Karinya in the Valley flower farm host pick your own flower session in Helidon flower fields | photos
A Lockyer Valley flower farm hosted a pick your own session inviting visitors to wander the flower beds and pick their own colourful blooms. See the photos here.
Lifestyle
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When she’s not running a successful CBD law firm, Kym Briese always finds some time to smell the flowers — and it’s an experience she wants to share with the rest of Toowoomba.
The well-known lawyer and permaculture enthusiast has turned her Lockyer Valley property into a “pick your own” flower field on weekends, which has already attracted hundreds of people to make their own bouquets and enjoy the country air.
Families and couples who pay a small fee are given a cup and a pair of secateurs and allowed to roam the gardens to find their favourite blossoms.
Ms Briese and her husband Kent, who have owned Karinya in The Valley since 2008, have been busy planting thousands of flowers of all varieties across more than 30 garden beds.
She said the idea sparked from her love of “growing stuff”, which started with small-crop farming to sell at local markets.
“We’ve been doing a bit of small-crop farming, but it was difficult to compete in that market with selling produce,” Ms Briese said.
“I’ve been getting into permaculture and found I could grow stuff and I turned my attention to flowers because they’re beautiful and spark joy.
“I got into it for stress release, and it is totally different to my core day job (as a family lawyer).
“People can now share that opportunity and have that experience with connecting with nature.”
Ms Briese said the types of flowers would vary depending on the season, but her hope was to have full garden beds from now until June.
“Typically we’ll have two or three focal flowers, like zinnias and then we’ll move into dahlias next, then should come the carnations and chrysanthemums,” she said.
“As the seasons change, so too will what is on offer — one girl has been four or five times, and she’s amazed that she’s found something new.
“I would hope we would have flowers until the start of first frost, which is about June, then there will be a break.”
Ms Briese said while the endeavour was still in its infancy, it had already attracted extraordinary interest from residents from Toowoomba and the Lockyer Valley.
“We might have had about 100 people through over the first couple of weekends and it’s purely been word of mouth,” she said.
“This is the time to grow the audience, it’s been a soft start because I’m still trying to get a handle on how many flowers people can store in their keep cups.
“Mostly we have couples, friends, mums and daughters coming (at the most recent weekend) we had three generations come together.”
Ms Briese said she also planned to pull out all stops for this year’s Carnival of Flowers in September.
For more information about the flower fields, head to www.facebook.com/karinyainthevalley.
Scroll the gallery below to see the pics:
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