Guerilla Gardening - Making Wildflower Seed Balls

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This autumn we’ve been out and about running quite a few workshops focusing on how we can support biodiversity in the city. We focused on small and simple actions we can take within our local communities to support wildlife. One of our favourite hands-on sessions for this is making wildflower seed balls that can be ‘planted’ across the city bringing more food for wild creatures as well as beautiful flowers for us to enjoy. 

Seed balls are typically made from a mixture of compost, clay and seeds. They have been used by many different cultures around the world for years and have been particularly beneficial in dry/hot/low rainfall environments. They have been used for restoring habitat eg. after annual flooding along the Nile in Egypt as well as for agricultural cultivation. Seed balls are also a great tool for guerilla gardening as you can fling them into empty spaces that you can’t access eg. over walls and fences. They are also super handy and portable to carry around with you for whenever you stumble across a barren patch.

Seed balls were also championed by Japanese natural farmer Masanobu Fukuoka in the 1930s drawing on an ancient practice Tsuchi Dango which means ‘Earth Dumpling’. If you haven’t already I’d highly recommend reading Fukuoka’s books particularly Sowing Seeds in the Desert and One Straw Revolution. I first came across Fukuoka 14 years ago but his practice and themes of his work have stayed so deeply rooted in my mind over the years. His philosophy was very much rooted in the spiritual connections we have with the land with a vision for how humans could live in harmony and abundance with other living beings. 

Recommended Seed Mixes

Cornfield - corn chamomile, corn cockle, cornflower, corn marigold, poppy

Bees & Butterflies - borage, poppy, musk mallow, marjoram, ox-eye daisy, clary, wild foxglove, scabious, greater knapweed, yellow rattle, viper’s bugloss

Light Shade - cowslip, wild foxglove, mullein, self-heal, teasel, yarrow, woundwort, campion, hedge parsley, wild angelica, meadow buttercup, garlic mustard

Birds - salad burnet, knapweed, linseed, corn marigold, phacelia, millet, teasel, wild carrot, yarrow, quinoa, self heal, sorrel, vetch, marjoram

Recipe

2 scoops clay powder

4 scoops of peat-free compost

2 tsp seeds

~ 1 scoop of water 

Method

  • Combine dry ingredients and then add water. 

  • Mix all together and roll into little balls. 

  • Leave to dry out 

  • Throw them into empty soil patches, empty raised beds, tree pits or bare ground during spring or autumn