Earth Day is just a few days away and this year our Earth Day resolution is to plant more.
We’re teaming up with our Better to Give partners at American Forests to help them plant more trees. And we’re talking to our friends Maya and Michael about their wildflower eed bombs— a revolutionary way to grow flowers in your community. Learn more about their work to green the world, and how you can win a seed bomb pouch of your own!
Seed bombs planted by Victoria in San Francisco
1. Why were you inspired to create the wildlflower seed bombs?
We live in an inner-city neighborhood in Cincinnati that has a fair number of vacant lots. We had read about the guerrilla gardening practice of making seed bombs and throwing them onto abandoned property as a simple act of community beautification. After some experimentation, we decided to package our seed bombs into pouches resembling miniature seed sacks to enable others to partake in this DIY activism.
2. How do you pick which seeds to include in each wildlflower seed bomb?
Each regional variety contains a varied mixture of seeds that grow well with little or no special care in each area, and which are suited to a variety of growing conditions, including sun, shade, and drought.
That way, even in a challenging environment, at least some of the plants are sure to grow and thrive. These plants do well in areas that may be difficult to conventionally sow.
3. What advice do you have for people looking to do their own guerrilla gardening?
Guerrilla gardening isn’t about pruned hedges or perfectly mowed lawns! It’s about rolling up your sleeves and positively impacting the environment around you in a small but effective way. Seed bombs can be used in your own garden, or as part of a neighborhood-wide beautification effort. They’re perfect for those of us who don’t have green thumbs but want to get involved in gardening.
Ready for some guerrilla gardening of your own?
Enter to win a wildflower seed bomb packet! Tell us a little about your own gardening habits in the comments below, and how a packet of seed bombs will help you spread some peace, love and flowers in your community.
Triple your chances to win, by posting to our Facebook wall, and tweeting @uncommongoods.
Winners will be announced on Earth Day, April 22, but we hope you won’t spend too much time reading blogs on Friday. Make sure you get outside and do something nice for the planet!
Photo by Victoria
68 Comments
Living in Iowa City, IA, the amount of open fields is quickly diminishing. As a result, the birds have less food available. The seed bombs would work well in the middle of street and highway plots.
I am not a great gardener but I always try. Every year I am inspired by the flowering plants I see in stores. I like to fill pots with pretty bright colored flowers and put them all around the outside of my house. I had tried a wildflower seed packet before from a different company and it did not ever work. I would love to try one that actually produced some lovely flowers.
Vegetable gardening I can handle, but it seems to me that flowers are kind of beyond me and I have no clue why. 😛 I’d love seed bombs for the empty flower beds, and maybe to toss outside of work! 🙂
What a terrific idea! I know I could make good use of some Seed Bombs in the vacant lots/neglected areas of my town.
My mom, sister, and all of our daughters create an Amazon Garden every year with whatever seeds we saved from the year prior in addition to some simple wildflower seeds from Lowe’s. We use it as exercise and togetherness and we have a special place where we honor the women who have passed on in a special all white garden. Our yearly ritual is something that has become one of our most important traditions and the small children are learning how Mother Earth can create anything from just a simple pile of dirt. It is amazing to see the look on my three year old’s face when she realizes that the seed that she planted only a few days before is now a tiny green plant.
Thanks for featuring my photos! Honestly, if anyone out there is even thinking about getting these seed bombs, I can’t recommend them enough. They were so easy to “plant” and the results were unbelievable. I distributed them in my small urban garden plot in March of last year, and from late May through early October had tons of gorgeous blooms. I also mixed in poppy and zinnia seeds, and everything grew together beautifully.
I just moved to a new home, and I am looking forward to establishing a new garden! I haven’t had the opportunity to have home-grown vegetables for several years now, and I can’t wait to share the harvest with my young son.
Across the street from our new home is a meadow that runs between homes and up to the freeway, and I would seed bomb it for the enjoyment of the neighborhood and the commuters!
I live in urban San Francisco, so I don’t have too much room to grow things, but I make do. I use planters to grow flowers, strawberries, mint and lettuce! Would love to try the bomb!
I would love to plant these with my 2 sons!
