DIGG Gardens - Part 1: Green Thumbs, Old Saws, & Licorice

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The verdant world of Vero Beach's plant community comes alive as Spencer Porteous, owner of DIGG Gardens, welcomes us into his memorabilia-filled  headquarters. Against a backdrop of family heirlooms, including his grandfather's 1940s two-man saw and a Scottish rocking chair from the 1700s, Spencer reveals the roots of his botanical journey.

From childhood memories of tart rhubarb in his great-grandmother's Adirondack garden to pushing shopping carts at Home Depot before becoming their garden manager, Spencer's path to plant expertise was paved with mentorship and hands-on learning. "Ninety-five percent of my plant knowledge is from somebody telling me," he shares, "because every plant has a story."

The conversation blooms with local history as Spencer details DIGG Gardens' partnership with the City of Vero Beach to maintain Victory Boulevard's living memorial. After World War II, the Garden Club planted laurel oaks along the street to honor fallen soldiers. Now, as these shorter-lived trees age out, Spencer's team systematically replaces them with magnificent live oaks that will stand for centuries—continuing a tradition of remembrance that makes Vero Beach special.

We discover how the COVID pandemic unexpectedly nurtured DIGG Gardens' retail operation when Spencer's wife, a former teacher, began selling houseplants on Etsy just as homebound Americans developed a newfound obsession with indoor greenery. This success, combined with a palm tree honor system, provided the seedling capital that grew into their current store. The name itself—an acronym for Design, Install, Garden, and Gifts—reflects Spencer's comprehensive vision for bringing plants into people's lives.

As our conversation draws to a close, Spencer shares hard-earned wisdom about entrepreneurship, acknowledging the lack of external validation that comes with business ownership. His philosophy of hiring for kindness first and teaching plant knowledge second has allowed him to build a thriving team. "We're kind of like licorice," he muses about his business approach. "Not everybody likes licorice, but the people that really do...really like it." Click that review button to share your thoughts on this flourishing conversation!

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Episode Transcript

Brian Curee (00:00):
All right, well, welcome back to the Vero Beach
Podcast.
I'm Brian and I'm Shawna, andtoday we are sitting at the DIGG
Gardens the DIGG Gardens officethough we're not actually at
the gardens At the HQ, the HQ,the HQ here I like that Right
here in downtown Vero.
This is a really cool building.
We're with Spencer.
Spencer, would you take about30 seconds and tell everybody a
little bit about yourself?

Spencer Porteous (00:20):
Hey, my name's .
I'm the owner of DIGG Gardens,Moved to Vero back in 1998, back
in the 1900s.
I got here we opened up theVero Beach Home Depot.
It was a brand new home depotso I was the garden manager.
I got to learn about Vero andmeet a lot of the old school

(00:40):
landscapers and gardenenthusiasts in town and it's
funny how many people that stillcome up to me and say hey, hey,
Spence, and I have no idea whothey are.

Shawna Curee (00:49):
I have no idea who they are, they just remember
you.

Spencer Porteous (00:51):
They remember me from Home Depot, which is
like 20-something years ago, soI know tons of hey brother.
What's up man?
How are you?
You know, that's how I cut myteeth in the plant business.

Brian Curee (01:01):
You're talking about cutting your teeth.
I noticed right behind you.
We're sitting at his HR, hisheadquarters here, and there's a
saw behind you which has gotsome pretty mean looking teeth
on it.
What kind of saw is that?
It's a two-man saw.

Spencer Porteous (01:11):
This piece down here is missing, but that
was my grandfather's old saw.
Wow, he was a dairy farmer inthe Adirondacks.
That was his old saw up there.
I think it's probably like fromthe 40s.
I think, wow, seneca Falls, newYork, is where they made it.

Shawna Curee (01:29):
That's amazing.
That's so neat that you havethat.

Spencer Porteous (01:30):
Yeah, I'm a big like sentimental guy so I
have all kinds of littleknickknacks and stuff like that.

Shawna Curee (01:35):
Yeah, you could really like offer tours here and
like tell all your stories.

Spencer Porteous (01:39):
What's cool about my office I love the most?
This is all the stuff that Ican hang up that I can't hang up
at the house because it doesn'tgo with the decor.
Right as my wife, summer, she'sawesome, but when it comes to
my style, I can pick and choose.
I have a few pieces but, likeclearly a big giant old antique
saw isn't going to look good,hanging in the living room.

(02:01):
It's not very welcoming, right,right.
So I got a bunch of my oldstuff.
I mean, my jackalope I have,that's awesome.
You know.
It's half rabbit, half antelope, you know, my jackalope I have,
you know, we couldn't find aplace for that in the house, so
it comes here.

