About the Farm:
Welcome to Phlox Blue Moon Farm, we are nestled in Northern Virginia not far from the Maryland border. The farms name was selected for a couple of reasons. One was my love of flowers, and two it has a tie to my first horse Sweet William. Blue Moon Phlox is also referred to as Wild Sweet William, and is one of the first flowers of the spring and is a lovely blueish/purple color.
The farm itself is just under 25 acres and is a mixture of horse paddocks, woods, and a creek. The house itself is nothing lavish, and we joke that it is our glorified double-wide. It is indeed a modular home, and although we thought 1200 sqft would be enough, I am not gonna lie WE NEED MORE CLOSETS. The barn is right next to the house which is amazing as I can often see the horses from the house munching away on their hay.
About Us:
We are a married couple who met later in life, and decided to sell both our places closer to DC and move the horses home. The journey to find Phlox Blue Moon Farm was met with the classic ups and downs of house searching. We had a couple near misses that we now look back on and are thankful they fell through, and one that I (Kelly) am still a bit sad that it didn’t come together, as we realized we couldn’t afford all the love the house needed. Just as I was about to toss in the towel and accept my fate of living in a small condo with my husband (Kevin) and too many animals I casually searched Realtor.com and saw the newly listed…soon to be our home…farm. We viewed the farm, quickly put an offer in and the rest was history.
We are both professionals, and are constantly juggling the demands of work, our families, the needs of the animals and farm, with trying to have a social life. Not always easy, as I think many of my friends will attest. Before buying the farm, we would make the long trek almost five to six days a week to the farm in Clarksburg, MD to ride the ponies. We were very lucky to have found a lovely spot for them with great friends, with an amazing indoor arena. One of the things I am really missing with our new lives on our own farm…no sand ring…no indoor! In 2020, we started our new journey as farm owners! This is about when the Covid pandemic ramped up, and we found ourselves having the opportunity to work from home and avoid the long commute to DC for work. It was also the perfect place to isolate, and escape the from the hustle. We are now transitioning back into balancing the telework and in person demands.
Our Animals:
When we started this journey we came to the farm with three horses (Guinness, Gigi, and Reisa), three dogs (Obi, Sebastian, and Boo), and one old kitty (Dottie). Two and a half years in, our pack of animals looks a lot different. As part of the house offer, we agreed to take Elvis, one of the former owners dogs. Shortly after our arrival Kevin convinced me he NEEDED chickens. I said no chickens, then agreed to 4 chickens, we came home with 11 chickens…sigh. Dottie passed shortly after we moved here, and now we have three barn cats (Tussy, Persephone, and Artemus) to help us manage the mice. We also added another horse to the herd named Lucky James that is mostly Kevin’s ride and has taught us a lot on how to manage him and his eyes. Sadly, both Boo and Sebastian departed for the rainbow bridge a year apart. Boo was from old age and Sebastian tragically had lymphoma, and we added Kevin’s mothers Yorkie (Wicket) to the mix about a year ago. So as of today (January 2, 2023) we have 4 horses, 3 chickens, 3 dogs, and 3 cats.
About Cultivating:
As part of us trying to learn to be more sustainable, we have added eight raised plant beds to our farm, and planted 35 plus grapevines. As the new year arrives, we plan to plant more flowers that can be used in arrangements, and start to decide if we can figure out a small part-time business that can evolve out of this farm life. We have tossed around the idea of added a retired horse or two to the mix, or helping with a rescue. However, this all needs to be balanced with our full-time paying jobs, our commitments outside of the farm, and our current pack of animals.
About the Podcast:
We also have ventured into podcasting a bit to document our lives on the farm. The Podcast is called Ponies, Puppies, Peonies, and Pick-me-ups We will use this site to feature many of the topics we cover on the podcast so folks can see pictures that relate.
We hope you enjoy reading and listening to our adventures. If you have any questions or comments, please contact us phloxbluemoonfarm@gmail.com
