Guerrilla Gardening - Bombing Style

Imagine you're driving through the urban jungle. You're living your life, trying to do what's right and while you're eating miles and avoiding crossing skaters, elderly persons, dogs and raccoons you see all those monotonous roundabouts, roadsides & abandoned spaces. Sometimes they're planted with things called 'flowers', most of the time there's just nothing but grass. If there is, any grass. Prozac, now!

Wouldn't it be just great to have some kind of magic stick to transform all those spaces in wild growing, colourful & useful flashes of green wilderness, with flowers, vegetables, cereals or, if you want, potatoes? Instant photoshop, for example.

Such magic stick exists! Only, it's not magic, and there's no stick. But there's better: bombs! Time bombs!

In this I'ble I'll show you how to make so called 'seed bombs'. You'll make them, you'll shape them, and you'll launch them on every spot you want to transform. The result will not be seen immediately but a result there will be. Be patient, it's a time bomb. And when it will explode, the result will be fabulous!

This concept of 'gardening' makes part of so called 'guerrilla gardening'. Guerrilla gardening is nothing new. It's a concept that rose in the US in the seventies with as main purpose to reclaim land in urbanised areas and put a finger in the smelly wound of agro-globalism. There's a very nice definition on the net, better than I ever could explain, but let's say that it's a direct political form of action, using gardening as a mean of environmental action.
It defends the right to land, agrarian reform, and sustainable agriculture. In short it's a kind of reclaiming urban public space (wastelands, industrial areas, green spaces) by citizens willing to put nature back in the city, with burning questions about food autonomy of cities, beautiful places in the city and on mismanaged private property.

But it is above all very entertaining, and deliciously subversive!

There are many ways to be a green guerrilla. Some guerrillas will transform public spaces into real gardens - once we found a few dozens of cannabis plants in the middle of a wildlife reserve (!), others will dislocate trees and plant them elsewhere and others will randomly bomb. There are even 'evil guerrillas' - those who make bombs filled with seeds of plants that most people hate: nettles, thistles or human-devouring tulips. Free beer for them!

You can be any green guerrilla you want! Let's booooooooooomb!!!

To make these bombs you'll need a lot of black powder, wicks and some metal tubes.

Kiddiiiiiiiiiing!!!

I repeat. To make these bombs you'll need some clay and some seeds. That's it, sorry.

The seeds are the easiest part of the job. Go to the bio-shop and buy what you want.

Note: choose plants native to your region - plants that grow there naturally, I mean. Don't start dispersing exotic species, they are often quite aggresive and take easily the place of the natives. If you don't know for sure, ask someone.

Than the clay. The advantage of being a semi-geologist is that at least I know what to find under the grass. So I digged a hole, and at about one foot depth I found that clay-ish layer I Iove so much - called a 'horizont' - formed by very small particles that were washed out from the upper layer and accumulated there. Whatever, if you dig, you might find some clay in your garden. If you don't: any DIY-market will have.

How to know if it's clay? Make a ball - if you accomplish this you're on the right way - and throw it to something. If it sticks, good chance it's clay.

If it screams, choose another target.

If you have a mass spectrometer: learn to use it.

You have it? Great! Store it in a cool place.

Now let's start to make those bombs!

Roll out some clay - by wetting the support first because it'll stick to it - or use fist power to make a pie.

Spread those seeds all over it - not too much, just a few seeds in every ball is enough (some guerillas mix a bit of loam with it too).

Put all that clay back together and knead it like bread dough.

Take a bit of that cake and roll your balls - wetting your hands helps.

Done? Nice! Store them in a cool place.

Note: you don't need to bake them!

When those seed-bombs are made you can hit the road and find targets - drive-by shooting style.

Aim is to bomb the landscape. One driver, three bombers - I like that! Unless you have a pick-up, oh yeah!!!

Nice targets are roundabouts (how is it possible there are sprouts growing there?!), roadsides, public parks and so on. Be creative!

Or, for the evil guerrilla's: the green green grass gardens of your neighbours - maybe I should put a disclaimer at the end, in case...

The concept is simple. The clay protects the seeds when they hit the ground. It retains some moisture in the inside of the ball and protects them from sunlight. During the first rain the ball will dissolve slowly and the seed will germinate in its nutritious cocoon.
As soon as the radicle (small primitive root of the seedling) touches the ground it's done! Those sprouts will grow!

Enjoy!!! Can't wait to see those vegetables start to grow everywhere ;)