LIFE STYLE

Seed Bombs

Text: Anna Plaszczyk, photos: press release

18 March 2017

The bombing of urban green with balls of seeds is a quick and effective way of practising urban guerrilla gardening. This allows us to colour the urban space in a simple and environmentally friendly way!

Iga Kołodziej, a landscape architect and an urban gardener, has decided to paint urban "nobodys" spaces, often inaccessible, fenced and grey-brown. She teaches all people who care, how to use an ancient seed bombs for this purpose. Once they were used to secure seeds for the next season. Today they could be used to revive the forgotten lawns and neglected flower beds.

We owe this "rediscovery" of seed bombs to Masanobu Fukuoka, a Japanese practising gardening with a minimum interference with nature. This idea was quickly adapted and today it is being developed around the world by guerrilla gardening movement.

To make seeds bombs we need some clay, ground or compost, water and seeds. – How to make your own bombs? Mix clay, compost/ ground and seeds – explains Iga Kołodziej – Richard Reynolds, the most famous gardening guerrilla, recommends proportions 5:1:1, but I honestly admit that I have rather experimented with the proportions – she adds.

Clay can be bought in stores for ceramists and artists. Seeds – in almost every supermarket. It is best to choose those that do not need "care" or large quantities of water. Once sown in this unusual way – after germination they will still have to cope alone. Iga Kołodziej also advises not to use for this purpose flowers which are foreign to the Polish flora. In this way, we can accidentally bring serious competition for the national vegetation and disrupt the ecosystem. The list of alien species can be found on the website of the Institute of Nature Conservation of Polish Academy of Sciences. To seeds, mixed with clay, add water to the consistency of a thick mass of cake and then make balls.

While bombarding the city with seeds balls, we can also help bees and other insects, for which it is getting increasingly difficult to live in the city, a jungle asphalted up to horizon. The more such seeds bombs fall on fertile, undeveloped by anyone land, the greater the chance to strengthen the urban ecosystem.

– When the bombs get dry, we can begin to blast the city peacefully – says Iga Kołodziej –We drop them on the neglected spaces in the city, preferably after a rain, but if it happens to be dry, the clay will protect the seeds until it rains – she advises. Those who do not have time for their production - can also buy them. Kabloom are real garden grenades, filled with seeds and ground. These include catmint grenades that can make all cats in the neighbourhood go crazy, or sunflower and thyme grenades. You can buy them here: Kabloom.

Iga Kołodziej works in Sie-Je collective in the city. She has carried out workshops on modelling seeds bombs as a part of Okna na Warszawę project. She has also a blog about landscape architecture and urban horticulture: Mint&Lavender.

The bombing of urban green with balls of seeds is a quick and effective way of practising urban guerrilla gardening. This allows us to colour the urban space in a simple and environmentally friendly way!

Iga Kołodziej, a landscape architect and an urban gardener, has decided to paint urban "nobodys" spaces, often inaccessible, fenced and grey-brown. She teaches all people who care, how to use an ancient seed bombs for this purpose. Once they were used to secure seeds for the next season. Today they could be used to revive the forgotten lawns and neglected flower beds.

We owe this "rediscovery" of seed bombs to Masanobu Fukuoka, a Japanese practising gardening with a minimum interference with nature. This idea was quickly adapted and today it is being developed around the world by guerrilla gardening movement.

To make seeds bombs we need some clay, ground or compost, water and seeds. – How to make your own bombs? Mix clay, compost/ ground and seeds – explains Iga Kołodziej – Richard Reynolds, the most famous gardening guerrilla, recommends proportions 5:1:1, but I honestly admit that I have rather experimented with the proportions – she adds.

Clay can be bought in stores for ceramists and artists. Seeds – in almost every supermarket. It is best to choose those that do not need "care" or large quantities of water. Once sown in this unusual way – after germination they will still have to cope alone. Iga Kołodziej also advises not to use for this purpose flowers which are foreign to the Polish flora. In this way, we can accidentally bring serious competition for the national vegetation and disrupt the ecosystem. The list of alien species can be found on the website of the Institute of Nature Conservation of Polish Academy of Sciences. To seeds, mixed with clay, add water to the consistency of a thick mass of cake and then make balls.

While bombarding the city with seeds balls, we can also help bees and other insects, for which it is getting increasingly difficult to live in the city, a jungle asphalted up to horizon. The more such seeds bombs fall on fertile, undeveloped by anyone land, the greater the chance to strengthen the urban ecosystem.

– When the bombs get dry, we can begin to blast the city peacefully – says Iga Kołodziej –We drop them on the neglected spaces in the city, preferably after a rain, but if it happens to be dry, the clay will protect the seeds until it rains – she advises. Those who do not have time for their production - can also buy them. Kabloom are real garden grenades, filled with seeds and ground. These include catmint grenades that can make all cats in the neighbourhood go crazy, or sunflower and thyme grenades. You can buy them here: Kabloom.

Iga Kołodziej works in Sie-Je collective in the city. She has carried out workshops on modelling seeds bombs as a part of Okna na Warszawę project. She has also a blog about landscape architecture and urban horticulture: Mint&Lavender.