‘Flowers make me happy’: Q&A with Julie and Tim Frame

WILLIAMSBURG, Ind. — Tim and Julie Frame, the 2025 Indiana Farm Family of the Year winners, have a bustling farm that serves as a hub for community activities.

Whether harvesting soybeans or making flower bouquets, the family stays busy year-round.

The duo shared their farm’s story with AgriNews.

Q: What does your family farm mean to you?

Tim: I’m getting to farm some of the same land that my great grandpa and my dad both farmed, and I got to farm together with my dad for many years before he died.

Julie: It’s a wonderful heritage that we are honoring and now building on. We tell our story — our farm family story — both in our online presence and as folks visit the farm.

So many pictures have been taken in front of our old 1964 red International truck that has been in the Frame family all these years.

The gazebo where we host all of our concerts was made from an old grain bin that was previously at the farm where Tim grew up. He remembers it from back when he was 10 or 12 years old.

Kids climb on Farmer Tim’s first tractor he ever owned — a 4020 John Deere that’s parked proudly out among the flower beds.

Q: What do you love about growing things?

Julie: Several years ago, I had a very long, debilitating illness, and when I was finally cured I remember asking God to give me something productive to do in this new season of my life and a way to bless others. I think he’s done that.

I always say “flowers make me happy,” and I mean it. It feels good to get your fingers in the dirt.

I love checking the plants and flowers daily looking for new signs of growth, new buds and new flowers. Of course, we have weeds, too, and we work really hard to not grow those.

We grow over 80 varieties of flowers and it’s exciting to push the envelope to try to grow something that people haven’t seen before or isn’t typical for our zone.

Tim: It’s in my blood. I loved growing corn and soybeans and now flowers. It’s God’s creation. When I look at it all I think I just planted them — God is the one who created flowers in the first place for us to enjoy.

Q. What is your hope or vision for the future of the farm?

Julie: It’s always been a dream of mine to have an indoor facility for events and workshops, but there always seems to be obstacles.

You can grow corn, soybeans and flowers all day long, but when you open to the public and invite folks inside your facilities, it brings a whole new set of rules and requirements that are almost cost prohibitive for a small family farm like ours.

We know we have needed to expand for quite a while, so I guess we’ll see. Either way, we are having a ball.

Connecting the community to agriculture is so important, and we plan to continue as long as we are able.

We truly love hosting visitors and watching them enjoy the farm. We joke all the time and say we are really two old folks “living our best life.”

Q: Do you have a favorite flower?

Julie: Favorite flower? Depends on the season. We love them all. Dahlias. Sunflowers. Tulips. All lovely. I guess if I had to choose just one, it would be the purple lisianthus.

Tim: Gladiolas, but I also love dahlias and the bright orange cosmos.

Julie: We love driving in and seeing the farm in full bloom. And it’s not just me. He’s a flower lover, too. In fact, he tells people all the time that he works harder on the four acres of flowers than he does on all the others corn and soybeans acres combined.

Q: What’s a lesson you learned doing agritourism?

Julie: When I first had the desire to grow flowers 12 years ago, we didn’t know anyone else who was doing it at all. Now it’s all super trendy and there’s always that feeling of needing to be bigger, better, try new things, grow your brand, your business, always reinvent yourself.

It can feel daunting. Every year I try to be creative and plan new things. But we decided a long time ago that we aren’t in competition with anyone. I’ve told myself many times “stay in your own lane” and that’s what I do.

We simply do what we love, plant what we like and keep “telling our story.” No one else has our heritage.

No one else loves the exact same things we love. No one else is us. Good or bad, we are who we are and are doing our best.

Q: Any plans or new things coming to the farm in 2025?

Julie: Well, we love hosting people to the farm to share all the things we love — art with the various murals, music of all kinds, bicycling and, of course, flowers.

And we love inviting folks to enjoy the other things our wonderful community has to offer, as well. Wayne County is full of local gems.

So, as far as new things, our creative wheels are spinning. I guess you’ll just have to visit to see.

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