Woody Wilson: Helping Gardens Grow

Name: William "Woody" Wilson

Preferred Pronouns: He/His

Hometown & Current Town: Royersford, PA/Centre Hall, PA

Graduation Year: BS 2012

Major & Minor: BS Agricultural Science, Minors in Leadership Development, Agronomy

Current Professional Title: Owner & Sole Proprietor

Name of Company: Wilson Home Farms

Brief Description of Your Role: Wilson Home Farms installs and maintains home vegetable gardens and fruit orchards. I'm trying to grow food for people where they live rather than them having to travel to the store or farmer's market or participate in a CSA. I've offered this service since 2012.

Why did you choose Penn State?

I started at St. Joe's in Philadelphia as an undecided Humanities major. I had been working at a golf course through high school, and I knew that I didn’t want an indoor job. The supervisors at the course all studied at Penn State, so I transferred and went to the Berks campus for one year. The summer before I transferred to University Park, I interned at a golf course and realized I didn't want to go in that direction either, but had also discovered that there were so many more majors that Penn State offered that could prepare me for a career outdoors.

What inspired you to pursue your degree?

It was partly the flexibility. I wanted to make sure I could graduate in four years after transferring and changing my major. I looked at some other majors, but it would've been difficult to graduate on time. I didn't have a career path in mind when I switched, but I knew I wanted an outdoor job.

I grew up in the suburbs, and I didn't know that you could study agriculture. I didn't realize all the different careers you can pursue with degrees from the college until I was there and learning about them.

What clubs, organizations, or leadership roles were you involved in?

I spent a lot of my time cycling. I also did some yoga groups, and I was part of a group called Eco Reps too. I was only at University Park for two years, which was brief. I TA'ed for the environmental science course BiSci. I was just getting used to things when I was graduating, which is why I decided to stay in the area.

What is a favorite Penn State memory?

I was just impressed with how much Penn State had to offer. I remember being awed by the countless career options that you could pursue. Even in the College of Ag Sciences, the list of potential majors is very impressive. When I realized I didn't want to pursue turf, there were so many other options in the college.

In the college, I found my professors and advisors were very supportive. I knew people that never even met with an advisor in other colleges, but I could and did visit with my advisor any time I needed to and that was really cool. Even after graduation, the ability to stay in touch with people was great.

I worked with Mark Brennan, who was my advisor, and we kept in touch for a few years. I also stayed connected with Mark Gagnon, the Harbaugh Entrepreneur and Innovation Faculty Scholar, who I met when I did Ag Springboard.

While a student, you participated in the Ag Springboard competition and ultimately launched your business, Wilson Home Farms. Can you talk about your experience preparing for and participating in Ag Springboard?

Ag Springboard was great because it made me go through and flesh out the semblance of a business plan. I didn't win the competition, but it gave me that experience of understanding what you had to think about to start a business. I had mowed lawns in high school, but that's not the same thing as running a business.

The feedback I got from it helped me see my weak points and build on them. For example, financial projections weren't my strong point because I hadn't done any ag business courses to help me figure that out. The formality of the experience with its various deadlines helped push me to flesh out an idea that I had into something that could and did eventually grow into the business I've been operating for 13 years.

What advice would you give to students interested in entrepreneurship?

I have a friend who runs an entrepreneurship course and when I go speak to the class, I always tell them that entrepreneurship is something you really want to think about before you do it. You get a lot of cheerleading in college, but not all ideas are feasible. It's important to understand what you want to do and be realistic about it, about the potential growth, and what you can do as a person. A lot of the young entrepreneurs that I have seen, including myself, are very high energy and very excited. That can make you put blinders on to reality. Making sure your ideas are realistic is important and helps keep you from failing.

What was the inspiration behind Wilson Home Farms?

I was mowing lawns in high school. I started with a landscaper and then bought a mower and did my own circuit while working at the golf course. I did an internship at Tait Farm after my junior year and at the time they had a 130-customer CSA, which is a community supported agriculture program. That fall, I saw the Ag Springboard Competition and thought it was great opportunity and wanted to think of something that would work that I could pursue to enter the competition.

I fused the CSA-style of organic agriculture with lawn care. People are used to hiring someone to come mow their lawn weekly. All the CSA members were coming to the farm once a week to get their produce. In CSAs, customers tend to get whatever is available and it may not always align with personal preferences. I thought we could bring the produce people wanted to their own backyard.

My idea was to allow people to pick what they wanted to grow and I'd install a garden at their house and come bi-weekly to manage and care for it. That was the original focus and that was the fusion that created my business.

Since then, I've expanded into other areas that will help people grow food at home. I offer perennials like blueberries and raspberries and fruit tree management. I also wanted to help people who are already doing this themselves, so now I install pathways, irrigation systems, electric fencing, and other things that help make a garden successful.

How has your Penn State education influenced your career or life?

One of the big ones is that it opened my mind to the amount of information out there. I've been listening to Dr. Tree Fruit and Don podcast from Penn State Extension, it's for people with orchards and the information is being shared for free. As someone who didn't study fruit trees in school, it's been great to get a base of understanding and learn more.

The resources are out there. I've taught myself so much after college simply because I had this ag education foundation. That's been one of my big takeaways, that when I have a problem, I can work towards an answer. For example, trying to organically manage Brown Rot in peaches is very difficult. Being able to pour over articles from Penn State and other land-grant institutions, compare notes, and see what's working and what's not is great.

I think the network has been very important too, especially when I was just out of school. Alumni are very tight knit, and they are willing to help recent grads and other alumni. When I graduated, I realized how important that network was.

What are one or two of your proudest accomplishments in which your Penn State education played a role?

A big one is having a successful business for the past 13 years. When I started out, I had five customers and didn't make all that much money as I was figuring things out. I slowly built my business each year, offering more and having more infrastructure to operate. Being able to say I still run that business is big.

Living in this area and staying plugged into what's going on with Penn State and the College of Ag, Ag Progress Days, and all the outreach Extension does for people like me, I'm really happy to be able to take part in all of that. I also want to mention the Penn State Small Business Development Center. I have worked with the SBDC over the entire length of my business, but closely with them since 2021. I signed up for a boot camp and got 2^nd place in the pitch competition associated with it. I have been working with Elizabeth Fegert over the past couple of years and she has helped me boost my social media presence and has lent a helping hand through several of my business expansions.

What has been the best advice you’ve ever received?

When I was two or three years out of college, I started thinking about getting a master's degree. I talked to Mark Gagnon and he listened to my thought process and recommended that I not get bogged down in academia. I didn't really have a direction, I just thought I should have a master's. He didn't think that's what I needed and encouraged me to stick to what I was doing and keep growing my business.

That piece of advice was very important, because I could have gone a very different way pursuing the academic track doing research and gotten an academic job, which is a great choice for a lot of people for a career path. But it didn't follow what I wanted to do, which was to be outdoors. Thankfully he saw that and advised I stick to the direction I was headed.

Why are you proud to be a Penn State Ag Sciences alum?

I'm proud to be an alumnus because the college and Penn State feel real, alive, and vibrant. The passion researchers have for their work is real and it is communicated well. This is the lifeblood of the University. While we've moved beyond being just an ag school, there is that foundation that will always be there. The college is always looking at what's next and what else can be done to push agriculture into the future. Going back to the Dr. Tree Fruit and Don podcast, you can hear their passion. They're so in tune with what's going on and their excitement in sharing it with people who are trying to learn and be better at managing is incredible.