Summer Fun On The Water - Summer 2020

INSIDER
SUMMER 2020
SUMMER
FUN
ON THE
WATER
WHAT’S INSIDE | THIS ISSUE
MOVING DAY
LOTS OF NEW FACES
SEND US A REVIEW!

GREETINGS!
We hope this newsletter finds you
healthy, well and in a forward moving
state of mind! Our team has
recently put a lot of focus into our
first core value: Continually Improving.
We’ve had some big changes
happen at the nursery lately – and
exciting plans ahead – which I’ll get
to in the next couple of paragraphs.
First, I’d like to ask if you’ve had
to rethink any processes in your
business recently? Has there
been a motto or value driving your
changes? We all want to grow in the
business world, but our improvement
doesn’t happen in the future. It
happens in what we do in the present.
I fervently believe in the saying,
“A DREAM written down with a
date becomes a GOAL; when it is
broken down into steps, it becomes
a PLAN. A plan backed by ACTION
becomes REALITY.”
We introduced Stacey Hamil as our
new Assistant Nursery Manager
in our last newsletter and in her
brief time with us, she has proven
herself to be more than an asset to
our team. Because of her depth of
knowledge, previous managerial
skills, and love for the industry, we
made Stacey our Nursery Manager.
In case you missed it in the last
issue, she’s an FNGLA Certified
Horticulture Professional
and also holds
certification with
Green Industries
Best Management
Practices. Altogether,
she has 25 years of
experience in both
retail and wholesale
nurseries.
Over in Jacksonville,
FL we moved our
business office location! It’s still in
Jacksonville, but before we relocated,
we put a lot of work into making
our staff there feel ready to be “The
Highlight of Your Day”. The photos
on this page are from our moving
day.
So what are our exciting plans? If
you look on page (number here),
you’ll see we’ve added some new
faces in a few different positions.
We’ve also reworked some of our
other staff in order to do what
this newsletter is really all about,
continual improvement! Streamlining
our processes for accuracy has
been a huge focus for us right now
because we want to provide you –
our BOSS – with Consistent Quality,
On Time.
We’re also excited about The
Landscape Show 2020, put on by
FNGLA, coming up in September!
I’m sure many of you are familiar
with the tradeshow and if you’re
attending this year, please stop in
at the G&S booth! You never know
what we’ll be giving away and we
look forward to connecting with
you in person.
Talk soon,
Gabriel Curry
(386) 754-0161
gabriel@gsnursery.com
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The rush of the wind, the spray on your face..
I’ve found many of life’s
most rewarding moments can
be the ones that are most challenging
to achieve. My question
to you is: Do you agree, and
what challenges are you facing
now – good or bad? Over the
past two years, I picked up a
couple new sports that presented
me with these challenges
– and of course, a lot of fun!
I’ve enjoyed these so much,
I’ve made somewhere around
80 different trips so I could
keep improving and because
they really are that much fun!
That’s why I’ve come to love
kite surfing and wake surfing.
Both sports presented me
with a challenge. With wake
surfing, the main challenge is
staying in the wake of the boat
and maintaining your balance.
Kite surfing is more technical.
You need coordination between
the board, the kite, the wind, and
you’re moving at high speeds.
Kite surfers generally move
between 15 and 25 mph, but it’s
not uncommon to hit 40 mph on
a windy day! Some of the pros
get up to 50 and 60
mph. Sounds
like fun,
right?
Now that I’ve taken time to
learn these sports, the challenges
of getting started turned into the
adrenaline rush on the water that
I keep going back for. I want to
get better. I want to fine tune my
performance where I can. I want
to adapt to the conditions around
me so I know I can handle different
waves, wind speeds, and
come out on top of the water. The
same principles apply to business
– everyday living our core value of:
“continually improving”.
A lot of businesses have faced
unanticipated challenges recently.
I know we have. But how should
we look at them? Right now, we
might be struggling to stay on the
board and the wind isn’t
catching our kites at the speed we
want because, let’s face it, fast is
fun! We’re all ready to move forward,
but it’s how we navigate this
learning period that will determine
how well we handle the adrenaline
rush when the wind does pick
back up – and it will.
How are you overcoming
challenges and optimizing your
business?
Forward charge!
Keeping up with my kids is also a powerful motivator...
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5

