Our Journey

Lavender Farm is a beautiful, small working farm located about an hour and a half North of Atlanta in Dahlonega, Georgia offering visitors an undeniably unique farm experience. Lavender has been used and enjoyed  for hundreds of years, and it is an absolute delight to offer a farm field of lavender for our visitors. With several different cultivars, and growing, we have planned the field with care to offer you a place to view growing lavender and a chance to take in June blooms.
In our farm store

David Duffey:

Owner, farmer, quality control, materials expert, engineer, advertising connoisseur. David’s knowledge and expertise began by working as an engineer for the

State of Georgia's DOT in the area of materials for roads and bridges. He learned about  lavender through meeting and marrying Tina. David expanded the lavender farm and improved  the success of growing lavender at the farm. While working with lavender he learned first hand the benefits of lavender and has not had a cold or bronchitis since     being at the farm. He stated this was no coincidence. David enjoys seeing the progress of the farm and others enjoying the farm. 

David is responsible for managing the fields, outside staff, as well as all products going through strict research and trials before being a part of our store inventory. His knowledge of amendments have made a change in our fields and lavender growth a success. He has also allowed our farm to expand to being the top lavender farm in Georgia. His thorough research and development has also allowed us to now propagate our own lavender to expand our fields and inventory of plants for sale.  In August 2021 with the purchase of our neighboring land we have more than doubled our farm and plan to expand our lavender field.

Tina Duffey:

Owner, Certified Herbalist, distiller, product development, Master's degree in Education and taught for 28 years before retiring in 2017. While her two children were in high school she was an ASSE Exchange Student host and opened her home to exchange students (Germany, Japan, and Spain) while they attended their senior year, assisted exchange students from around the World to make their connecting flights in Atlanta to their host family, and was an ASSE coordinator and took a large group of foreign exchange students to see Washington DC, Pennsylvania, and NY. This was a wonderful experience for all - to learn how big our world is and to appreciate people from around the world and all cultures. We loved the experience and made life long friends too with our exchange students parents. 

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Tina’s love for lavender began as a little girl while helping her grandmother garden and then later planted lavender at her own home in 2008 and found she could get  it to grow. She later decided to grow lavender in her pasture on a larger scale after taking a class and a year long research. She planting to see if lavender could actually grow in our harsh climate in 2014. That year was a year of trial and errors. Mostly mistakes. She quickly learned that you cannot grow lavender like they do in Washington state or in France. So back to the drawing board to make some changes.

After several years, the changes made showed some promises. She learned how the soil needed to be worked and found some varieties that could grow here. With every year she learned more and more, which varieties would grow, and started to learn how to work the lavender to make her products, such as distilling and de-budding.

To start the business as a real business she had her garage enclosed to sell her lavender products at the farm, and to educate visitors on how lavender grows. In February of 2021 Tina shared her knowledge as a presenter for the United States of Lavender Conference. In 2017 she expanded her hand on knowledge of lavender when she traveled to the Provence area of France and talked with the lavender growers/owners and even distiller there. Tina also had her mentor from Sequim, Washington visit her farm and inspected her lavender fields and conferenced with her how to move forward.  She learned over the many years the benefits of lavender and began creating her own lavender products through her experience at the local Homestead group and then became certified as an herbalist in 2020 through a week long Shaker Herbal Class at John C. Campbell School in North Carolina. What could be better than growing, harvesting, and distilling her own lavender to create the highest quality of lavender products?

Both Tina and David continue to expand their knowledge on lavender by visiting other lavender farms and speak with the growers from Ireland, Sequim, Washington, South Carolina, North Carolina, and have mentored several lavender farms here in Georgia and surrounding states.

Today their farm has 4,000 lavender plants of 19 different varieties and propagate their lavender for resale. It has turned into a beautiful oasis to take in the relaxing aroma of lavender as well as the beauty of all the flowers.

The Lavender farm was created through their joy of flower gardens for all to enjoy and in remembrance of family and grandparents. The Red Oak Lavender Farm was not easy to create, due to Georgia's acidic red clay and large amounts of rainfall. Starting out with only shovels and a walk behind tiller, they kept hearing the famous line, "Build it and they will come." Ten years later, the farm is a reality for all to enjoy. We hope by visiting the farm you too can make lasting memories and remember your connections to your family and friends. 

~ Tina & David