I have no idea who first came up with the notion of seed bombs, but in the last couple of years I have seen numerous mentions of them as a tool for ‘Guerrilla gardening’. Guerrilla gardening is the act of planting on land that you don’t legally have access to such as private property, abandoned sites, and other neglected areas such as roadsides and roundabouts.
To be clear, the kids and I aren’t planning to take up breaking and entering, or any other illegal activity, and we don’t suggest that you do either! We do, however, see the benefit of spreading a few wildflower seed bombs about the place to support our native species.
There are a number of commercial wildflower seed bombs on the market now, but it is far cheaper and much more fun to make your own. We made ours using household flour, seed compost and native wildflower seeds. We bought our seed from the garden centre, but you could also collect your own. You can check out our six reasons to gather your own seeds post here.
What you need to Make Wildflower Seed Bombs
- Household Flour
- Compost
- Wildflower seeds
How to Make Wildflower Seed Bombs
We used the ratio of one cup of flour to 3 cups of compost and combined it well before adding our seed.
Once we had added our seed, we tried to handle it gently so not to damage any of it! We added just enough water so that the mixture would hold together.
And then formed our little seed bombs making them about the size of a marble. Which we then left to dry out for 24 hours.
Once dry stick a handful in your pocket, get outside and start looking for an unloved corner of your neighbourhood that would benefit from a splattering of wildflowers.
Alternatively, sprinkle them on top of a few pots in the garden to grow your wildflower meadow. Before it is due to rain is a perfect time to throw your seed bombs.
For more gardening craft inspiration check out our Plantable Seed Paper Cards and our Beautiful Spring Bulb Lasagne.
14 comments
Is there something else that can be used other than flour. We have a flour allergy but I would like to make this a family activity.
Hi Amanda the flour acts like a glue so you could use clay powder instead or just use garden soil instead of both the flour and compost if it has some clay in it and will hold together in a ball. Hope you enjoy the activity :)
I made three different bombs last night!! A Native Florida mixture, a bird and butterfly mixture and a hummingbird mixture. Going to give about half of them to my best friend, she has 24 acres and wants more wildflowers. Then using most of the others on mine and my mother’s property. I need more pollinators!!! I want more veggies, so I need those bees and butterflies. Not so much the birds. My mother loves the birds. I don’t want them to eat my tomatoes!!! But I do like the hummingbirds! So I’ll say a prayer and start tossing BOMBS!!!
That’s amazing Charlotte, thanks for letting me know – I love the idea of you and your mother surrounded by wild flowers :)
How long do they keep? Along with throwing them soon, can they be stored for a while?
Hi Charlotte, yes you can store them as long as they are kept dry. How long will depend on the types of seed you use but I would imagine most seed would stay viable for a year.:)
Can you please tell me what seed compost is? Is it just a regular soil type?
It’s just a fine grade compost (so the big bits have been sieved out) that is marketed for starting seeds in Janet :)
Hi, I am thinking of making these with my Year 4 class. We are currently learning about how changes in the environment impacts on living things. I just want to know how much seed mix did you add to the 1cup of flour to 3 cups of compost. We’re thinking of selling it during our enterpise day.
Thank you
Adrienne
I made these with a group of children last week at an Outdoor festival and it worked really well as a group activity. In this post the seed packet contained 25g of seeds and was a mix of wild flowers and grasses but you can get wildflower seeds without the grasses if you think the bombs might end up in flower beds where grasses might be unwelcome. Good luck with your enterprise day :)
I want to make these as shower favors . Most call for Clay so I’m very interested in the flour.. have you done both methods? And I am putting them in cute little cotton bags I hand stamped.. how fragile are they ? Any advise. THanks! Tamsen
Hi Tamsin. What a lovely idea for a shower. I haven’t tried with clay, so can’t comment about them. The ones I make dry rock hard and aren’t fragile at all – I’m sure they’d be fine in bags :)
thank you. this is exactly what i was looking for.
So pleased we could help Sue :)