How to make seed bombs
How to make seed bombs
Seed bombs are great fun and are an easy way to sow wildflowers in your garden to attract all those lovely creatures.
While researching how to create a wildflower meadow I stumbled across the concept of seed bombs. They offer about the same germination success as hand spreading the seeds but their appeal is in the fun they bring. They also make it easier to get the seeds into hard to reach areas – provided your aim is up to it.
Seed bombs make great gifts and are a fun activity for the young and old. Seed bombing gardening projects can also be therapeutic and rewarding.
You can, of course, buy ready-made seed bombs but seed bombs are really easy to make so why not give it a go, I’ve even created a poster you can go through with your kids:
What you’ll need to create your seed bomb
- Seeds – these could have been collected from your garden or a seed mix you’ve bought.
- Peat-free Compost – you can always use your own compost.
- Powdered clay – you can find this in arts and crafts shops or if you have clay soil you can make do with that.
- Bowl
- Water
If you don’t already own some of the ingredients you can get a wildflower bee bomb kit that will provide everything except the water.
Method
- Mix 1 part seed, 2 parts clay, and 5 parts compost in the bowl.
- Slowly add water and mix with your hands. You don’t need the mixture really wet, just enough to stick it all together.
- Form the seed bomb mixture into firm balls (or whatever shape you fancy). My kids wanted to make different shapes so we pressed them into molds.
- Leave the mixture to dry.
Using your seed bombs
If your seed bombs are destined for others in the form of a gift then there is no more to do except prepare the gift, they will last longest if kept in a cool, dark dry place.
If on the other hand, you are keeping the fun for yourself, then the best time to throw your bombs is just before some rain, to give the seeds a good start – obviously, you can manually make it “rain” by grabbing a watering can or hose.
Throwing the seed bombs adds a nice bit of random – especially with my aim – which makes the resulting flowers look more natural but as a rough guild, you’ll need about 1 seed bomb per sq foot.
In the first few weeks make sure the seed bombs don’t dry out and then you should see seedlings within 2 to 3 weeks and flowers within 12 weeks.