My GARDEN GURUS
I’ve never met Will, although I spoke to him by phone for this interview. He struck me as a man who is both passionate and compassionate, with a well-defined sense of purpose. To me, he’s always been a visionary, though modesty would no doubt prevent him from agreeing to such a description. When I asked him to explain his motivation for all the things he does, he simply said, “To help people garden better.”
Disclosure: Yes, Gardener’s Supply Company is a sponsor of this website, but I would have featured Will regardless because he deserves to be recognized for his enormous contributions to the world of gardening. Also, I’ve been a customer of GSC for 25 years or so, and I’ve paid retail for 99% of everything I’ve ordered. I do accept products for testing, but I’m actually encouraged to be critical when making my evaluations.
Will Raap
Founder and Chairman
Gardener’s Supply Company
In 1983, I received my master gardener’s certification. At the time, I’d already been gardening organically for five years. But it wasn’t easy, because back then if you went to a nursery and asked for Bt or reemay, all you got was a blank stare. (Who knows what they said after I left.)
That same year, Will Raap founded Gardener’s Supply Company (GSC) in Burlington, VT, and it wasn’t long before I received my first GSC catalog in the mail. I’ll never forget sitting on the patio, dog-earing practically every page of that catalog, and placing the first of what would ultimately be dozens of orders.
Will Raap Gardener's Supply Founder
GSC has come a long way since then. It now has 300 employees who collectively own 45% of the company. “My goal was and is to engage employees to be beneficiaries of the company’s success,” says Will, who has plans to divest himself of even more of the company.
The majority of the best-selling products featured in the GSC catalog and on its website were developed internally with the help of an inventive staff and input from customers. In fact, according to Will, GSC has always relied heavily on customer input, although its customer base has changed over the years. “In the beginning, our customers were mostly males in rural areas. Now they’re predominantly females in urban areas.”
The goal of GSC, then and now, is pretty straightforward: To help customers produce fresh, natural, high-quality food in a small space. A great example of how they do that is the Tomato Success Kit, which allows gardeners to grow tomatoes in a self-contained, self-watering, and self-supporting system. The kit even includes potting mix and organic fertilizer. I have four of them, and I can tell you they work like a charm.
Organic Tomato Success Kit
Will still serves as chairman of GSC, but he’s also devoted to several other ventures, in particular The Earth Projects (TEP) and Earth Carbon Offsets (ECOs).
TEP was created to advance the best forest, wetland, grassland, and rangeland ecosystem restoration projects in the world. ECOs helps fund those projects by supporting the certification and packaging of the highest quality carbon offsets generated by TEP’s efforts. The ECOs are then sold on the voluntary carbon market.
Additionally, Will is the founder of Proyecto Nandamojo, a watershed restoration enterprise in Costa Rica; a founding partner in El Centro Verde, a sustainable agriculture education center, and Finca Lagunita, a sustainable farm project in Central America; and a partner in two conservation developments – Tierra Pacifica and Pueblo Verde.
A garden at the Intervale Center
And as if all that weren’t enough, Will is also founder and past chairman of the Intervale Center, a 700-acre site in Vermont whose mission is to develop farm- and land-based enterprises that generate economic and social opportunities while protecting natural resources. The Intervale family of businesses includes Intervale Compost Products, Intervale Conservation Nursery, Intervale Agricultural Development Consulting Services, and Intervale Food Enterprise Center.
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