I've found myself veering off on just a wee bit of a tangent here at Struan Farm over the past week, after reading about a group called "Bees Up Top" donating boxes of "seed bombs" to grow food for bees to Auckland area "Community Fruit & Veg Stands."
I was intrigued by this idea and started to research. It seems "seed balls" have been used for quite some time to re-green large areas and to crop agricultural crops. Most recently they have been popularised by the "Guerrilla Gardening" and permaculture movements. For those who don't know about "guerrilla gardening," it is the act of gardening on land that has been neglected or abandoned, to which the gardeners don't have legal rights. The seed balls or "bombs" are tossed out and left to grow and thrive.
Since September is "Bee Aware Month" here in New Zealand, I thought it might be fun to make up some seed bombs for bees to share at the Piopio Community Fruit and Veg Stand. Why not have #bombingpiopio join #bombingauckland? As you will know we plant bee and butterfly friendly plants in the gardens here at Struan Farm, and spreading the word about the importance of being bee friendly can only help the cause.
Read how to make your own seed bombs here. It takes at least a week, possibly two, so get your materials organised and plan accordingly. For the seeds I decided to use borage, an edible flower much loved by bees that is easy and quick to grow. I also ordered a few packs of King's Seeds "Bring on the Bees," a mix formulated to encourage bees in the garden, which includes Borage, Anise Hyssop, Bergamot Bee Balm, Echium Blue Bedder, and Phacelia Lacy.
The first step in making the bombs is to find and dig up some clay soil, put it in a bucket, and soak it in water for a week, or until it separates. Since the clay wasn't dry to begin with, in fact was quite mucky, I was thinking this part of the process wouldn't take that much time at the moment. We've got clay soil in pockets around the farm, most notably at the pond, so I trundled down with a shovel and bucket to dig some up. The bucket was so heavy that I had to walk back up to get the car to ferry it back, but that mission was easy and soon accomplished.
The recipe says to work it with your hands until it turns it into a "gloopy mixture" with a "gloopy, smooth consistency." I had to look up the definition of "gloopy," which means a thick, sticky liquid. "Gloppy" in the North American context, a word with which I am familiar. I'm thinking a better word for this may very well be a "slurry," which is defined as a watery mixture of an insoluble matter such as clay.
After a day I was able to make the "slurry/gloop/glop" since the clay had indeed been quite saturated by the winter rains. The process of working the clay by hand to dissolve the solids was quite relaxing/meditative. I was going to suggest that this might be a good project for kids, but realised pretty quickly that the temptation would be to fling wet mud at anyone standing nearby, so perhaps it's not for everyone.
The next ingredients are soil and compost, or some combination thereof. The recipe indicates you should sieve it, just make sure you don't have rocks or big bits if you don't have a proper garden sieve. At this point you can add lime and whatever other fertiliser type ingredient you so choose to ramp it up and help the seeds grow. The recipe talks about worm castings, I suppose you could use blood and bone, sheep pellets ground up, or whatever. I'm not going to be judgmental or a purist if you don't want to be organic here, use whatever you've got in the garden shed that works for you. For my first batch I used some soil from our raised bed near the driveway, soil that we've been augmenting with blood and bone, sheep pellets and ash from the fire over the past month in anticipation of planting tomatoes, plus some compost from one of our bins in the back.
Next comes the actual making of the seed ball/bombs. The recipe says 3 parts soil/compost to 2 parts clay to one part seeds. The balls are meant to be 2-4 centimetres, so not that large. I was thinking maybe I hadn't ordered enough seeds, but decided to make as many balls/bombs as I could with what I had.
The clay mixture is added gradually into the soil/compost/seed base until it has the consistency of a truffle (trust everyone would know what that means? Seems a bit of a "lah-di-dah," but then I didn't write the instructions, so who am I to say). It should be malleable, able to be rolled into a ball without cracking. "Play-doh" or "pastry" -like to be a bit more plebeian. The balls should be 2-4 cm. in size, not too large. The clay serves as the glue that holds everything together and hardens up as it dries.
I realised pretty quickly that my soil was quite wet given all the rain we've had, and the clay slurry is also obviously quite wet. So I didn't have the consistency of truffles/Play-doh/pastry. They did roll into balls but I'm wondering if they won't harden completely since I only added one part clay to avoid having a complete mush.
The seed balls/bombs are then put on trays (a board works) and set aside to dry in a warm, dark, dry place. Finding this sort of environment was somewhat challenging for me in Piopio in winter. I could do warm and dry or dark and dry, but not all three easily. The glasshouse and workshop are sunny and the garage is cold. While I briefly contemplated using our guest room, with the drapes closed and dehumidifier on, my brain clicked and I realised the hot water cupboard was indeed the perfect drying environment. In they went until next weekend.
When dry the seed bombs/balls should be light but hard. You're not supposed to be able to break them apart. They can be stored for up to two years or used immediately: placed into a garden bed or thrown onto a vacant lot where they then will respond to the elements and in this instance hopefully help the bees.
Once these are dry, provided they don't crumble apart, they will head off to the Piopio Community Fruit & Veg Stand to be shared. I've already ordered a big batch of borage seeds to make some more with dry soil and more clay, "just in case."
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