Woolworths Discovery Garden is set to return, with a hive of exciting new varieties of vegies, herbs, and flowers to help inspire customers to create fresh and healthy habits at home.
From this Wednesday (10th February), for every $30 spent in store or online, Woolworths customers can collect a new Discovery Garden seedling kit.
24 varieties will be available, with a new focus on educating Australians about honeybees and the critical role they play in supporting the country’s local food supply through pollination. 21 seedlings in the collection can attract bees at some stage in their lifecycle.
Woolworths Chief Marketing Officer Andrew Hicks said: “We’re excited to once again offer our customers the Woolworths Discovery Garden collection.
“The response to our first Discovery Garden program in 2019 was overwhelmingly positive, with families collecting millions of seedling kits and discovering how to grow the flowers, vegetables, and herbs together.
“With so much of our floral resources decimated by recent droughts, bushfires and floods, our focus this year is to encourage pollination through our bee-attracting seedlings and replenish local gardens and community flora.
“The Woolworths Discovery Garden program is a part of our ongoing commitment to sustainability, which aims to not only have a positive impact on the planet, but start conversations amongst families that result in positive change for the local environment to help create a better tomorrow.”
Trevor Weatherhead, Chair for the Australian Honey Bee Industry Council, said: “Honey bees do more than produce honey, they play a vital role in the pollination of many of our foods. In fact, one in three mouthfuls of the food we eat relies on honey bees for pollination.
“The Australian Honey Bee Industry Council welcomes the Woolworths Discovery Garden program to help raise the awareness of the importance of protecting our bees and the role bees play in pollination and food security. The program works to support ‘Healthy Bees – Healthy People’.”
Each Discovery Garden seedling kit includes seeds, a compostable pot, biodegradable seed mat and coco pellet pod. All the packaging from the seedling kits is FSC certified and 100% recyclable.
Woolworths will also supplement the seedling kits with a series of online educational tools for use at home and in schools, to be found at woolworths.com.au/discoverygarden.
Schools and Early Learning Centres will have access to educational resource kits, including a bee craft kit resource for teachers to inspire and educate kids on the importance of bees.
Andrew Hicks continued: “We want to give families and schools practical steps to extend their learning and make lasting, positive changes to their local environment and community.
“Our online resources include a step by step growth videos and interactive book to support parents and kids through the five-stage growing journey of unboxing, sprouting, repotting, gardening and harvesting.”
The full list of seedlings available in the Woolworths Discovery Garden include:
Herbs | Bee Attracting | Flowers | Bee Attracting | Vegetables | Bee Attracting |
Chives | Y | Aster | Y | Bunching Onion | Y |
Cornflower | Y | Dianthus | Cabbage | Y | |
Lemon Balm | Y | Lavender | Y | Carrot | Y |
Oregano | Y | Pansy | Cherry Tomato | Y | |
Red Basil | Y | Phacelia | Y | Lettuce | Y |
Sage | Y | Phlox | Silverbeet | Y | |
Thyme | Y | Poppy | Y | Spinach | Y |
Salvia | Y | ||||
Swan River Daisy | Y | ||||
Zinnia | Y |
More about Woolworths Discovery Garden
Bee attracting: 21 seedlings can attract bees at different stages of their lifecycle. For example, herb and vegetable plants flower at different times and some are harvested before they produce flowers like silverbeet, carrot, lettuce and herbs. By leaving some of these plants in the ground, they will go to seed and produce bee friendly flowers (food for bees) or seeds that can be replanted.
Each Woolworths Discovery Garden seedling kit includes:
- Sleeve: Each seedling kit comes in a cardboard FSC sleeve with useful information and instructions. The seed identifying label is integrated in the sleeve.
- Seed mat: The seed mat is made from dissolvable paper which is biodegradable.
- Pot: The pot is made from wood pulp. This is compostable in soil. This is a natural product.
- Seeds: The seeds come from various seed companies that buy quality seeds from around the world. This is a natural product.
- Coco pellet: The pod is a natural product made from coconut husk.
This product is tested according to the Australian toy safety testing +3 year, and is recommended for safety reasons for 5+.