I am not a huge gardener, but I do LOVE my Iris bed in front of my house. I think seed bombing the side of my house would greatly improve the character and beauty of both my house and my neighborhood.
I live in the country and have both large vegetable and flower gardens. My two neighbors, unfortunately, do not. They seem content with weeds and bare patches in their lawns and surrounding bare ground. I’d just LOVE to secretly (or even not so secretly) bomb their properties with wildflower seeds. Then we’d all be a little bit happier every spring and summer!
I love gardening! Veggies and flowers! Always sharing veggies with my neighbors. I stay outside for hours, planting, weeding and picking, getting dirty and loving it! I live in a suburb near Detroit and some other ailing cities,( I am active in a non-profit organization) would love to share some of the bombs with the communities to brighten up some sore spots! 🙂
I love random surprises, which is what a wildflower seedbomb delivers with bells on! Great idea – flowers add cheer to everything.
I don’t have a lot of expertise in growing things, but I love flowers! This would make it easy for me to have a bright little spot of color in my yard 🙂
We live on a main street in an urban area. The road in front of our house is busy during rush hour. While we don’t spend a lot of time in our front yard because of the traffic, my husband and I enjoy making the yard look nice for all the passers-by. We have been discussing what flowers we should add along the sidewalk. Wildflowers would be perfect!
These are such a great idea! I commute to work about 30-40 minutes and there are many places I would love to see more variety along the freeway. Daffodils are lovely, but more colors would make the commute much more enjoyable.
I don’t have Gardening habits but I need to develop some and i could start with some seed bomb packets! lol =)
To say that I have “gardening habits” would be an abuse of the English language. But I love flowers and I have a hilly, rocky front yard that is completely shaded. I would love to beautify it with something I cannot kill with my absentminded “gardening habits.”
My elderly father has a big picture window that overlooks a neglected flowerbed. It would be the perfect spot to find my inner green thumb by starting with some seed bomb packets!
I can never decide what to plant. This is the year I will take over my yard from the virulant grass! Please help me bomb the crap out of it with seed bombs!
I have a flower obsession especially now that I am pregnant. It seems the only thing I can do without getting in trouble currently is tend to my flowers.This year is all about buying more and more flowers to not only help the wildlife, the environment, and make my yard look pretty, but also to keep me from the edge of insanity with all the don’t do this and you are not allowed to do that for the next ohhh 5 months :-).
[…] on a seed bomb giveaway just in time for Earth Day. There are three easy ways to enter; click here for details. Winners will be announced on Friday, so hurry up and enter! From now through Friday, […]
We have a neighborhood roundabout that is currently just dirt. I’d love to seed bomb it with wild flowers.
Hurray for random acts of earthy goodness!
We live in a community that encourages collaborative effort in gardening and clean up. Unfortunatly there has been a lack of effort and volunteering due to the amount of work/maintence. There are many area’s in our neighborhood that would benefit from these seed bombs! Including my neighbors yard :/ I would love to just throw some ‘bombs’ over there and beautify their front plot. How fun would it be for everyone to watch the neighborhood beautify itself with little or no effort at all 🙂
I have no idea how to pick the right flowers for the space I am planting. These bombs would be the perfect answer to bring something beautiful to my dull landscape.
I am ambitious at heart and every spring I want to turn my whole yard into a paradise. But, inevitably my over-planning or lack of finances or the fact that I really don’t know too much about gardening gets in the way. I’d probably use these seed bombs in my own yard or to help my friend turn her meadow-like yard into something she will enjoy even more.
we just got sidding, gutters, and windows on our house! i really think the seed bombs would be the icing on the cake!!! thanks
I live in a small town (less than 400 people) and it is a very poor community, our main street is run down and there are many empty, rundown houses in town. The seed bombs would be awesome to plant on our main street or in our local park. Something to cheer everyone in these tough times.