Brian Curee (02:18):
See, we've been talking about it, maybe an
office later.
Now I can understand the reasonlike more of a purpose of why
why?

Shawna Curee (02:23):
to have that office, only to have a place for
all your stuff.
For all your stuff, that'sright.

Spencer Porteous (02:28):
You walk in you're like man, look at all my
stuff.
Yes, I know you guys can't seethis on the podcast, but these
are old photos of mygrandparents and great
grandparents at the huntingcabin and and the old rocking
chair back there.
That's my great greatgrandmothers.
She immigrated from Scotland.
That chair came over fromScotland, so that chair was
built in the like 1700s.

Shawna Curee (02:49):
Wow.

Spencer Porteous (02:50):
Yeah.

Shawna Curee (02:51):
And do I see your baseball guy?

Spencer Porteous (02:53):
Yeah, well, those are my.
Those are my big trophies.
I found them when I wascleaning out the garage and you
can't put those in the kitchen,but then that's my fancy
football trophy.

Brian Curee (03:02):
I'm the champ from last year, so wow, amazing good
job I'm really digging youroffice man I gotta put that in
there?

Shawna Curee (03:09):
yes, that's not the first time you're gonna hear
that probably won't be probablywon't be spencer.

Brian Curee (03:15):
Well, man, we're so glad to have you on so glad to
have you on the podcast.

Shawna Curee (03:18):
I meant to say that's not the last time.
I said that's not the firsttime.

Brian Curee (03:21):
Hey, that's right, we'll leave it babe oh, that's
not the first time.

Shawna Curee (03:24):
Hey, that's all right, we'll leave it.
Babe, that's getting cut.
Editor.
That was good.

Brian Curee (03:27):
It just shows that you don't.
You're not always, you don'talways get it right, so it's
fine.

Shawna Curee (03:31):
Yeah, it's true.

Brian Curee (03:33):
But we won't talk about that cause I know it will
probably be a lot more on myside.
So Spencer Shauna here has aplant obsession, Would you say
you have.
Okay, so let's start there.

Shawna Curee (03:44):
Yeah, let's start there.

Brian Curee (03:45):
How did your plant obsession start, Wow?

Spencer Porteous (03:49):
that's a good question.
One of my earliest memories ofgardening is up in the
Adirondacks and with mygreat-grandmother that's her
chair that we were talking aboutearlier.
In the spring rhubarb wouldcome up and boy, you have that
ice.
It's still cold.
Because it's ice cold, it'sstill cold.
And you take a bite of that andsmack oh man, so tart.
Gets you right behind the earsevery time.

(04:11):
And I would just remember I waskindergarten, maybe I don't
know grandma like here you takea bite and she's like I don't
like rhubarb.
I asked her why she's growingshe and she's like for you.
So that's you know.
And then I wouldn't eat myvegetables as a kid.
That's how I got to eat carrots, because I grew the carrot.

Shawna Curee (04:29):
So then of course, you're going to try it.

Spencer Porteous (04:30):
Yeah.
So then I tried it and I don'tknow, I always loved climbing
trees and, you know, hunting andfishing and out and hiking in
the woods and the St LawrenceRiver and the Adirondacks and
Thousand Islands and it's alwaysbeen a really a part of me.
And then I took a bunch ofbotany classes in college and
then my background is likeenvironmental biology I was
going to want to work for likeSouth Florida water management

(04:52):
or DP or something like that.
So I came down to Florida iswhen I got out of school.
I didn't intern anywherebecause I was living in New York
and I would come down toFlorida in the summers and work.
It was definitely a challengetrying to find a job in that
field.
So to make ends meet, I got ajob at the Home Depot pushing
shopping carts.
One of my mentors, jeff, islike he's like man, you got to
come work in the garden.
I'm like man, I don't know anyof these plants.

(05:14):
He's like I'll teach youeverything and I would say 90,
95% of my plant knowledge isfrom somebody telling me because
every plant has a story.
I mean I would start plantgeeking out here.
We could talk forever about thisstuff, start thinking about it
and you know it's a livingorganism, so you're kind of
taking care of it, especially ifit's a house plant, I mean
that's that's harder to takecare of than a cat or a dog if

(05:34):
you don't get the right plantfor the right spot.
But we do a lot of work for thecity of Vero Beach and we do
trees every year for arbor dayfor the city and that's cool.
I've lived here long enough tosee some of these things.
We're driving around town I'mlike, oh man, I planted that or
or.
I'm gonna go down this road andcheck on the these oak trees we