NEW AND NOTEWORTHY
G&S is delighted to introduce you to our newest team members!
Adrienne Metcalf—Operations Specialist
adrienne@gsnursery.com
386 754-0161
David Hart—IT Specialist
William David Hart joined the G&S Team in March of
2020 as our IT Specialist. He is A+ certified through
CompTia and has been working in the IT realm full
time for the past five years. It was just a hobby when
he previously worked as a firefighter/EMT and he
hopes to complete more certifications in the future as
he continues to pursue his passion in the IT field. At
the nursery, he goes by “Hart” and is also a father to
david.hart@gsnursery.com one daughter, Andilynn. In his free time, Hart enjoys
386 754-0161 scuba diving, watching MMA and boxing.
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386 754-0161
Adrienne spent the last thirteen years with a local
Chrysler dealership where she performed a variety of
administrative functions and was also a certified Warranty
Administrator. While working there, she earned
her bachelor’s degree in educational studies and business
administration. Currently, she is working toward
her MBA. She is also a notary public and has taught
APA College Writing.
Originally from Ft. Myers, Florida, Adrienne’s family
owned Thoroughbred racehorses and a palm tree
farm. in 2000, they moved to Lake City, Florida. After graduating from
Suwannee High School, she married her high school sweetheart, Charlie,
and they will have been married for sixteen years this September. Together
they have two children – Charlie (14) and Karlie (11). As a family,
they love to go fishing and scalloping out of Steinhatchee and Horse
Shoe Beach. They also enjoy target practicing, skeet shooting and have a
passion for building and racing cars. Adrienne has a methodical approach
in her work and customer satisfaction is top of mind for her. We are so
excited to have her join our team!
Lauren Domingue—Order Processor
lauren@gsnursery.com
386 754-0161
Lauren joined the G&S Team in March of 2020 as our
Order Processor, working closely with our sales, purchasing
and logistics departments to ensure accurate
and timely processing. She is a native of Lake City,
Florida and enjoys spending time outdoors and on
the river during the summer months. She is the proud
mother of a 2 and half year-old son, Jayden. We are
happy to have Lauren join us at the nursery!
Courtney Heinold—Account Executive
courtney@gsnursery.com
386-754-0161
Mariela Caballero—Inside Sales Assistant
mariela@gsnursery.com
386 754-0161
Courtney will serve our customer base in the Myrtle
Beach, South Carolina area and she is excited to get
started. A native of Indiana, she was raised on a farm
on the outskirts of Valparaiso. Her father is a fifth-generation
farmer, growing corn and soybeans and raising
cattle and pigs. Courtney said her family has always
been involved with agriculture and she remembers
wanting to help on the farm and in the garden growing
up.
She decided to follow her passion for agriculture
and attended Perdue University where she received a BS in Agricultural
Communications and minored in Horticulture. She and her husband,
Aidan, recently moved to South Carolina and her goal is to make herself
as available as possible to her customers. Courtney said she wants to
bring the same level of care she saw growing up on her family’s farm to
her customers here in South Carolina. She remembers workers in service
trucks and sales representatives at their farm coming to help with
anything needed and staying for dinner – they were more like family than
employees.
In her spare time, Courtney will take any chance to be outdoors and loves
kayaking, reading and cooking. She and her husband were high school
sweethearts and are excited to start a new chapter together in the Myrtle
Beach area. We are thrilled to have Courtney join the G&S team!
Mariella Caballero joined the G&S Team in May of
2020 as a second pair of eyes and hands for Inside
Sales, assisting our Account Executives and our customers
with quotes, accurate pricing and more. She is
originally from Mount Airy, North Carolina and moved
to Lake City when she was twelve. Her parents are
from Guanajuato, Mexico and she is a fluent Spanish
speaker. When Mariela isn’t working, she loves to
shop with her sister, target practice with her brothers,
ride trails and go mudding. She is also a dog mom to a beautiful English
Mastiff named Chief.
www.gsnursery.com
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1550 SW Bedenbaugh Ln.
Lake City FL 32025
FEATURED PLANT:
Japanese Fatsia
Fatsia Japonica
Also called big-leafed paper plant,
Fatsia japonica is an upright,
evergreen, blooming shrub, good for
zones 7-10, that requires part to full
shade. Although moderately drought
tolerant once established, Fatsia
prefers moist, well-drained, acidic
soil and transfers well until it reaches
maturity. Keeping the plant too wet
can cause root rot. It also tolerates
air pollution and is moderately
tolerate of salt spray. It can be grown
indoors as a house plant with filtered
light, but keep in mind that in the
right conditions, Fatsia can reach
around 6-10 ft in height and 6-10 ft
in width. They can be pruned any
time throughout the year with minimal
problems. Fertilize in early spring
with a slow release 12-6-6 fertilizer.
Potential pests that can cause
problems, especially in the spring
and summer, are: mealybugs, aphids,
spidermites, thrips and scale. Being
proactive with a systemic insecticidal
drench in the spring is the best
approach to keeping Fatsia bug free.
Typically applied once a season, it
saves time and money, and you do
not have to wait to until pests have
done damage to react. Sprays, such
as Neem Oil or a 3-1 insect, disease,
and mite control, also work well.
Most sprays will require multiple
applications over the growing
season, especially after it rains.
Fatsia are not deer resistant and are
not toxic to animals.