the NRV is actually like to work in

It's a region of very different properties packed close together. A university town, a county seat, small farms up on a plateau, river frontage, and a lot of country in between. You can go from a quarter-acre lot in a Christiansburg subdivision to forty acres of pasture in Riner in about fifteen minutes.

That matters for a service business, because the same job is a different job depending on where it is. A tree removal on a tight town lot is a rigging problem. The same tree on ten acres in Pilot is a felling job and a fraction of the price. Which is why every estimate here happens in person.

Where Trevor works

Regular ground is Christiansburg, Blacksburg, Floyd, and over the mountain into Roanoke. In between that covers Riner, Shawsville, Elliston, Pilot, Radford, and Salem. If you're somewhere not on that list, ask — he'll tell you yes or no straight away rather than take the call and never get back to you.

The seasons here

Elevation varies enough across the NRV that the calendar shifts as you move around it. Floyd and Blacksburg green up later and frost earlier than Christiansburg; Roanoke, a thousand feet lower, runs ahead of all of them. Broadly:

• Spring — cleanup, the first cuts, beds and mulch, and everything that got left in the fall
• Summer — mowing at its heaviest into June, then brush, trimming, and storm cleanup as the grass slows
• Fall — the second growth flush, the seeding window, and leaves
• Winter — the best season for structural pruning, plus ice damage, brush clearing, and hauling

Why one person for all of it

The two largest tree companies in this area are both good at trees and both do only trees. Neither will cut your grass, edge a bed, or haul a couch out of a basement. On most properties those jobs arrive together, which means most people end up managing three vendors to finish one project.

Trevor's whole case is that he does all of it, he prices it once, and he's the one who shows up. That's the practical version of “local,” and in the NRV it usually costs less than the alternative.