DIGG Gardens - Part 3: Come On In. You're Welcome Here.

Send us a text

Ever wonder what makes a community so special? Spencer from DIGG Gardens reveals the magic of Vero Beach in this conversation that goes far beyond plants and gardening.

Spencer paints a vivid picture of Vero's unique character. In this place, you might find a Ferrari at one stoplight and a lifted beat-up pickup truck at another, creating a charming juxtaposition that somehow works perfectly. Having moved here in 1998, he's discovered that "the longer you live here, the smaller town it gets," despite the area's growth.

The episode captures those magical small-town connections that seem to happen constantly in Vero Beach. Spencer shares a touching story about a customer who, by pure chance, turned out to be his mother's long-lost high school friend, the kind of serendipitous encounter that happens regularly here. These connections create the fabric of community that makes newcomers feel instantly welcomed.

Beyond the garden center, DIGG Gardens has evolved into a community hub hosting quarterly events including Spencer's birthday bash with live music and barbecue, and their popular "Third Thursday" happy hours during season. These gatherings were intentionally created as judgment-free zones where newcomers can meet others with similar interests around bonfires, potluck dinners, and local music.

As Spencer says, "Plants are supposed to be fun," a philosophy that extends to how DIGG Gardens approaches community building. His simple invitation to those who haven't visited yet, "Come on in. You're welcome." captures the welcoming spirit that makes Vero Beach feel like home.

Ready to discover your place in our community? Visit DIGG Gardens and experience firsthand how connections grow naturally in Vero Beach. Share this episode with friends, they'll thank you for the insider's perspective!

Presented by Killer Bee Marketing
Helping local businesses in Vero Beach connect with their neighbors.

Support the show

Support The Show
Keep It Local. Keep It Going

Be sure to connect with us on Instagram at @myverobeachdotcom

Episode Transcript

Brian Curee (00:00):
All right, well, welcome back to the Vero Beach
podcast.
This is part three of ourinterview here with the DIGG
Gardens.
I guess now you're called theDIGG.

Spencer (00:07):
Gardens.
They're like are you DIGG?
Yeah, sure, Mr.
DIGG.

Brian Curee (00:10):
When your application came in or your
request to be on the podcastcame in, it said Spencer.
And I was like I thought thelast name was going to be DIGG,
but it was not DIGG.
So I'm like okay, we dig it Allright.

Shawna Curee (00:19):
So I was going to do it first.
All right, go ahead, we dig it.

Spencer (00:23):
There you go, all right , have you guys ever?
Okay, we're going off the railshere, that's fine, ready, we're
going off the rails, we liveoff the rails.
Have you ever seen the moviethe Warriors?

Brian Curee (00:33):
No, it's an old 70s .

Spencer (00:35):
It's a New York gang movie.
It's a cult classic.
It's warriors come out and play, like that's one of the things.
But at the beginning of themovie what the guy is trying to
do, he's trying to unite all thegangs in New York City to join
as one to take over the city.
So he's given the speech rightand there's the sound clip and
I've always wanted to put.

(00:55):
Maybe you guys can put this onthe podcast for me.
He's like he goes.
Can you dig it?
Can you dig it, can you dig?

Brian Curee (01:06):
it.
Can you dig it Okay.
So, Spencer, what do you lovemost about being rooted here in
Bureau Beach?

Spencer (01:11):
I moved here in 98, you know, raised some family here
and I just met some.
You know, some of the nicestpeople I've ever met.
The longer you live here, likethe smaller town it gets.
It's probably the craziestplace I've ever lived, cause you
pull up at a light and you lookon the left, here's like a
McLaurin or like a Ferrari youknow $300,000 car.
And then you look to your leftand there's a.

(01:32):
There's a kid in a jacked upold, beat up pickup.
You know a country boy, youknow, jamming out the rap.
And I'm looking back and forthlike where the heck am I, it's
just so it's so crazy.
That's a good point.
That is so true it is.
It's crazy, but it's reallycool though, like you start
talking to people and it's notonly it's a small town, it's a
small world, like we weretalking earlier in the podcast

(01:55):
about dig isn't for everybodyand we find our people.
I think that's kind of whatVero is too.

