Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Trimming our palm tree


We have three large palm trees that border our pool. They grow pods which grow little black berries. At certain times of the year these black berries drop to the ground and before long there is terrible profusion of them. If you step on them, they squish and stain the concrete. If they fall in the pool, they stain the pool. They are a godawful mess.

So, we call on Matt of Tight Knot Tree Service to come trim off these pods. That's Matt way up on the palm tree in front of our deck.

We need to call Matt back because it is once again raining little black berries!

35 comments:

Lisa Wilson said...

I had no idea that palm trees were such high maintenance until our LA trip earlier this year!

Lee Spangler said...

I love to see the lush tropical plants of Florida. Do you get coconuts?

magiceye said...

matt sure seems to be enjoying his stint up there!

melanie said...

Ce doit être un gros travail pour éliminer ces petites baies noires !

Olivier said...

belle photo de ce travailleur, pas facile comme métier, monter sur un palmier avec une tronçonneuse cela ne doit pas être facile...
nice photograph of this worker, not easy as job, to go up on a palm with a chain saw it should not be easy...

stromsjo said...

Arborists are modern time heroes!

VP said...

I didn't know that... Nice working portrait of Matt, who does a quite strange job!

Anonymous said...

Swimming pool and palm trees! Oh my god! I need more vacations!

Kcalpesh said...

Well it's a difficult job, but the guy in the picture really looks to be going cool about it!

Antjas said...

Why not just cut the whole darn thing down? You obviously have a love-hate relationship with it.

Anonymous said...

Oh, that looks scary. He just has a little rope. I guess the black berries are not edible. That might be an interesting taste sensation. Palm berries. At least they won't kill you if they fall on you like a coconut would! LOL!

B SQUARED said...

We had the same problem with our palms. Then the hurricanes came. I lost all the trees in my yard including my prized Key Lime Tree.

Small City Scenes said...

Ididn't know that either. Are the black berries the fruit of the trees? Sorta like dates only not? I guess Matt has job security. MB

Hilda said...

That does not look like an easy job!
Sounds like those berries are a natural dye. Very interesting.

Anonymous said...

I didn't know palms had those berries - how odd!

Oh, how I wish I had a pool in my backyard! That would be sooo nice

Have a great weekend

Lois said...

I hate those black berries! I don't have any palm trees in my yard, but at work we had a company come in a couple of weeks ago to do this very same thing. I saw a couple of interesting shots I could have gotten for my blog, but I didn't have my camera!

Lowell said...

Hi Lois - They really are a huge problem and I had no idea, either, that palm trees were so messy.

You didn't have your camera? Yikes!

Bergson said...

Matt seemed reassured by the rope, not me

Leif Hagen said...

Have you tried making Palm tree black berry jam?!
I hate it when the berries stain the pool and the concrete and one's Florida T-shirt! Just hate it when that happens! Darn berries! Hate that!

I hope Matt was wearing some heavy duty pants so he didn't hurt anything . . . .

Daryl said...

He must have a nice view from up there .. maybe when he's removing the berries he can take a few shots ...

Memphis MOJO said...

Good shot.

Tight Knot Tree Service

Cool name.

Judy said...

Now that is a job that I would not be able to do. It can be a dangerous task. Last month they lost a trimmer in Phoenix to a crushing accident.

James said...

I've always liked palm trees, but I've never had to clean up after one.

Frank said...

To get a really good comment response next time you should just show the black berries themselves. (I'm glad my wife doesn't have this particular tree-trimmer at our house. :))Incredible response to a photo you probably took while lounging in your deck chair, drink in one hand, camera in the other. (I'm learning, Master)Great post Jacob.

Halcyon said...

Does this guy do pine trees? If so, I'm giving him a call!

Allison said...

It looks to me like Matt is posing for LL Bean catalog! I hope a coconut doesn't fall and donk him on the head. You think little black berries make a mess in the pool...

Unknown said...

Different species of palm trees are also showing their pods around here, but their berries are yellow, orange or light brown, not black.

cieldequimper said...

Hi Matt! Now you have a trimmed palm tree!

Marie said...

Ah, ah, Matt is a new Tarzan!

Jacob, Mary tried to help me change the html of my blog in order to get bigger photos like you and her but my html seems to be different from hers. Would you mind having a look at it when you have a minute? (I can paste my html in a message or give you the password). I don't want to make you waste your time though. But I've wanted to post bigger photos for such a long time!!!!!! Thank you very much in advance and don't hesitate to let me know if you don't have the time to do that. I wouldn't resent you :-))

Buenos Aires Photoblog said...

Neat post, Jacob! What species is it that you have in your garden? Well, I'm not a palm expert but you can sell these berries at least if the palm is an Açaí palm. Dunno if they are common in Florida.

Stefan Jansson said...

That's very impressive, working up a tree with a chainsaw can be tricky,and it's a good portrait of the man as well.

tapirgal said...

I like seeing how these things are done. I really enjoyed this. Matt looks nice, too! You said it cools down in Ocala. Maybe that's a good part of Florida for me to visit someday. Actually, I was there when I was young and didn't mind the heat, but I remember so little. There were caverns, I think.

tapirgal said...

"Photographers deal in things which are continually vanishing and when they have vanished there is no contrivance on earth which can make them come back again." — Henri Cartier-Bresson

What a great quote on your page. It seems every time I go somewhere in town lately, I see things that have changed, and I have photos of many of them. He said it more eloquently.

Lynette said...

Wow! The photo could be a first-class ad for Matt's high-flying business. Great job, Jacob.

EG CameraGirl said...

AH! I always wondered how someone would climb a palm tree!

"Photographers deal in things which are continually vanishing and when they have vanished there is no contrivance on earth which can make them come back again." — Henri Cartier-Bresson