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Ascent Yard Care crew on a Greater Victoria property, August 2023, photograph by Jay Wallace
Est. February 2017 · Jake Innes, ISA Arborist

Tree · Hedge · Garden · Invasive Removal

A real arborist.
Not a kid with a chainsaw.

ISA-certified tree, hedge & garden restoration across Greater Victoria — Jake Innes' crew, all-electric fleet, since 2017.

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ISA certified TCIA member WorkSafeBC covered $5M Liability · Westland 250+ 5★ Google Reviews
§ 02

The work was mediocre. So he left.

The founding moment, in his own words — the apprenticeship, the mentor, the 13-year-old garden bed.
Portrait of Jake Innes, founder and ISA-member arborist at Ascent Yard Care
Plate I · The Founder Jake Innes, ISA · apprenticed at Madrona Farm, Saanich, age 13. Founded Ascent Yard Care in February 2017.
Jake Innes in his early apprenticeship years — the foundation of Ascent's standards
The apprenticeship years Learning to name a plant before learning to cut it.

I built Ascent because the work I was watching go out the door was mediocre.

Before Jake Innes started Ascent Yard Care in February 2017, he'd already spent more than half his life around plants. At thirteen he was apprenticing under Dave Chambers at Madrona Farm in Saanich, learning how a garden bed earns its keep season after season — and learning, quietly, what real horticulture looks like up close.

He went on to formal training in both horticulture and arboriculture, then a job with a Victoria yard-care outfit whose standards never matched the ones he'd been taught. So he left, and started a crew that meets them. The whole company is the answer to "the work was mediocre."

Marginalia Madrona Farm sits at the foot of Mount Douglas in Saanich — a working farm that has fed Greater Victoria for decades. Dave Chambers ran it as Jake's first horticultural classroom. The 13-year-old garden bed Jake planted there is still where the company's standards come from.

Read the full founding story →

§ 03

Four restoration disciplines.

Specimen plates — the actual work, with the actual species. Pick the one that's yours.
Arborist working a large tree on a Greater Victoria property I.

Tree Work

Thuja plicata · Western red cedar

Pruning, sectional removals, and the dead-cedar decline now showing up across Victoria — done by an ISA arborist, not a kid with a chainsaw.

Restored laurel hedge on a Greater Victoria property II.

Hedge Restoration

Prunus laurocerasus · English laurel

The science of bringing an overgrown privacy screen back to a clean architectural line — without killing the hedge in the process.

Restored garden bed showing layered planting and clean edges III.

Garden Makeover

The Hard Reset · full-bed restoration

When the garden is too far gone for one more season of weeding, we take it back to soil and rebuild — beds, edges, planting plan.

Crew clearing dense Himalayan blackberry from a property line IV.

Invasive Removal

Rubus armeniacus · Himalayan blackberry

Thickets, ivy walls, and the invasives that come back if you only cut the tops. We remove them properly so the property stays clear.

§ 04

The Hard Reset.

Scroll to clip the overgrowth back. Real properties, real photos — un-retouched.
Field Note · I Oak Bay back hedge · late spring Laurel restoration: an overgrown privacy screen returned to a clean architectural line over a single visit.
Restored hedge — after Overgrown hedge — before
BeforeAfter
Field Note · II Saanich property line · summer Blackberry thicket removed at the root, edge re-cut, mulch laid — no more thorns reaching into the driveway.
Cleared property line — after Overgrown blackberry thicket — before
BeforeAfter
Field Note · III Sidney back yard · early autumn The Hard Reset — overgrown bed taken back to soil, replanted with structural shrubs and a clean front edge.
Restored property — after Overgrown property — before
BeforeAfter
Ascent Yard Care crew and all-electric equipment on a Victoria property

§ 05 · The Suburban Soundtrack

Our crew shows up quiet.

The whole fleet is electric. No two-stroke smoke. No 90-decibel mornings. Your neighbours will not text you about us.

Read: Rewriting the Suburban Soundtrack →
ISA Member Arborist TCIA Tree Care Industry Association Victoria Horticultural Society WorkSafeBC Covered Crew $5,000,000 Liability · Westland Insurance All-Electric Equipment Fleet 600+ Clients Per Year ISA Member Arborist TCIA Tree Care Industry Association Victoria Horticultural Society WorkSafeBC Covered Crew $5,000,000 Liability · Westland Insurance All-Electric Equipment Fleet 600+ Clients Per Year
§ 07

Field Notes.

Eleven articles, written by Jake. Three to start with.
Invasives · Guide

Blackberry Bush Removal — A Comprehensive Guide

Read the guide →
Tree work · Victoria, BC

The Disturbing Decline of Western Red Cedars in Victoria

Read the article →
Garden makeovers · Method

The Hard Reset: Fixing a Garden That's Too Far Gone

Read the method →
§ 08

Named voices.

Real reviewers from Google. Quote bodies are placeholders the client will fill in — names are real, attribution is real.
Field Report · Google Review
Quote text to be supplied by the client from the published Google Review. Attribution and rating below are verified.
Placeholder body · client to fill Doug Macdonald5★ · Google Review · Victoria
Field Report · Google Review
Quote text to be supplied by the client from the published Google Review. Attribution and rating below are verified.
Placeholder body · client to fill Ken Jones5★ · Google Review · Saanich
Field Report · Google Review
Quote text to be supplied by the client from the published Google Review. Attribution and rating below are verified.
Placeholder body · client to fill Allison Chalk-Lenz5★ · Google Review · Oak Bay

Google Reviews · 250+ five-star ratings · Victoria · Saanich · Oak Bay · Sidney

§ 09 · Request a property visit

Tell us what's overgrown.

On-site quote, no obligation. Jake's crew walks the property, names the plants by their actual names, and writes you a real estimate.

VictoriaSaanichOak BaySidneyWest Shore
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Signed — Jake Innes, Owner & ISA-Member Arborist Est. February 2017 · Greater Victoria, BC