This Saturday is our third annual Plants & Pets. Over the last few years, it has been the highlight of our summer. Smack in the middle of the dog days of summer, it’s the perfect combination of two things that many of you love. Your plants and your pets (don’t worry, we won’t ask which one you love more…).
This event has a start that I love sharing. Every night, since Abby and Maddy were infants, I’ve read a story to them. A decade ago, it was See Spot Run and The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Then we graduated to Curious George, Berenstain Bears, and The Cat in The Hat. In recent years, I’ve been able to work in some of my favorites like Jules Verne’s Mysterious Island, The Three Musketeers, The Lord of the Rings, and Dune. At some point during the late spring of 2022, I had finished reading a chapter to them, and it was time for lights out. Except that’s never how kids are, is it? While I’m reading, they usually decide that it is time to write something down or color or do some other thing that they’ve suddenly remembered that they must do.
On this particular night, before I could say goodnight, they decided they’d come up with a great idea. They wanted to dress up our cocker spaniel Pearl and bring her to the nursery so that people could pet her. I told them that I appreciated the idea, but that as much as we love Pearl, I wasn’t sure that many people would want to pet her. And even though this first idea didn’t seem like a winner, we started talking about other people bringing their pets up to Kerby’s. I ran downstairs to get my notepad (Kim wasn’t sure at this point what was going on or why reading was taking so long), and we began to brainstorm what we originally dubbed “Plants & Pooches.” When I presented the idea to the nursery staff, they loved it, but we changed the name to Plants & Pets to encourage pet parents of all sorts to bring their pets out. And thus, this weekend’s event was born. You’ve got Abby and Maddy to thank for the inspiration. We hope to see you and your pet this Saturday from 9 am to 12 pm. See below for what’s going on during that time and be sure to RSVP here to let us know that you are coming. Happy Plants & Pets!
Here is the schedule of happenings for the morning:
New this year – a Pet Parade! At 9:30 am, we want you to show off your pets! We’ll have prizes for Best Costume, Best in Show, and Best Trick. You can register your pet here.
And see Pearl’s costume in the video below.
After the parade, around 10:30 am, we’ll have our Pet-Friendly Plants Seminar, where I’ll discuss pet-friendly plants for indoor spaces and how you can use some home remedies to repel pets from plants, both indoors and outdoors.
From 9 am to 12 pm, there are multiple fun activities, listed below:
And of course, Kerby’s is open all day to help you on any aspect of your garden. We look forward to seeing you and your pets and enjoying a day of making sure they both work together.