I love to have greenery and flowers in my yard and home. There’s some roadsides near me that have just been re-covered in dirty after some lines were put down and they sure could use some seed bombs 🙂
I live in a townhouse in south Florida so I don’t have a very big backyard but I love to plant and have my backyard alive with flowers, plants, trees, color!! I travel a great deal for work and can be away from home for months at a time. Before I left my home for my last out of town job, I planted wildflower seeds so that when I returned, I could go to the sanctity of my peaceful backyard and enjoy what I had put into the ground. It was gorgeous when I came home. Then is was awful. My association had our lawn maintenance crew destroy my wildflower garden calling my wild and wonderful flowers nothing more than “weeds” that had to go. I went to the association meeting to complain. I am hoping that if I am lucky enough to win a seed bomb, that I can plant the seeds and send the information about the seed bomb to my association to make sure my garden is never destroyed again. Happy, Happy Earth Day everyone!!!!
I like to use seed bombs for a bit of gorilla gardening.
Toss them onto unsightly road islands and traffic circles and viola! Instance cheer for all in our wee town!
I coordinate a Texas Elementary School’s memorial butterfly garden, through the PTO. The garden doesn’t get daily love and attention. It is tended to by the Cub Scouts and Girl Scouts in the area, when they can get in to it. Due to the weather here and the fact that we are a volunteer organization, we need free and reduced price plants to maintain the garden. Having seeds that grow plants which will survive in droughts, heat, sun, shade and freezing temperatures would be wonderful. Especially if those seeds develop into plants that attract butterflies!
We live in a rural subdivision with a long dirt road that goes by a pond. A couple of years ago, we harvested some flax seeds from the many volunteer flax plants around the pond; they’re doing very well in our yard. The pond is everyone’s and no one’s, so whatever grows is on its own. Seed bombs would be a perfect way to give back to the pond anonymously.
I couldn’t have said it any better than this . . .’
Guerrilla gardening isn’t about pruned hedges or perfectly mowed lawns! It’s about rolling up your sleeves and positively impacting the environment around you in a small but effective way. Seed bombs can be used in your own garden, or as part of a neighborhood-wide beautification effort. They’re perfect for those of us who don’t have green thumbs but want to get involved in gardening’.
This is me, Exactly! I just want to do something to help bring a little tiny bit of ‘pretty’ to the outside! Thank you!
Ooh I just recently cleaned out my flower beds and they are ready to go for some new plants! I also think it would be fun to plant some at the little market across the street from me or in a vacant city lot. Thanks!
I grew up surrounded by acres and acres of cultivated farmland and wildflower filled pastures. I’ve been wanting to put more wildflowers in my back yard to reclaim that atmosphere. Plus it means less of my yard needs mowing!
i would love to win a seed bomb,because we live in the country where everything grows wild. we have five acres and we live on a black road. last week the electric company came along our edge property and trimed it a good ways off the road. no, i should say butchered, therefore brush,grasses small trees have been hacked to stuble. i would like to grace that land with flower seeds. and when they grow, i want to sit back and honor them.
i would love to win a seed bomb,because we live in the country where everything grows wild. we have five acres and we live on a black top road. last week the electric company came along our edge property and trimed it a good ways off the road. no, i should say butchered, therefore brush,grasses small trees have been hacked to stuble. i would like to grace that land with flower seeds. and when they grow, i want to sit back and honor them.
We have an eight bed garden for vegetables and herbs at the Jersey Shore. There is an expanse of dune in front of us with some beach grass. Your seed bombs would allow us to make the Dune as lovely as our garden in the summer.
SQUASH anyone?
My husband and I just bought our first house and are excited about all the prospects for our first yard! Our first step was to set aside a small patch for seasonal vegetables and herbs. Because the previous owners had three small children and large dogs, the rest of the yard was a disaster! We finally decided rather than re-seeding grass we would have a “natural” garden with wild flowers native to the area.
Your seed bombs would be the perfect gift for friends and neighbors to help us share our passion and start a garden revolution!
I would like to win the wildflower bombs to throw out by my small pond that has an area where the birds and wildlife can enjoy. I dug the pond in order for the wildlife to enjoy a natural habitat but there isn’t any flowers in that area. The birds and insect would love a nice spot for just landing and enjoying the nectar of the flowers. So, I hope I win…
I love wildflowers and have plenty of places I could “throw” the wildflower bombs.