Shawna Curee (02:06):
It's not a big party town or South Beach by any
means.
You know, it's a small town.
It's so neat how, everywhereyou go you know, if you just
take a few minutes to talk topeople, you always find people
who know somebody else that youknow, and that's been happening
nonstop, especially since westarted the podcast, and we're
talking to people when we're outand about, and just the other
day at the eye doctor startedtalking to this lady and she was
so nice.
It turns out we have all kindsof connections and, of course,

(02:27):
I'm super new here.
So like the fact that you'refinding those kind of
connections so quickly is such acool thing.

Spencer (02:33):
Last spring I was talking to this lady.
She's like, wow, I just movedhere and I gave her my card.
She's like Porteous, she goesare you guys, do you have family
in New York?
And I said, oh, my mom and mydad and you know, all lived up
there on the St Lawrence.
And I start talking to her.
She went to high school.
She graduated high school withmy mom.
Oh my gosh, and my mom lives inJensen Beach.

(02:54):
They moved down to Jensen inthe mid 80s.
I'm like, wow, do you want totalk to her?
And she goes, talk to Connie.

Shawna Curee (03:01):
I'm like, yeah, hold on, so I called up mom in
my store.

Spencer (03:05):
She starts crying Mom's on speaker.
Mom starts crying Her long lostfriend.
They have no idea what happenedto each other.
Now I'm standing there holdingthe phone like oh my God, what
is going on?
And in this town I've met somany people that have known
people that I know.

Brian Curee (03:21):
That's wild.
You know, we've always lovedcoming here.
I don't think we've really beenembraced as much as we have
when we moved to Vero, evenbefore we started the podcast.
People are just so friendly andthey want to get to know you.
And then, when we started thepodcast, then it's like, hey,
we've got to connect you withthis person, we've got to
connect you with this person.
All you guys need to meet thisperson.
It's been amazing.
I mean, it's been such a coolexperience and we always said

(03:42):
like Vero would be a place thatwe would love to call home, and
now we're so blessed that we'reable to do that.
It's a great place.

Spencer (03:48):
I still can't figure out how to get around this
stupid town.
Thank you Okay, Let me just I'mjust, I'm going to, I'm going to
rant for a second.
I love it here, but Holy moly,like I'm sitting downtown Vero
Beach right now, if I need to gosomewhere, what's the quickest
way to get to the mall?
I just don't jump in the carand drive there.
Okay, I got to go down here andtake a left and then you're not

(04:09):
100% sure, it's like well,maybe I should turn left here.
No, no, no.
Street avenue, place, circle,square, trapezoid whatever you
want to call it.

Shawna Curee (04:20):
It's ridiculous it is, but I love it.

Brian Curee (04:22):
I know, it's great, it's the only downfall, really.

Shawna Curee (04:25):
Yes, it's the only one.

Brian Curee (04:27):
Spencer, as us being new residents here now.

Shawna Curee (04:30):
New-ish we like to call ourselves that New-ish,
yeah, yeah.

Brian Curee (04:33):
What are some local spots and businesses that you
would like to even share with us?
Tell us like, hey, you guys aregoing to have to go check out
Moody.

Spencer (04:41):
Tires for sure.
Right across from the shop isthe Chillin' Grill.
Oh, okay, oh, I've heard aboutit.
All Homemates, you go there,just get the special.

Brian Curee (04:50):
Okay, oh okay, what do you guys like to do?
We just went and rented a boatover the weekend.
We had a blast with that it'sso nice boating here.
We boated in Inglewood, bocaGrande, clearwater, clearwater,
tampa.
This is the first time weboated here and loved it.
There's so many little islands,too, like that's pretty rare.

Spencer (05:11):
Yeah, all those little spoil islands.
Do you know the story on those?

Brian Curee (05:14):
No.

