Behind the scenes at Little Lyndoch Flower Farm

Katie of Little Lyndoch Flower Farm and her mother wear sunhats while gardening outdoors among pink and orange flowers.

With zero growing experience but optimism in spades, one couple’s Barossa Valley flower farm dream has come true.

Katie and Rob of Little Lyndoch Flower Farm in a light kitchen, with pink and white flowers in a vase on a white countertop with fruit.

Katie, a florist and Rob, a flower farmer, have created a home and a life with their business Little Lyndoch Flower Farm that revolves around blooms. Their modern farmhouse, which they share with Buddy the blue heeler, is set on their 0.8-hectare flower farm in Lyndoch, a charming town in South Australia’s Barossa Valley. When Katie and Rob bought the unloved block in 2019, it came with a rundown farmhouse destined for the wrecking ball. Undeterred, they began building everything themselves – from dahlia beds to greenhouses – leaving their dream house until last. It was finally completed in 2024. They share with us how they brought their farmhouse to life.

The white farmhouse house at Little Lyndoch Flower Farm with a gravel path through a green lawn, a dog running, and a wooden bench on the porch

What is the story behind Little Lyndoch Flower Farm house?

Owners Katie and Rob bought the farm originally to be used as storage for their vintage furniture hire company.
During COVID-19 they sold the furniture stock and pivoted to a flower business, sharing their story on social media.
The couple lived for years in the original farmhouse on the site, putting up with having no kitchen or hot water while building the farm.
They learned flower cutting, farming and D.I.Y. skills through hard work, experimentation and YouTube.

What is there to do at Little Lyndoch Flower Farm?

The business has multiple offerings:

Wedding styling
Wholesale supply of flowers
Selling tubers and corms
Educational retreats for budding florists and farmers

A light wooden workbench with decorative corbels, topped with vases of pink and white flowers, twine and scissors, set against a large arched window

How Little Lyndoch Flower Farm started

The dream setting of dahlias and colourful rows of ranunculi framing a picture-perfect farmhouse is a far cry from Little Lyndoch Flower Farm’s beginnings as a rubbish-strewn patch of dirt and waist-high grass. “This property was overlooked because it was a lot of work, but we saw the potential,” says Katie, who bought the block in rural Lyndoch with partner Rob in 2019.

From this, the two have carved out an enchanting space and flourishing business, built on a willingness to learn and a deaf ear to the word ‘can’t’. Plus, adds Katie, the help of a few friends and the endless support of her mum, Vicky. “We couldn’t do what we do without mum – sometimes we find her in the yard weeding at 7.30am!”

An entryway at the Little Lyndoch farmhouse with dark wooden floors, a wooden bench with a blanket, two potted plants, and open black French doors leading to an outdoor area

How to pivot your business idea

Katie left a nine-to-five job in 2016 to start a company that hired out vintage furniture for weddings. Looking for a property to store her stock, she and Rob settled on this land, but only a few months later, COVID-19 hit and turned the wedding industry on its head. “We weren’t sure if we would ever host a wedding again,” says Katie. “So we decided to take a risk and sell all of our stock.”

In the meantime, Rob had bought six wee dahlia plants from Bunnings and, in his first stab at gardening, was proudly growing them and falling in love with the process. This started an idea and the couple decided to pivot to a new plan. They tipped their furniture stock money into growing a cutting garden and documented their story on Instagram. “From six plants, the next season it turned into 100 plants,” says Katie. “After that we had 500 plants and now we grow 3500.”

What were the skills and lessons they learned for the flower farm business?

Start small and then scale up: “I got very excited in the beginning, and we spent money growing too many things at once,” says Katie. “We’ve learnt now that having a couple of crops and really caring for them and learning about their needs is a more sustainable way of growing.”
Experiment with what works: Rob and Katie learnt how to amend the mostly fertile soil and how to nurture the dahlias (and now ranunculi and zinnias, too) to reach their full potential as cutting flowers; for example, using flower mesh to support the fragile stems. “Sometimes they can grow so tall that if a big wind comes, the whole lot will literally just fall over, breaking the stems,” says Rob.
Learn your way around the power tool aisle: Rob took his D.I.Y. skills from rank amateur to can-do confidence. He built a chook shed, converted from an old cubby. “Then Katie was like, ‘Can you make a gable roof for the chickens?’, so five minutes later I was on YouTube learning how to build a gable roof,” says Rob.

A laundry room with black cabinetry, a black sink, a black countertop with flowers in a bucket, and a pair of black gumboots on a light-coloured tiled floor.

How did they turn the farmhouse into a home?

When it came time to build a new home, Katie had a vision of exactly what she wanted. Key features include the wide entry, which she says sets the tone for the whole house. “We wanted our house to feel calm and inviting and spacious, and as soon as you walk in, you can feel those things,” she says.

The colours are calm and soothing, with Katie washing the whole home in varied strengths of Dulux Buff It.
Katie elected for open shelves in the kitchen. “I’ve never really been a fan of overhead cabinetry,” she says. “I wanted a space that I could style, incorporating modern pieces, but also beautiful sentimental items.”
The former shed is now a gorgeous workspace with a huge bench found in a second-hand shop. “It had sink holes – I think it had been used as a kitchen island – so Rob replaced the top,” says Katie.
The bathrooms perfectly illustrate Katie’s modern country style, with VJ panels to dado height. To get the look in a wet space, opt for a water-resistant product.
The large laundry, with deep ceramic sink, has plenty of room for both chores and flower arranging.

What’s next for the flower farm?

The farm and its buildings continue to grow, too. One of the original sheds has been transformed into a design studio with a huge workbench and lit by five gorgeous windows, salvaged from a demolition site. The next project promises to change the shape of the farm and business again; having been gifted a greenhouse frame, the couple are using salvaged windows and doors to build a propagation house. “The idea is to be able to start our own seeds and propagate our flowers, and to have a proper set-up so we can become more sustainable,” says Katie. Like the bees that hop from bloom to bloom, this couple are never still, and Little Lyndoch Flower Farm continues to grow.