The lovely peeps at New World sent me a five of their newest collectables, New World Little Garden, to celebrate the start of spring. I was pumped.
Aw, this is just too cool and that’s super high praise from me, as gardening is up there with decorating cakes. The boy and I were utterly enchanted with this promo, even before we’d even planted these seeds. As a Mum, I was especially delighted. Why? A supermarket collectible that: Is sustainable, educational, edible, non-plastic – and, best of all for this Mumma: There’s nothing in sight that can get sucked up the vacuum cleaner, put through the wash, get lost in a school bag. Bonus points too for not needing to traipse along to the supermarket for ‘Swap Days’ and get lost in the supermarket vortex. Spending time on Facebook to see who has number 69 is also not required. Happy days!
I love this collection. I love the message it sends, teaching kids and adults about how plants grow, where food comes from, and how to eat healthy. Get them involved: They will eat well… It’s not rocket science. I’m having a flashback writing this to when I did nannying at Uni during the school holidays. I looked after two gorgeous little boys who were, without doubt city kids. On an ‘outing’ I took them to my whare in Petone and showed them our vege garden. We had, thanks to my flatmate Shelley, an abundance of silverbeet and carrots. I let the little fullas go nuts and they pulled up carrots in utter delight. We took ‘em home, chopped ‘em up – they scoffed the lot. When their Mum got home that night they were wild with excitement: “We plucked darrots Mum! Outta da ground!” Their Mum was horrified that her city kids thought carrots came from the supermarket. She vowed on the spot to get them out a little bit more.
Back to New World’s Little Garden..To get a piece of the action, or rather, I should say, to get a biodegradable pot of action, you need to spend $40 in store. This’ll get you one Little Garden seedling kit. The kits contain all that’s needed to grow one type of vege or herb: Seeds, soil and a mini pot. There’s 24 seedling kits to collect, 18 veges and 6 herbs. There’s also the option to buy a limited edition collector tray ($5) to keep them all in one place. I want one – and more little pots.
All you need to plant your seedling is your seedling kit, 50mls of water, gardening gloves, a spoon and saucer. All you do is pop on your gloves; Open up your seedling kit; Place the dried soil tablet on a saucer; Pour water over the soil tablet (it’s dry soil that expands and turns into ‘proper soil’ this bit is really cool!). Then, get the pot and fill it with 1cm of soil, add the seed mat and fill up the rest of the pot with soil. Place the pot in a place with lots of light and water it twice a day. Easy peasy. Keagan and I did some planting and then celebrated our good work with a Kit Kat and a cuppa tea (I’m half English, don’t judge). If the New World kits get you and your children enjoying gardening more you might find yourself out in the garden more often and needing equipment and storage etc then look into garden storage from garden site for many different options.
Working on your garden is an excellent way to pass the time and can teach you and your child so much about nature. However, it is no secret that the best way to maintain a healthy garden is to educate yourself and learn how to identify common pests. Remember to inspect your garden regularly to detect problems early because the sooner a pest is identified the easier it will be to manage. If you do notice an influx of pests in your garden, it is in your best interest to contact a pest control expert before they make their way into your home. You can learn more about pest control solutions here: https://www.pestcontrolexperts.com/local/wisconsin/.
Suffice to say I reckon New World have smashed this collectable out of the ball-park and I’ll be driving across town to go to New World to do my grocery shopping for the forseeable!. I’d have been bricking it being part of their marketing team. Remember the raving success of their Little Shop giveaway a few years ago? Far out brussel sprout: They had big shoes to fill following in the footsteps of that promo! Speaking of Little Shop, my mother-in-law went mental back then. Not only did she get ALL the collectibles for her grandies, she got the shop and the shopping trolley and sent a bunch of Little Shop stuff to my niece in Melbourne. All this kit still gets played with.
Back at our house, we planted our Little Garden in a pot and it’s sitting on the kitchen windowsill soaking up all the spring rays and doing its thang. There’s no sprouting yet, but that doesn’t matter we are enjoying the anticipation. On a side note, my boy has been so enthralled with this promo, he’s taken to churning out drawing after drawing of fruits, vegetables and plants growing in pots. Makes a nice change from Pokemon related art…. He’s also started googling ‘what veges grow in pots’ – and he’s digging away at me to plant more veges and herbs on our deck, as well as convert our unused sandpit into a vege and herb garden. Good thing we can get a range of timber supplies if we go ahead with that. He’s also decided that he hates raking the leaves off the garden (this has always been one of his chores) and is telling me I need to learn about a Ryobi leaf blower that he’s seen. How do they grow up so fast?! That would make it easier to clear the leaves, but I’m not sure it’s something that I’d let him use on his own. But, this is why I love this promo: It gets kids involved and thinking about where food comes from.
Nice work New World you nailed this one. Now, a desperate plea… Please can you open a New World on the eastside of Roto-town? Pleeeasssse. x
