Wise Grass - DR Stoltzfus

“Lemonade, lemonade. Where from?”

Dad always said, “This economy can’t last forever.” 
I was getting weary - maybe bored - of busting our chops seeding lawns 9 frenzied months of the year.

Over the years we tried lots of things to fill in the rainy days and winter layoff period.

One rainy day I visited Lesco and asked Neil for a list of products to begin an annual lawn care program. We had been installing new lawns for years, why not take care of them? Already had a push spreader, just needed some guidance with products and technical lingo.

I delivered my first lawn care service on November 20, 2003 for $47.58. Two buddies, a couple of their parents, and three of my wife’s uncles agreed to be guinea pigs for the new lawn care program. Mom-in-law and her mom signed up too.

Over the Winter I got my pesticide certification and renewed our business license. This was the year of the useless wood shop.

The next year lawn care tripled, the following year doubled, then in 2007 and 2008 things leveled off a bit. I’m not sure when it snuck up on me but one day I realized that this lawn care gig was turning me on! The lawns perked earlier in the Spring, bounced back from drought, and stayed green longer each winter. Lawn care was a nice break from the grueling – not to mention thankless - lawn seeding routine.

In 2007, Dad’s broken record turned out to be not so broken after all. Lawn seeding sales began to tumble secondary to the hit on new home sales. 2008 was no better. In the Summer of 2008, we pulled the trigger and sold all the lawn installation equipment.

Now my wife and I run the business. Definitely less activity around here, but I miss the day to day interaction with the guys and the buzz of keeping everyone happy and involved. It does give us time to do a better job with lawn care and enjoy the relationships with our guests. I feel like we are more free to be who we are.

Our first ads directed folks to “DZ Stoltzfus.com”, but as you can guess, it was easy to mistake us for “EG” “DE” or anything but “DZ”. Spelling Stoltzfus was no better and people had trouble finding our website. So, we came up with WiseGrass. It fits nicely into our common sense philosophy on the environment that favors long term impact over instant gratification. That’s really what the Wise in WiseGrass is all about.

Gotta get to work, before you call me a lazy bum.

Later,
Paul Stoltzfus ~Owner

Learning to Ride Bike in the Grass (4:24)

And the WildChilds!

Brielle Rebecca - 6
Soren Tate - 3
Tal Jamal - 2

Brielle and Soren on Easter Sunday 2007


Soren doing his morning “chores”

Soren Working on a Stunt Movie with Uncle Matt and Daddy (0:11)

Soren Riding Over the BigBig Ramp (1:12)

At least it looks Big!