SUPPORT WACCA PILATKA IN GROWING OUR NURSERY!

We have 18 days left to meet our goal and we need your help! We are currently crowdfunding a 0% interest loan through Kiva and need everyone’s help to reach our funding goal of 10k. This loan will help us establish a native plant nursery and retail center for our community and expand the availability of native plants in the Jacksonville area. Kiva uses crowdfunded microloans as a force for good, creating a space where people can have one-to-one impact, and together, expand financial access for all. Lenders can browse profiles of borrowers, choose who to support, and lend amounts as small as $25, which are pooled together to fund loans that empower entrepreneurs to start or expand their businesses. As borrowers make repayments, the funds are returned to the lenders' Kiva accounts. Once the loan is fully repaid, lenders have the option to withdraw their funds or relend them to support other entrepreneurs!

We have greatly expanded Wacca Pilatka’s landscape business while maintaining a custom, personalized, and eco-friendly approach. We now offer a full suite of design and installation services, including planting, irrigation, drainage, pavers and hardscape, and lighting. We do a lot of education, including events, focused on the use of native plants and sustaining local wildlife.

Owner Nick Freeman speaking at the Garden Club of Jacksonville

We have even been featured on a TV show, Flip My Florida Yard, a series promoting sustainable landscaping for water conservation!

Members of the Wacca Pilatka crew with Chad Crawford from Flip My Florida Yard

Our team of six keeps very busy, but we know there is so much more market need we could meet, both ourselves and in collaboration with other landscape companies, by providing easy access to more native plants. Our goal is to continue to expand our current landscape services while developing a retail and landscape nursery space for our landscape customers and other landscapers.

About a year ago, we took a big leap toward our goal by purchasing a commercial property in Jacksonville. The location is great, but much work and expense are required to make it usable as a landscape nursery and place of business. We've performed significant ground work such as site grading, connecting a new electric service, demolition of a structure and roof repair on our current storage space. Our goal now is to renovate this existing building into a usable office and retail center, create a grow area for plant production, and establish a reliable well and irrigation system to maintain them.

One of the areas on the property that will need improvement

Our Story

Nick and Tommy, the owners of Wacca Pilatka, have been gardening since they were kids. They've witnessed the loss of natural areas in Jacksonville, Florida, their hometown, and wanted to give back to our community by creating a convenient, reliable source of native plants and eco-focused landscaping. Our company ethos is to create healthy, sustainable landscapes that support biodiversity and bring people closer to nature. We want to continue our mission and expand the availability of native plants in our area.

Wacca Pilatka owners Tommy Richardson & Nick Freeman

Tommy owes his love of gardening to his great grandmother, a well-respected gardener featured in her local newspaper. “I always found myself helping out with harvesting, raking, watering. Her teaching stuck with me,” he says. He has also been fortunate to work with university horticulturists. “When I walk nature trails and even through my own backyard,” says Tommy, “I enjoy watching nature close up, and want to contribute to it through our work.”

Nick’s landscaping journey began as a teenager working alongside his dad in the family business. In his words, “The days were long, and the work was hard and honestly, I didn’t see myself doing this beyond high school. I became a Physician Assistant and still enjoy that work, but discovered my passion is for the outdoors and preserving wild Florida and plant biodiversity. I started landscaping again but wanted to do it differently, by creating landscapes that reflect the wild ecosystems I grew up in, grew to love, and want to preserve and share with others.”

Owner Nick Freeman in Avondale’s Native Park

Nick started the business in 2019, selling native plants at farmer’s markets on weekends and working on small backyard & community garden projects. In 2022, he formed a partnership with Tommy, a close friend and someone he had worked with on several large landscaping projects. Tommy’s background as a landscape team leader and his knowledge of irrigation has helped us offer more services, install more landscapes, and position ourselves to expand into developing a native plant nursery.

How will the loan be used?

We have invested a significant amount of time and funds to acquire our property and prepare it for use as a plant nursery. This loan will enable us to complete the following critical steps:

Set up our well and irrigation system;

Construct grow pads for plant production;

Renovate the existing building to create a usable office workspace and retail center.

Tommy clearing the area for our future grow pad!

Completing these steps will enable us to establish a small nursery of native plants and open our space to both retail customers and other landscape companies. With this loan, we can improve the supply of native plants and make sustainable landscapes possible for many more people in our community.

Specifically, these Kiva loan funds will go toward the following:

- Office construction (40% of loan funds)

- Electricity (20% of loan funds)

- Grow pad and Irrigation (40% of loan funds)

How you can help:

Join us in fostering environmental stewardship and supporting local biodiversity by contributing to our Kiva campaign for a no-interest loan to expand our native plant nursery. Every donation will not only help us grow our business sustainably but will also empower us to continue our mission of preserving and propagating indigenous plant species. Also, if you choose the lending option, you will be paid back and can reinvest in other small businesses! Together, we can create a greener, more resilient ecosystem while providing essential habitat for wildlife and promoting the beauty of native landscapes. Let's invest in the future of our environment and communities by lending a hand to nature today. Support our cause on Kiva and make a difference one plant at a time!