It’s World Bee Day today, so I’m sharing a new DIY idea: How To Make Heart Shaped Seed Bombs.
Honeybees are a primary pollinator of plants, including crops, fruits and vegetables. Our diets rely greatly on the work that bees do. Sadly, certain pesticides have been used in the past that affected bees negatively, although more recently governments have begun to ban such chemicals. All the more important that we help them with little things like not moving in spring (or at all), planting bee friendly flowers in our garden, use urban green spaces wisely and plant flowers instead of perfectly manicured lawns or even fake grass. Or, make seed bombs! And just get guerilla gardening.
Only one rule: always use seeds that are NATIVE to the area you’re planting them.
Seed bombs are a big thing now, all plantable seed cards, seed bombs and whatever feeds the bees and butterflies are not only really super helpful for those species but apparently it’s not so hard to make!
I’ve been testing these and playing around with a formula so that I can include them in Father’s Day gift boxes in our refill shop. Turns out, as opposed to what I hoped for brown kraft paper is not ideal for this. It is – but you can’r really colour it, which I wanted to do.
What I used:
- Coloured paper (non-bleached)
- newspaper (non-bleached, not the glossy magazine pages either)
- Water
- Seed shaker
- silicone mould/ice cube tray or cookie cutters (heart or round shape, too complicated shape will not show)
Method:
- Tear or cut the the paper into little pieces. I’ve added both colourful and newspaper bits. You can mix them or not as you want it. Only make sure that the paper is not bleached, that’s better for germination.
- Soak them in water for at least 15 minutes. I used hot water to make them break down better.
- Blend them with a handheld blender (I did this) or in a mixer.
- Add the seeds. I used the seed shaker which contains seeds and other bits of of dried grass/straw as it helps the germination. You can just use singe seeds. Mix with a fork.
- Using your fingers, pick up a handful of the mixture and squeeze out most of the excess water. Then shape it into a little ball, use a cookie cutter (I did this, using a hear shaped cookie cutter) or an ice mould.
- Let the seed bombs dry for 24-48 hours, preferably in a sunny spot in the window till.
Once they have dried, store them in an air tight container until they are being used. Plant them as soon as possible. It is ok to plant them at anytime if you go for wildflower mix like me (that’s bee and butterfly friendly) but the best results you can get is if you plant them early spring for summer flowering.
It’s also a good idea not too make too much at once, just what you use. Another tip is, that try make sure you completely allow them to dry otherwise if it stays damp in the middle – it might just kickstart the germination.
Finally, this is also a great craft idea for kids if an adult supervises the blending process, of course.