Spencer (05:15):
So those were all built World War II by the Army Corps
of Engineer to make theintercoastal waterway, so that
the ships didn't have to go outinto the ocean where submarines
would be Really that's sointeresting.

Shawna Curee (05:27):
I did find out that it was from the dredge,
like you know, tailings orwhatever, but I didn't know why.

Spencer (05:32):
That's why, yeah, they made the intercoastal waterway.
It goes all the way up the EastCoast, Wow.

Shawna Curee (05:37):
Do you do any like events, workshops or other ways
that the community can getinvolved with Dig Gardens?

Spencer (05:44):
Oh yeah, I love live music.
Yes, so do we.
I play acoustic guitar, oh nice, I'm like a drummer three chord
guy and the more you drink thebetter I sound, that's for sure.
But I love live music and so wehave a stage at the shop.
We have one big event a quarter.
The next one that's coming upis we had to do the birthday

(06:05):
bash every year, so we have twolive bands and the landscape
companies barbecuing, chickenand ribs for everybody and adult
beverages and BOGO plants,sales and specials.
But that's always.
That's always a good one.
And then we have a big holidaymarket.
It's going to be our sixthannual.
We have 12 vendors, localvendors, so we set everybody up

(06:27):
in the garden center and withthe tents and we always have
live music in all of our eventsand barbecuing and food.
This will be our third seasonthis fall.
Starting in October, we havethird Thursday happy hour from
five to eight oh really that'scool.
We started our landscapelighting company and we're like,
well, how can we advertise ourlandscape lighting Because we're
only open during the day?
Yeah, so we're like, well, weneed to have a night event.

(06:49):
It gets darker sooner in thewinter and it's nice and cool
and sitting outside it's reallygrown into.
You know, people are bringingtheir own bottles of wine and
sharing and people are bringingpotluck crockpots and meatball.
We like really promote itbecause there's so many people
moving to our area.
Especially up in Winter Beachthere's building houses like
crazy and everybody's movinghere.
We wanted to have again, haveour, like, a safe space for

(07:12):
everybody.
Just be yourself.
Come and be yourself and hangout.
Judgment free zone.
Come meet some people.
It's hard meeting people.
If you like plants, there'sanother person that likes plants
.
You got something in common.
Come to the shop, listen tosome great local artists.
We have some awesome peopleplay.
I'm totally biased In Januarywhen it was cold, like we built
a bonfire and stuff.
Oh, that's cool.

Brian Curee (07:31):
That's cool.
It sounds like Dig's going tobe another one of our favorite
places to visit.
This is going to be cool.
I can't wait to get out there.
It's super fun.

Spencer (07:38):
Like plants are supposed to be fun.

Brian Curee (07:48):
Plants are fun.
You know you can't get stressedout about plants.
I dig it.
That's one too many Digging mygrave.
Now I would like to ask you onemore question, spencer, as we
get ready to wrap up.
For anybody that's never beenout to dig gardens they're new
here to the area what would youwant to say to them?
Come on in.
That's it.
You're welcome.
You're welcome in we.
Thank you so much for sittingdown and being on the podcast.
This has been great.
You guys are really good atthis.

Spencer (08:06):
This is my first podcast and I was like all
freaking out kind of, and youknow, you start watching some
videos on, you know on theTikTok and the YouTubes, and
it's like podcast gone wrong,you know, and taking sound bites
I was like, okay, I can't watchanymore of this.
I didn't even know that was athing.

Brian Curee (08:25):
I didn't know either, but I'm so glad nothing
went wrong here.
It was all great.
We really enjoyed having you on.

Spencer (08:31):
I appreciate you guys coming to the HQ.

Brian Curee (08:34):
Now.
We can't wait to go see theactual gardens.
We're going to go see the shopEverybody that's been tuning in.
Make sure you leave us a reviewand be sure to share the
podcast with your friends.
If you're here in a bureau orif you know someone that's
looking at visiting, share thepodcast.
We would love for them to hearand get to know more about the
businesses and the locals hereand help them meet their
neighbors.

Shawna Curee (08:54):
Thanks for listening, neighbor.