I love gardening. Every year, we add more flowers to our gardens as well as fruits and veggies. This year, I plan on introducing my best friend’s toddlers to the joys or gardening, and a wildflower seed bomb would inspire them to no end. 🙂
I live in Phoenix, AZ. I love the seed bombs for several reasons. One you can spread love through color and a nice scent. Two I have never been able to get anything to grow from seed. The idea of it being wild and being able to survive without my help of lack of ability to help is also appealing. Three, I would like to spread the love and leave my little part of the world in a bright and better place.
I like to spend the pleasant days of Spring and Summer outdoors with my dog.
I also like to plant some nice flowers to enjoy and I think these would be very beautiful.
I would really like to have some to plant.
Thank you!
I like to landscape with native wildflowers, and prefer them in sloped areas that need something to keep them from eroding. The bombs sound perfect!
I recently married an have greatly enjoyed moving from what was previously a counter-top garden to a bona-fide outdoor garden with our very own compost pile. This is also inspiration for working in our community garden near school.
Seed bombs would be great for my fiance and I to have. Every year we get wild flower mixes and it is so exciting to see what blooms from the mixes. Then we explore the flowers that bloom and google them to find their names. It is so much fun.
I have organic tulips planted in my yard, along with some buddleia bushes! I’d LOVE to spread the joy of flowers with these 🙂
i live, walk, and drive daily along braes bayou in houston, as do thousands of other people…seed bombs would make an amazing addition to our community!
We have 35 acres that I’m trying to turn into a wildflower wonderland. These seeds would help me to spread the beauty and attract more creatures of nature!
I would love to add more wildflowers to the grasses near our creek. The hummingbirds, bees & local wildlife are all very fond of flowers.
I always have try to have a garden to provide my family with fresh vegetables through the summer. Planting more flowers around our home would be wonderful to pull in more nature. Plus, I’m a artist and I’d love to draw some the flowers after they bloom for my nature journal.
What a terrific idea to celebrate earth day and add some beauty to the world.
We have 7 acres and these would be perfect for around our lake area. I think we should enjoy not so perfectly manicured lawns, more natural landscape is beautiful.
I live on a corner lot that faces a busy street, and would love to plant some wild flowers to make the passerby’s enjoy the scenery a little more, and make their wait at the stop sign a little more plesant!
We recently moved to a new home. While there are already many nice plants, there is a small hill that could use some prettying up. Wildflowers would look great there. They might help with erosion too.
When I walk my dog, Walter, I am scouting for seedheads on flower borders. I let my dog sniff which creates a diversion for me picking the seed pods and sprinkling along roadsides, in my yard, in my bachelor neighbor’s yard (otherwise it would be a wasteland). It’s fun when I see something come back and know it is a sign that Walter and I have been there. (and I always pick up after Walter).
I am always trying to add new and colorful perennials to my small gardens. I love seeing butterflies and hummingbirds frolick along the bright flowers and fronds. I would love to scatter some wildflower seeds and see what pops up!
My daughter loves to garden and our favorite flowers are wildflowers. She would love this so we could plant around our yard.
Planting seed bombs is great activity for kids, as long as they are supervised, as the seed bombs could potentially be a choking hazard.
In the spirit of former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, plant wild flowers!
In the spirit of former First Lady, Lady Bird Johnson, plant wild flowers!
I love all flowers including weeds that look like flowers.
i love to go up country and dig wilflowers from the side of the road very hardy they take well not much care and most of all there beautiful
I love that seed bombs are indigenous! I have a backyard that has been designed to look and stay “natural” and seed bombs would be a wonderful addition to the landscape. Local wildlife and local people would love the natural beauty.
I grew up with my grandmother teaching me how the Indians used this wildflower or wild herb in our woods. It was such a gift. I always planned to have a backyard full of different kinds of flower gardens, but never got that done. I have left part of it as a wildlife habitat with a few mowed pathways in it and would love to add some other wildflowers to it, so the flower bombs would be a huge gift and help to enrich that area.
My husband would be so grateful if I threw wildflower bombs into the area that I beg him to brush mow every year! It is a tone of work and the flowers would mean that I wouldn’t want him to cut all of the field. WEll except where the bluebird houses are becasue they like the open grass. 🙂