Through Penfolds Evermore Australia Grant
PlantingSeeds’ B&B Highway officially establishes itself in Adelaide this April 2025 thanks to a generous Penfolds’ grant. The Penfolds Evermore Australia grant funding has allowed PlantingSeeds to take root in South Australia to build a pollinator-friendly regenerative and educational community initiative.
Our B&B Highway program – Bed and Breakfasts for Bees, birds and biodiversity – creates urban sustainability hubs where locals learn about local plants and pollinators and, importantly, the skills and practices to support them.
We were thrilled when Penfolds recognised PlantingSeeds and its alignment with the Penfold organisation’s focus areas of food, winemaking, viticulture and creative arts to award us this generous grant.
The Penfolds’ Evermore grant will be implemented in five Adelaide sites: the University of Adelaide Waite campus, the Fern Ave community garden, the Carmelite Southern Cross aged care facility, and the National Wine Centre.
Research shows that urban and peri-urban biodiversity can be assisted if appropriate plants and habitats are implemented. Many threatened species – about one-quarter of Australia’s threatened plants and nearly half of all threatened animals – live in cities and towns and these species can be assisted if appropriate plants and habitats are provided.
In Adelaide, PlantingSeeds will be focusing on solitary native bees including the Golden Pea Bee, the Blue-banded bee, the leaf-cutter bee and the furrow bee, otherwise known as Lassioglosum.
Our education sessions will include advice on the appropriate plants that encourage local bees and other pollinators. Pollen from Eucalypt species is vital with figwort and mint family species dare we say… like bees to honey. With approximately 70 per cent of Australian bees being ground dwellers, it is important to leave large areas of the ground without mulch.
We will also be working to support Adelaide’s small and medium-sized birds with plantings of banksia and other native shrubs and bird boxes sourced from local supplier, FauNature.
We are thrilled to welcome two esteemed local Adelaide environmental educators onto our national team: Hannah Jones of Wattle + Wonder, and Deirdre Knight, convenor of the Australian Association for Environmental Education SA.
Our educational initiatives demonstrate how individuals can make a difference on their own turf and have greater impact through joining in with others in their community and beyond. In this respect, the regenerative plant and pollinator corridors linking Penfolds’ B&Bs are local and broader – singular and scalable. Bringing the communities together to plant, practise citizen science and build habitats for threatened pollinators encourages collaboration, connections and empowerment.
We feel passionately about sustainability and biodiversity and believe this project has exciting applications for viticulture and agriculture. By supporting bees and other species, this project supports a healthy local ecosystem. Healthy plants that grow around vineyards support broader ecosystems.
As Dr Mary Retallack stated in her report ‘Vineyard Biodiversity and insect interactions’: ‘An understanding of biodiversity (existing and potential) in the vineyard is an important step towards considering the complex range of interactions taking place between the flora (plant life including vines, cover crops, shelterbelts, hedgerows, beetle banks, etc), fauna (animal life including larger animals, birds, insects, soil and aquatic organisms) and the natural balance of the environment.
‘The more genetically diverse these interactions are… the better buffered and potentially stable, an ecosystem is said to be.’
In the past, vineyards have been traditionally developed and managed as a monoculture or a single crop or species grown over a large area. With these practices leading to instability, researchers and practitioners have progressively moved towards more complexity. Retallack also said that attracting a range of beneficial species to the vineyard including territorial birds, beneficial insect and natural enemies, potentially reduces the need for chemical pesticides.
With Penfolds looking to support community collaboration, sustainability and education, we look forward to connecting Adelaide and South Australian locals and fostering new knowledge and skills.