Project Sunshine Aotearoa
Project Sunshine Aotearoa creates beautiful plantings of sunflowers throughout New Zealand, while providing food for our bees and other pollinators.
This year, the Project is a collaboration with Rimutaka Prison who have hand drawn each seed packet and begun planting seedlings for us to disperse from the ReMakery. These will be available at our upcoming seedling sale. We acknowledge wonderful Ainsley who is coordinating this season as part of her Duke of Edinburgh Award.
Beautiful Beginnings
Project Sunshine Aotearoa began 10 years ago with a group of children in Taita, Lower Hutt who wanted to create living works of art in their community to make people feel good - and to offer foraging for bees. They planted them through the streets and at local parks - and we all watched magic things happen as a result.
Epuni Primary School’s little farmers grow hundreds of sunflowers in the school garden. They then dry the sunflower heads, collect thousands of seeds, make beautiful seed packets, and post the seeds far and wide throughout Aotearoa to anyone who would like to grow them!
Since then it has been held by different schools and groups - with regular planting seeds, koha seed packets and seedling sales. It was the profits from this extra special little project that gave us our seed funding for our The Beeple Honey Collective.
Please contact us if you’d like a packet of sunflower seeds for planting in spring or summer. They’re available in exchange for a koha to our children, of whatever you’d like to give.
Together, we spread sunshine in our communities.
Check out the Project Sunshine Aotearoa Facebook page for updates and the latest news
How can you help?
Get planting
Spread the word to your whānau, 'āiga, family, friends and neighbours. Perhaps you could organise a school or community planting at your place? Our sunflowers look amazing planted in large groups!
Please send us videos, photos and stories of what you do with your seeds, so we can tell everyone about their wonderful journeys around the country.
Get seeding
Maybe collecting, saving and sharing seed is your thing? Growing and saving our own seed we can then share, is vital to developing a resilient and sustainable Aotearoa. Please get in touch if you are interested in working with a network of seed growers and savers.
