A warm introduction

Hello all. My name is Shelby. Along with my husband Matthew, we own and operate Wooly Valley Farm & Flowers where we grow speciality cut fresh flowers and raise wool sheep. We are located in Bowling Green, Kentucky, where we have decided to grow our roots.

Although I have always had a love of agriculture, I didn't start my own personal journey until 2018. You see, I come from a multi-generational growing family. When I asked my grandparents about how they were raised, they said they always put out a garden, as that was how they ate. My grandparents and father still garden.

Some of my oldest memories are with my father in his vegetable garden, squishing the mud between my toes, and helping my mother tend to her flower beds. My sweet mother... I remember as a child I would "pick" flowers for her from her flower beds, only I would rip out the entire stem, roots and all. She ALWAYS thanked me with a smile. There's something to be said in that life lesson, but that's for another post. My mother has the best green thumb I've ever seen. One of my first paid jobs was at a florist shop. Any time the owner would throw out a potted plant that was dying, I would take them home to my mother who then would plant and tend to said dying plant. Some of them still grow in her garden to this day.

Fast forward; I'm in my last year of college when I meet the love of my life. We got married in 2019, and bought the farm just 4 months later. He is an entrepreneur. So before we got married and as I was finishing college, he asked me what I wanted to do. Confused by that question as I was about to graduate with a certain degree, I asked him to clarify. He said to me, "What do you want to do on the side that you absolutely love, that would be your dream job, and that would make you fun side money." I replied, "I want to sell flowers from a flower truck." So while we were still engaged, we picked out the perfect truck, a 1952 Ford F-1 manual pick up truck, and he bought it for me. The man has been helping me chase my dreams ever since. We did start this business selling flowers locally out of that pick up truck. It was a dream come true. I also started doing wedding flower arrangements and installments, which sparked a deep new dream I didn't know I had, and didn't know I had the God-given talent for.

The day we signed the contract to the farm, we went to tractor supply and bought chickens to celebrate our new homestead adventure. Little did we know, that was only the beginning. (That's how it always starts, am I right?) Chickens turned into more chickens, then ducks and before we knew it, the next summer we bought our first flock of wool sheep. I didn't know a LICK about raising sheep!!! But we have learned with grace, and I am a proud modern day shepherdess. They have taught me so much about life, and are quite fun to raise. I haven't learned to shear them, the right way, yet. The first summer we brought them to our farm I couldn't find anyone to shear their wool within a two hour radius. So I took to Youtube university and watched countless videos until I was good and confident. There is basically a ballet dance you can do when shearing, which is supposed to make it easy. The first step is to get them on their hind ends. Easy enough right? Wrong. Imagine my little ol self out there trying to wrangle a nearly 200lb sheep for the first time in my life onto their rumps. What did I think was going to happen? That they would say, "Oh hello brand new shepherdess that I just met. Let me allow you to body slam me while you give me a new haircut with no experience!" Wrong, so wrong.

Well. I couldn't (but I can now!), so I called my husband up to the barn for reinforcement. We started with our feistiest girl first. Again, in retrospect, another bad idea, but I still had loads of confidence and determination. After he got her to sitting position, I started her haircut up her leg, when BAM!! She kicked me right in the neck, knocked me on my butt, and left my gasping for air.

For the next two weeks, I had a hoove mark on my neck like a bad tattoo, and a half shaved sheep running around. We went to a local winery where they had asked what had happened and how I had gotten new said battle scar. When I told them the story, they informed me they knew local shepherds who shear their own sheep and would likely come do ours. Luckily for me, they came and sheared all 6 within 30 minutes. Since then, our sheep are now on the shearing circuit with an incredible shearer. But it makes for a heck of a story.

So back to flowers. After we bought the farm in Spring of 2020, I put out the first garden there where I learned SO incredibly much about growing. I thought since I had grown with my parents my entire life, that it would be a walk in the park. I was wrong again. It was a failure, but it was the first step in becoming the flower farmer I am today. My dad has excellent life advice; he always says, "experiment once." That advice has given me the motivation to keep trying until I figured out how to get it right.

In 2024, we had our first child! So I took the year off from doing the flower truck, and that's when I got serious about growing everything myself, from seed with all the knowledge that I had gained attempting to grow since 2020. By 2025, I was back in business, just in a different way.

As someone who is very loyal, and as a grown adult, I had to learn that It's okay to grow and evolve myself. What once was my biggest dream, the flower truck, didn't seem to fit my future dreams anymore. I wanted to be a full time grower, selling to my community and local florist. I became deeply passionate about agriculture, organic practices, and growing food for my family. I wanted create a space where I could invite my community to develop deeper relationships. More than anything, I wanted to transition to a lifestyle I could do alongside my family, and my little girl. The year 2025 was my best growing year yet. It was bountiful and beautiful. I hosted people on my farm for workshops and sold so many stems of flowers that I grew. I fed my family fresh garden vegetables and shared with others.

So here we are. It's nearly 2026. In January I will begin seed starting indoors as I am eager to see what the growing season of 2026 brings.

Lets grow a great community together,

-Shelby