Gardening

Seed Bombing: Spread the Joy of Flowers!

Seed bombing Seed bomb Seed ball Guerilla gardening

Ill.: www.clipartmax.com & www.mycutegraphics.com, montage: laidbackgardener.com

Many, many years ago, back in the late 1970s, I fancied myself a guerilla gardener, based on the guerilla gardening movement I’d run into while on a visit to New York City. The idea was to spread nature onto city lands that don’t belong to you, such as vacant lots, hell strips and abandoned gardens. 

I came back from my trip with visions of setting my city ablaze with blooms and bringing bees and other pollinators back into the urban core. I actually only did this once, though, having convinced a group of friends to join me, and I must admit we didn’t really change the urban environment to any great degree. 

We made seed bombs in my apartment, then went out and tossed them in likely spaces—somewhere sunny, yet devoid of vegetation. Theoretically, you can seed bomb from a motorcycle or a moving car, but we had neither. We simply went out at night on foot, thinking ourselves ever so brave and cool, and tossed away. 

Our greatest success was on a commercial street where large flower boxes had been installed as some sort of earlier beautification project, then mostly abandoned. We were so proud of the beautiful flowers that mysteriously appeared in the months after we bombed the containers. 

There was some repeat bloom even in the following year, but then the city took out the boxes. And I was off on other guerilla gardening projects by them, mostly planting vegetables in vacant lots.

You Too Can Be a Guerilla Gardener

Home-made seed bomb ready to throw.
A home-made seed bomb. Photo: Herder3, Wikimedia Commons

Why not try your own hand at guerilla gardening? Seed bombing is easy to do and a great project for a family, as kids of all ages can participate, both in making the bombs and tossing them. 

Here’s what to do:

Seed bombs drying on plastic sheet.
Seed bombs drying. Photo: Suyash Dwivedi, Wikimedia Commons
  1. Buy wildflower seed appropriate to your area. You’ll also need compost, either home-made or purchased, and powdered clay (from a craft shop), unless you have a source of clay soil found in nature. 
  2. In a bowl, mix together 1 cup of seeds, 5 cups of compost and 2 or 3 cups of clay. 
  3. Add water bit by bit, mixing it in with your hands, kneading the mixture until it has the texture of cookie dough. Too much water will result in a sloppy mess and premature germination, so go slow.
  4. Roll the mix into balls about the size of a golf ball.
  5. Set them out on a tray to dry for 24 to 48 hours.
  6. You can use them right away or store them for weeks.
  7. Put on your urban guerilla camouflage outfit (optional) and start bombing! 

When to Seed Bomb?

It’s best to seed bomb with annual seeds in the spring and with perennial seeds in the fall. (Most perennials will only germinate well if they’ve spent a cold winter outdoors.)

Since seeds need water to germinate, bombing just before a period of rain will give the seeds a faster start.

Seeds sprouting from broken up seed bomb
Seeds germinate as the bomb breaks apart. Photo: www.planetnatural.com

Rain will cause the seed balls to break apart and release the seeds so they can germinate.

Where to Lob Your Bombs? 

Seed bomb garden along sidewalk
Seed bomb garden along a sidewalk. Photo: www.seedbomb.de

Wherever there is room for seeds to germinate. Little will come of tossing seed bombs into dense vegetation, even if that vegetation is only weeds, as they need light to grow. You need spots where the soil is bare or, at worst, only thinly vegetated. Freshly disturbed soils (say, after recent construction) are the very best spots.

  • Vacant lots;
  • Hell strips (empty strip between the road and the sidewalk);
  • Abandoned gardens;
  • Along bike paths;
  • Recently burnt-out building;
  • In city parks lacking in flowers for pollinators;
  • Alleyways;
  • Along railways;
  • In urban tree pits;
  • In resumé, anywhere there should be flowers, but there aren’t.

Having fun seed bombing your neighborhood!

Garden writer and blogger, author of 65 gardening books, lecturer and communicator, the Laidback Gardener, Larry Hodgson, passed away in October 2022. Known for his great generosity, his thoroughness and his sense of humor, he reached several generations of amateur and professional gardeners over his 40-year career. Thanks to his son, Mathieu Hodgson, and a team of contributors, laidbackgardener.blog will continue its mission of demystifying gardening and making it more accessible to all.

7 comments on “Seed Bombing: Spread the Joy of Flowers!

  1. C””H, H””B

    Way to inspire! Will share link on blog.

    Be blessed.

  2. Patricia Evans

    The squirrels already seedbomb my gardens and container pots with black walnuts (which look just like the photo).

  3. I love this! Is it ethical to seed bomb a neighbor? Every year he talks about adding ‘color’, but he never does. I have even offered to go shopping with him. I have also given him some perennials, which he seems to enjoy. Right now I have lots of cleome and castor bean plant seed. And hellebores. Maybe I should show him some pictures and ask. (Probably a better idea.)

    And we have tons of red clay in the piedmont. Just like Tara in gone with the wind.

  4. Please use discernment when buying/using “wildflower seeds” found in bog-box stores. Some “wildflower seeds” packets include filler seeds that are invasive or even noxious, meant for quick bloom the following season. Perennial wildflowers can take up to 3 years to begin blooming, although annuals will bloom in spring/summer. People want instant results, so the annuals and aggressives/invasives are used, to satisfy the buyers and avoid complaints of non-germination. If you’re going for native/naturalized wildflowers in your seed bombs, it’s best to use packaged seed that is 100% whatever seed you desire, and blend several varieties prior to mixing the actual seed-bomb materials. I can name any dozen off-hand but newbies to wildflowers may need to do research first– that’s what the Internet is for! 🙂 For fast results, choose annuals, which bloom sooner and may re-seed the next year but won’t necessarily take over. It’s extra steps but IMO it’s better to avoid introducing invasive plants that crowd out native flowers that local pollinators have co-evolved with over eons. My two cents’ worth from making every mistake in the book when getting started with wildflowers.

    • Excellent advice!

    • Excellent comments. I had thought of adding lists of recommended varieties, but it got complicated really fast. I find that local producers of mixed wildflower seeds have gotten it right: most only now list native flowers.

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