New Member Profile Snapshot
Wheaton Mulch, Inc. 709 Childs Street Wheaton, IL 60187 (630) 653-4444 www.wheatonmulch.com
by Meta Levin
Scott Wilson is proud of the personal
attention he gives to his customers at Wheaton Mulch, Inc. in Wheaton, IL. Starting with one truck from his landscape maintenance company, Tasks Unlimited, Inc., and space on the property he bought, because he needed a yard, Wheaton Mulch has grown so that Wilson now has seven trucks - four of which have dividers, enabling them to deliver two loads at a time – and five full time employees, as well as a varying number part time in season. Karen Vix runs the office. “She is fantastic,” he says. Vix has been with the company for four years, handling sales and calls. “She is good with the customers and knowledgeable about plant material.” Wilson’s mother, Karen Wilson, does all the accounting work. A retired accountant, she’s in the office six days a week. “I could not do it without her,” he says. Wheaton Mulch’s name belies the fact that the company’s products and services have become more varied in the years since its birth in 2002. In addition to many types and colors of mulch, the company provides landscape materials and firewood to its customers, who include homeowners, as well as landscape contractors and municipalities. The raw material for the mulch the company sells is sourced locally, primarily from tree services, but also from cities, townships and park districts. Several years ago, Wilson rented a grinder to make just one product. Four years later, he had enough demand to buy his own. He now offers his customers a variety of mulches. Firewood sales have been an unexpected boon. “We started small and it took off,” he says. Some of the sales come from his 24/7 policy: customers can come anytime of the day or night to pick it up and payment is on the honor system. It works, he says. People have, for the most part, been honest.
54
Wilson has been advertising in The Landscape Contractor magazine for the last few years, has attended iLandscape and has taken advantage of some educational opportunities, including sending three of his landscape employees to a twoday pruning workshop. He decided to join ILCA in 2021 and Vix already has attended a women’s networking function at Ball Seed. Wilson is looking forward to participating in more events. Like many, Wilson’s entry into the landscape industry began as a teenager, mowing his neighbor’s lawns. By the time he graduated from high school, he had a list of customers and a small business. Tasks Unlimited officially began in 1990 and Wheaton Mulch in 2002. “I love being outside and I enjoy doing landscape work,” he says. To further his knowledge and skills, he took some horticulture classes in the college of DuPage’s horticulture program. He admits to an affinity for John Deere products. It’s no surprise that most of his equipment is made by the company. “It’s good equipment and holds its resale value,” he says. For 10 years he was a volunteer fireman in Winfield, IL. He is married to Becky, and they have a 10-year-olddaughter, who loves to help her father in the garden. Their current crop of pumpkins includes one that Wilson estimates weighs in at 150 to 200 pounds. It is paled, however, in comparison to a neighbor’s giant pumpkin that probably weighs in at between 1500 and 1800 pounds. The neighbor, Joe Adkins, has won giant pumpkin competitions several years in a row. Wilson helps him by taking a loader over to lift the huge pumpkin into a truck.
The Landscape Contractor December 2021
