Green grenades to beautify your city
13.6.2018
Translation: machine translated
Over bare traffic islands, derelict land or desolate backyards - you can drop seed bombs anywhere. Nothing is destroyed, only beauty is created.
Do you often walk through the city and get a slightly desolate impression? There are hardly any flowers or herbs sprouting in public spaces. If they do, you might find a more or less well-tended lawn. That's a start, but it doesn't really add any colour to the concrete blocks of the city. This can be easily and naturally changed with seed bombs or seed balls.
Buy local seeds
Seedballs are quick and easy to make. All you need is clay, soil and seeds. These are mixed in a 3-5-1 ratio and mixed with water. The dough-like mixture is moulded into small balls and left to dry for around two days. The seedball is then ready for the big throw. A little tip if you want to make your own seedballs to green up your neighbourhood in the middle of the night. Make sure you use local seeds. Poppies, daisies, sunflowers, cornflowers or lavender, for example, work well. As soon as you have thrown your seedball and it has landed safely, all you have to do is wait for the first rain and your flowery praline will start to sprout.
Laissez-faire
Seed bombs are not a new invention. It is rumoured that the Native Americans already used this technique. It was then rediscovered by Japanese microbiologist and farmer Masanobu Fukuoka. After the end of the Second World War, he developed this no-till method for ploughless rice cultivation. In no-till farming, the soil is not tilled before sowing new seeds. Fukuoka coined the term "do-nothing agriculture", which means that nature can sustain itself and only minimal human intervention is required. Definitely a win-win situation. Mother Nature can develop freely and humans can sit back and watch.
Floral protest bombs
Seedballs have been used in guerrilla gardening since the 1970s. The secret sowing of plants was seen as a quiet political protest. The greening campaigns were a protest against "the monoculture of the bourgeoisie". More greenery and diversity should find their way into large cities. If the actions had a clear political motivation, they included disrupting genetic engineering trials and placing symbols or slogans on the ground. Guerrilla actions are still being organised all over the world today. However, these are often less politically motivated and more environmentally friendly. Seedballs are also often used in the form of urban gardening. The green projectiles of the past and present have one thing in common: they are only legal to a limited extent. Theoretically, the landowner would have to give their consent. In public spaces, however, hardly anyone feels disturbed. However, you shouldn't throw the balls into your neighbour's garden.
Helps the bee and the gorilla
If you don't want to get your hands dirty yourself, we also have seed bombs on sale at Galaxus. These come from Severin and Raphael from Bern. Under the name Gorilla Gardening, they have been selling products with and made from flower seeds since 2013. All handmade, of course. There are different varieties, for example especially for butterflies or bees. And because a name is an obligation, one franc per bag sold online goes to the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund. So not only are you helping your city and pushing it up all the city rankings with the new green spaces, you are also helping the silverback in Rwanda and Congo. Karma points guaranteed.
Here is the link to the entire Gorilla Gardening range. <p
My life in a nutshell? On a quest to broaden my horizon. I love discovering and learning new skills and I see a chance to experience something new in everything – be it travelling, reading, cooking, movies or DIY.
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