We recently connected with Garen Colina and have shared our conversation below.
Garen, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What were some of the most unexpected problems you’ve faced in your business and how did you resolve those issues?
With flower farming, you have to plan failing over and over again. You are working with Mother Nature and sometimes flowers fail and aren’t viable or you forget to water and an entire row of seedlings is gone just like that. If you think about the money you could lose, you would never be a flower farmer. At first this would defeat me, but now I anticipate these failures and learn from them to better each growing season.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers
My husband had made it clear early on in our relationship that his ultimate dream was to own a farm where he could live a slower paced life away from suburbia where he grew up. This life seemed idyllic for me as well and as soon as we got engaged in 2012 I began looking for land. I knew I wanted a white farmhouse with a pond, and that finding exactly what I was looking for would not be an easy feat. Fast forward to 2018, we had a small farm fund that we were consistently adding to monthly and had decided that in the next year we would seriously look for land and build our dream home. One night I was searching for houses online and came across a white farmhouse with a pond on 65 acres. The land was mostly wooded with three fields, the house was rich with history (it was part of the Underground Railroad) and had a big porch that I envisioned many dinners on. Throughout the next year we tried to make the farm our home and finally that December it was ours! A few months later I left my retail management position and we began to brainstorm a way to supplement our income through the farm. Tim revisited the idea of a flower farm, one that he had discovered a few years back through a “how to make money farming” google searches. I ordered some (several) packages of seeds online and the rest was history! Today Two Moons Farms provides flowers to local florists, sells goods at several farmer’s markets as well as bouquet deliveries May-October. We strive to utilize regenerative practices and continue to grow and evolve in ways to aid in our local ecosystem and lessen our carbon footprint. This year we added a U-Pick as well as a weekly subscription service. We also have flowered several weddings–something I never saw myself doing, but we have a few already lined up for 2023 and 2024!
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
Our farm had been in the works for a while, and we finally chose to open for business in 2020. So the fall of 2019 and early 2020 we worked hard to get everything set up for success, only for COVID-19 to create a huge hole in the floral market. No one was having weddings so florists were not in need of flowers–wholesale was our initial business model. I was emailing florists trying to sell what we had and in some instances telling them to name their price! I just did not want anything to go to waste. Eventually I opened up orders to my social media followers and started doing bouquet drop offs which became the new business model. Our subscriptions have blown me away. The first year my goal was to have six and I ended up having over thirty subscriptions purchased! I owe it all to having to think quick during that first year of business.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
Just as we planned to open for official business in 2020, so did several other growers. Once I began to really pay attention to social media I felt defeated because there were so many new local growers. I am sure we were all in the same boat of realizing that there was more competition out there than anticipated. However, not once have I felt hindered by another grower. In fact, they are the most supportive group of people. We are lucky to lean on each other! Your customers will find you and there is room for everyone–I have certainly found this out over the past few years!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.twomoonsohio.com
- Instagram: twomoonsfarmohio