(05:57):
planted at the cemetery.
Like 12 years ago, we do aproject with the city and we're
a week from wednesday we'replanting four more oaks on um
victory boulevard down inMcCanch Park.
Did you guys know that story?
No, Okay, this is the coolest.
After World War II, the GardenClub of Indian River County.
After the war, the fallensoldiers Garden Club wanted to

(06:18):
do something for them, so theyrenamed.
They named it Victory Boulevardand they planted a laurel oak
up and down the streets, oneither side of the street for
all the fallen soldiers.
Oh, wow, the thing with laureloaks is they only have like a 70
to 80, 85 year lifespan andthen if they start going into
decline they're not like a liveoak that'll live two, three, 400
years.
Nanette, with the city, she's abig plant geek too and she had

(06:40):
the foresight to start thisproject years and years ago and
we've been planting trees withfor like the last 12 years I
think, and we do either two,three or four trees every year
and she takes the oldest onethat's failing.
They're taken down by the cityand then the stumps are ground
out and then we plant back inthe same spot, like a big live
oak.
That's cool.
The ones we're doing have likea seven or eight inch caliper

(07:03):
and they're like 24 to 26footers.
You know, we're not like somepencil tree.
Yeah, so we've been doing thatevery year.

Brian Curee (07:10):
I want to go down there and look at it.
Yeah, we're going to check thatout.

Spencer Porteous (07:12):
You know, just carrying on the tradition of
what the ladies at the GardenClub did after World War II.
That's what Vero is.

Brian Curee (07:19):
They keep it going.
That's what I love about whenwe get to interview people like
yourself.
Spencer is like we get to learnmore and more about what makes
Vero so special.
Yeah.

Shawna Curee (07:29):
I didn't want to say anything else because I felt
like I was a little bit closeto crying.

Spencer Porteous (07:33):
Yeah.

Shawna Curee (07:34):
It's just, it's really.

Spencer Porteous (07:35):
You want to tell some crying stories about
plants?
Okay, no, no, no, I don't wantto, because I'll start crying
too.

Brian Curee (07:42):
So Shauna has always been really big into
plants, house plants.
We've always joke around andtell the old story Like when we
first got married and we boughta house, like her apartment was
just it was like a jungle.
When I went in there and Ithink we had to take three
pickup trucks full of plantsthat I moved from her place to
our house and of course I didn'tmove them correctly.
A lot of them died and I thinkshe thinks I might've done it on

(08:04):
purpose to kind of filterthings out.
I did think maybe it's possible,but I'm like it was like a
jungle in there.
But when we moved back toFlorida and we were in central
Florida, I said we should getplants.
Now that we're in Vero, we havea courtyard, so she loves
plants.
I am terrible with plants.
I have one in my office.
People always ask me on myvideos, like is that a real
plant?
I plant, I'm like it is, likeit's so nice.

(08:25):
I'm like I've not watered itfor two years, but that's
because I don't even think aboutthat.
She just does it.
So if it was, if it was up tome, the plant wouldn't be there
anymore because it wouldn't bealive.
But I love it, I love the plant, so it's going to be a massacre
if I go first.
Yeah, I'm going to call youSpencer, I'm like, but you need
to keep some life around you, somaybe you can pay them to come

(08:50):
maintain them, but I definitely,I definitely love the
atmosphere, having the plants.
It feels so much more cozier.

Spencer Porteous (08:55):
Yeah, plants make the room.

Brian Curee (08:56):
It really does.
It does, it changes everything.
So you have this obsession ofplants.
Does your wife have anobsession for plants?

Spencer Porteous (09:03):
This is a two-part answer.
When we first met, no, we'd bedriving around and, like, I had
my old Jeep and we'd go forlittle drives, put some James
Taylor on and go cruising up anddown the beach, jungle trails
and stuff.
Oh yeah, you know, and I wouldbe.
Oh man, look at that jacaranda,look how big, you know.
Oh, it's well.
And you know she's like wouldyou keep your eyes on the road

(09:24):
and this and that?
And I'm like, oh, we plantedthat.
Like so when we drive aroundtown, I'm like you planted those
trees, you know.

Brian Curee (09:30):
I know.

Spencer Porteous (09:32):
And we had a few houseplants here and there.
So she was a school teacher andthen COVID hit.
So what happened?
She's like I don't want to goback teaching.
When COVID just started they'relike oh, everything's cool,
just go back teaching.
She had a little booth inAntique Wildwood, the antique
mall.
We would go junking and estatesailing and she was buying
furniture and like kind of themy decor we have in here is what
I would pick.

