Let's drop a BOMB!

Oh Spring - Where are you???  This is the view off my porch this morning towards the greenhouse.  It is our Spring Break here.  Mid March.  WTH???  It was -2 degrees this morning.  The sun is beautiful but it is still too cold to melt any of the 4 feet of snow that we have going on.

So we shall make Guerrilla Fairy Garden Seed bombs! These make great spring gifts for Easter, or just for fun for someone who needs a lift.

Go to your happy place and get some of your dirt (compost mix is best).  Im using some of my Wicked Birthday Dirt! Bring your dirt in the house (if it's not already) and let it warm up.  For this project you will also need a little clay if you have some - its not imperative but it helps greatly, and you will need a couple of packages of flower seeds.  Make sure you get seeds that are healthy for your area - you dont want to bomb with invasives!

This is also a great time to refill and renew those herb pots from your windows that you have wintered over, while you have the compost and dirt already in the house and warmed up. Above picture shows the dwarf banana tree getting a little compost renewal.   The mixture makes way way more than you need for the seed bombs.  I lost a couple of my herb plants (rosemary and sage)  while we were gone - I told the house sitter that I would water the plants before I left and for her not to worry about them and then I forgot - darn!

So I am also freshening some of the pots that I will plant new sage and rosemary in as well.

The tin can is a great tool for scooping soil out of a bucket!

One of the lemon trees desperately needed some additional compost now.

Sad, dead rosemary plant that didn't make it through our trip recently.  I'm recycling the dirt back into the compost mix.

Included in this seed mix are Bee Feed seeds, Phlox, Poppy, Forget Me Not, Columbine, DIanthus, Johnny Jump Up, and a Wildflower mix for Alaska.  I also added a package of "Naughty Marietta" Marigolds to the mix - its just fun to have them in there since we might be "naughty" spreading our Guerrilla Fairy Garden seed bombs!

That metal can is also a great seed mixing utensil!

Pour your seed mixture into the small spice jar and replace the sifter/shaker lid.

It makes it really easy to get a good seed spread on your soil.

I used the medium rectangle Ziplock type container to mix my soil and seeds in.  I didn't have clay for this batch, but if you are using it use about 1/4 clay to the rest of your soil mix.  just enough to make them stick together well.

Water it down in layers and stir in between.  The mixture will seem like it is more wet than you think it should be.  It has to hold together and that is the only way to do it.  You don't want mud but very damp soil.

Once you have the soil watered and damp, sprinkle a layer of seeds on and stir that up good.  Make sure you dig into the corners of the container you are using.  I have heard some people say that they use a Ziplok bag to do the soil mix but sometimes all the small and large pieces of soil and seeds layer according to size so I like the shake and stir method.

There are a couple of ways you can make the bombs.  One way is to just scoop some of the seeded soil and make a small ball with it.

My favorite way is to use the plastic trays that the boxed candy (right side of the picture) and the mini quiche (left side of the picture) come in.  Small candy molds work great as well.  They make great shapes and make it easy to move the bombs around and dry them.  I sometimes don't have room for 100 ball bombs to dry out!

Press your soil mixture into the molds and press hard!  Make sure it is full but that it doesn't have any edges or rims.  It should all be level and make sure they dont overlap - dirt from one spills over and touches dirt from another.  After those dry they sometimes break when you try to separate the two.

Fill all your molds and put them somewhere they can dry.  If you run out of molds and still have seeded soil left - just make balls!  Don't put them in hot sun area though - you don't want the seed to cook.

Now for the really fun part!  Wrap and decorate!  Once the seed bombs are dry take some saran wrap, small snack bags work well also but I like how the saran wrap finishes up.

I put three bombs per package but you can do whatever your heart desires!  Make sure you get the wrap closed around the bombs so that no seeds can escape into your plants or where ever you might not want flower seeds.

Use some fancy ribbon to tie them up.  I used spring colors for these since they will mostly be Easter gifts.

I printed some tags on card stock (see wording below).  Use a hole punch to make a hole to put the ribbon or twine through and you have a great spring garden gift of guerrilla fairy garden seed bombs!

Happy Spring and have fun with this one!

Guerrilla Gardening Wildflower Seed Bombs

Throw one of your bombs out anywhere that needs a bright spot of flowers!  Watch that spot and see what wonderful things grow!