It’s easy to tell that Ben Wilson has always been a lawn care professional at heart. When he was a child, he started his own lawn mowing business out of his parents’ shed, and now he owns and is president of Wilson Services, a full-service lawn care company in Peoria, Illinois.
Wilson Services, in its current form, is relatively young. Wilson acquired a local business last June and transformed it into Wilson Services, essentially tripling its size within a year. The company offers a wide range of services, including grounds maintenance, landscaping, snow removal, athletic field maintenance, interior plant leasing, and more.
As his business kept growing, Wilson was on the lookout for nutrient products that could enhance his customers’ lawns and sports fields and set them apart—ensuring that their turf isn’t just good, but excellent. The company was open to trying new products that enhance turf health, so Advanced Turf Solutions’ Eric Suryk connected with Wilson, and he was drawn by the service aspect of Foliar-Pak.
“He [Eric] met with us, showed us what we needed, showed us examples of what they [Foliar-Pak products] could do,” said Wilson. “So, then we started using them on my properties and it made a huge difference last year across all of them. I mean a noticeable difference.”
Wilson was surprised by the effectiveness of Foliar-Pak products, especially after treating their local Single A baseball team’s field. He explained that if someone was looking at the field on a consistent, daily basis over a month, they wouldn’t have noticed any big changes. Wilson is right. The effects of Foliar-Pak products aren’t instantaneous, and people rarely notice drastic changes when they come gradually. Fortunately, he snapped some photos.
Wilson Services took over the management of the field in 2023 after the team had major issues brought about by drought conditions. So, Wilson decided to use Foliar-Pak products to help bring the field back to its former glory and uses them on the property to this day.
“We joked about how we’ll have it back within a week, and after a few applications, different products literally worked within a week or two, and that’s really what kind of set the tone for us to make a big transition to all Foliar-Pak products,” said Wilson. “The ease of use, just the overall quality is much higher than what we were dealing with prior, which has made us convert everything we do now to Foliar-Pak products this year.”
Wilson is especially pleased with how adaptable Foliar-Pak’s products are, and how that makes it easier to take care of his customers.
“From being able to do very specific things to more broad applications, we can dial in these properties better than we ever have been able to do before.”
Grow-In and Foundation Forty are some of Wilson’s go-tos for “middle of the road” products, as he puts it, which are the ones his team uses consistently. Grow-In has been used on a lot of the yards he treats because of its versatility.
“It’s predictable, and it’s effective,” said Wilson. “So, we don’t have to question or go back and be like: ‘Is this working? Is this not working?’”
This predictability across the Foliar-Pak line not only saves Wilson and his team time and guesswork, but it also helps them build trust with customers by delivering high-quality, consistent results.
“We know what the product is going to do, and because of our relationship with Eric, as well as his knowledge and backing, we use them in such a way that they all work together really well,” said Wilson. “The product line across the Foliar-Pak brand, they all complement and work well together to develop a really, really good package for our customers. Whether it’s an athletic facility or for a homeowner, we can find something that does what we need it to do.”
Overall, Wilson had this to say about Foliar-Pak’s offerings: “They’re high-quality products that we can rely on to do well for our customer, which in turn, does well for us.”
For Wilson and his team, Foliar-Pak products have become their first choice for fostering healthy turf. If you’re looking for nutrient-packed formulations that deliver outstanding results, consider looking into Foliar-Pak.