About us

David Lilley

I studied for a National Diploma at Merrist Wood College, a two year course covering aspects of arboriculture as diverse as common pests and disease, law and everything in between. The course also gave me the opportunity for a secondment working with the tree officer at Bedford County Council.

Having graduated in 1998 and after a year working in Sydney's eastern suburbs as a tree surgeon, fending off the local wildlife, I rather reluctantly returned to the U.K. and have been carrying out tree surgery and maintenance in Surrey since then.

Working for large local firms gave me a wealth of experience in both the private and public sectors including council contracts in Epsom and Ewell, Mole Valley, Reigate and Banstead and Sutton as well as London's Royal Parks which includes Downing Street.

Hedge trimming, bush planting and general tree maintenance such as crown thinning and stump grinding and removal are definitely my specialities.

I particulary enjoy tackling overgrown gardens, uprooting stubborn weeds and cutting back out of control trees.

Daniel Ballinger

After completing the National Certificate in arboriculture I headed down under to work as a climber in the Garden City, Toowoomba. It is a great job to travel with and I have gained invaluable experience working in Australia, Vancouver, Canada and all over NZ.

It also affords you the opportunity to work for many different companies at home, this has seen me working in the royal parks, working for local authorities in central London and surrey, the national trust and of course private gardens.

You can't move about forever though, so with our combined experience we decided to set up the Green Man in our local area.

I tend to enjoy felling trees, carefully and professionally planning how to cut a tree in the safest way. Other skills are in tree reduction and hedge trimming.