(09:52):
And we had a little shop inthere.
You know it was doing prettygood.
I she goes.
Well, if we do, I want to, Iwant to carry house plants too.
So I'm like okay.
So I'm like, well, I'm like youreally want to start with the
plants.
She's like yes, because I'vebeen buying and selling plants

(10:13):
in florida, you know, since 93,so I know where to get
everything.

Brian Curee (10:17):
I can get the best stuff all right great, so
Shauna's like drooling over hereshe's like all right, I'm
looking at my calendar.
She's like grabbing your cardoff your desk.
When can I take?

Shawna Curee (10:25):
another vacation day.

Spencer Porteous (10:27):
So I ended up getting a bunch of plants and
she opened a shop on EtsyHouseplants and COVID.
Oh my gosh, yes, people juststarted going crazy with the
collection.
So I had to get more and morecrazy, crazy stuff and we
started shipping plants aroundthe country.
Wow, so we took that funding.
And then do you guys know whatthe Eureka palms are?
It's a multi-trunk palm tree,one of the best-selling palm

(10:48):
trees.
For privacy, I got a reallygood deal on those, started
selling those cheap, and I hadan honor system at the store,
put the money in the drop boxbecause we were out landscaping.
Nobody was at the store yet.
So between the Etsy money andthe Ricopalms, we were able to
open DIGG Gardens, wow, wow.

Shawna Curee (11:04):
That's so cool.
That's amazing.
I love that story.

Brian Curee (11:08):
That's what led you guys into opening DIGG Gardens.
The retail, oh the retail, yeah, because it was DIGG Gardens,
and DIGG is an acronym.

Spencer Porteous (11:15):
It stands for Design, Install, Garden and
gifts.
So the dream was always there.

Shawna Curee (11:20):
That's how we got the name.
I saw that on your websitetoday.
I thought that was cool.
So, spencer, looking back, didyou imagine that it was going to
grow into what it is today?

Spencer Porteous (11:32):
Wow, you guys are asking some really good
questions.
Kind of I don't think it'sfinished to where it's supposed
to be.
Yet you own a small business.
I don't think you're everfinished of where you think
it'll be and my approach is toois like, if a door opens, like
I'm going to walk through it,because what's the worst thing
that could happen?
It doesn't work, and so I'lljust, you know, walk back up.

Shawna Curee (11:47):
Okay, now I'm in the same spot.

Spencer Porteous (11:49):
You got to have faith, but it's.
It's so hard when you're asmall business owner because
there's nobody really cheeringyou on.
You don't have a boss sayinghey, that's a great job today,
here, here's a good.
Oh, I just got a five on myreview, or whatever.
Hey, thanks for staying latetonight.
Hey thanks for getting thereearly.
Thanks for running down toHomestead and getting a load of
trees.

Brian Curee (12:07):
And you know there ain't nobody saying thanks.

Shawna Curee (12:09):
I see all the hard work you're putting in yeah
like, hey, way to go buddy.

Spencer Porteous (12:18):
You know, keep it up, you know.
So you and you know I do it allfor them.
That's cool and our customersthey get it.
We're not for everybody, but wefind our people, you know.
You know, we're kind of likelicorice.
You know, not everybody likeslicorice, but the people that
really do really like it.

Shawna Curee (12:31):
Really like it.
Yeah, yeah, I like licorice.

Spencer Porteous (12:33):
Yeah, so that's kind of you know, I love
that, spencer.

Brian Curee (12:37):
As we get ready to wrap up this episode, I want to
ask you one more question what'ssomething that you've learned
about yourself since becoming asmall business owner?

Spencer Porteous (12:44):
Wow, man you just keep firing these questions
.
This is like some good stuff,yeah, we like good questions.

Brian Curee (12:50):
We need some like sound effects.
Yeah, okay.

Spencer Porteous (12:53):
What I've learned about myself is that I
don't have to do it all bymyself.
I don't you.
I don't you find your people,Like everybody that's on our
team now.
I'll just hire kind people andif you like plants, I'll teach
you everything I know.
No, I don't think I everthought that I could, you know,
do all this Like I wanted to.
I can't.
I could do whatever I want.

Shawna Curee (13:10):
I love that attitude, as long as it's not
illegal.

Spencer Porteous (13:13):
Right, right, right you can still do it, you
just don't want to get caught.
Yeah, that's right.
Oh, that's good, that's greatthis has been a great first
episode.

Brian Curee (13:21):
I can't wait to get into episode two.
We're going to talk a littlebit more about the behind the
scenes.
If you're enjoying the podcast,make sure you click that review
button.
We would love to hear yourthoughts and with that, see you
next time, neighbor.