PHOTO PROVIDED Some of the work done by Ettinger’s Landscaping, as shared by the business on social media.

Many successful businesses are the result of trial and error, but for Wayne Ettinger, owner of Ettinger’s Landscaping, it was a mixture of lifelong passion and being in the right place at the right time.

“Since I was a little kid, I had an interest in trees, shrubs, flowers, things like that. I grew up on a farm in Snyder County,” said Ettinger.

It was when he was in sixth grade that Ettinger’s brother suggested taking up horticulture in college, informing Wayne that he would be attending Penn State University, and he decided to follow suit.

While attending Penn State, Ettinger took educational classes, certifying him to teach secondary education under the 1964 Vocational Education Act, going on to teach in Montgomery and Northampton counties.

He would later take a pay cut and move to Williamsport to help create an AVTS horticulture program and an associate degree program for Williamsport Area Community College, now known as Pennsylvania College of Technology.

“This gave me a ready market for people who needed maintenance and plantings and so on,” he explained.

In the early 1970’s, Ettinger began landscaping in his backyard during his summers off, and after almost 19 years, retired from teach to begin Ettinger’s Landscaping.

“This property was a mom and pop nursery,” said of the site of his business, 2345 Warrensville Road, Montoursville, which he purchased in the mid-1970’s.

At that point, there were only two landscapers in the area, and Ettinger came into the business with a fresh perspective.

“I came around as a young guy with a lot of new ideas and doing designs that weren’t like the old fashioned 1950’s, so there was a real interest in what I was doing, and I was the first in the area to start doing that,” he explained.

Ettinger’s acts as a one stop shop, providing everything from landscaping and design to a garden center.

“Our main designer is Shannon Hackenberg, she’s a Penn State graduate, and has been here many years,” Ettinger said.

“She’s very talented, and has a lot of experience,” he said.

“We cover a pretty good area, and our reputation is that a lot of people who have the money and are build