I’m currently reading a book called Grit, by Angela Duckworth. I’m only a few chapters in, but it is already resonating with me and with something I keep reminding the Kerby’s staff of in our morning huddles. We often only see the end result of a journey that a person has undertaken. Whether that’s an author with a bestselling book, an Olympic athlete, or the gardener down the street with the most beautiful landscape. We don’t see the drafts that were thrown away, the hours grinding in a gym to be the best at your sport, or the time your neighbor actually spends working on their garden. 

One of the ideas in the book is that it isn’t always the most talented, the strongest, or the smartest people that succeed at a given activity. It’s the people that have the most grit, which Duckworth defines as “passion and sustained persistence applied toward long-term achievement.” She breaks the process of getting good at something into two parts. Talent combined with effort at first leads to skill. Skill combined with effort then leads to achievement. Effort gets applied twice, but for some of the most talented, smartest, strongest people, when something doesn’t come easy, they give up. It’s the people with grit, willing to put in the effort, the people that say, to quote Hercules Mulligan from Hamilton, “When you knock me down, I get *** back up again.”

I’ll let you read the book if you want to in depth, but especially after such a cold winter where plants in your yard that were decades old were damaged, it can feel very frustrating, and, well, it knocks you down a little bit. But spring is here and summertime warmth has arrived in the first weeks of March. Those plants that were damaged may be showing some recovery or maybe it is time to replant them. In the end, the prettiest landscapes you see are often tended to by people with grit. With a willingness to put in consistent effort over time. To take the obstacles Mother Nature throws at us and turn them into opportunities to create something new and more beautiful than before.

With the arrival of spring, the Nursery is literally bursting at the seams with new plants. I warned the staff ahead of this week that lots of trucks were coming in. At the time of this writing, I think we’ve had six different deliveries! We’ve got a fresh set of Camellias, Delphiniums, Butterfly Bushes, Lavenders, Veggies, Viburnums, Roses, Verbenas, Peach trees, Mango trees, Coleus, Impatiens, Caladium Bulbs, and more. I could go on for pages and pages! Check out some of the beauties at shop.kerbysnursery.com (where you can purchase them to pick up Kerb-side to maximize your time in your garden!). And then come out and see us. We’ll show you how to plant properly, using good soil and Bio-tone fertilizer. We’ll walk you through watering to get plants established and help you create the consistent habits that will make your garden the envy of the neighborhood.

P.S. Next Thursday, March 19, 2026, from 5 pm to 7 pm, we’ll have our second Sip and Shop for a little easy-going evening shopping on the boardwalk. Come sip some delicious mocktails (we’ve got a really fun one for you this time!) and enjoy the beauty of spring.

P.P.S. Then join us for Butterfly Bonanza on March 21, 2026. You can see our reopened butterfly house, decorate yourself with butterfly tattoos, and attend the seminar on attracting the most butterflies to your garden at 10 am.