DIY Seed Balls

A seed ball is made of 4 basic ingredients:
Clay, Compost, Seeds and Water.

They are quite useful when you want to beautify a vacant lot, alley cracks, ditches, playgrounds any other lonely lots.

And, they are a great way to grow renegade vegetables around town.(Look for places that don't get mowed and, if you're planning to eat the plants, be sure to avoid chemically treated areas)

In addition to acting as a binder, the clay creates a "seal" around the seeds. This prevents the balls from disintegrating in the next rain storm and protects the seeds from being eaten by birds before they have a chance to sprout. Compost is food for the seeds, be sure it is "live" and not sterilized. Choose seeds that grow easily in your climate without much intervention. We like to use slurry/water in our recipe. Slurry is made of recycled paper, put through a blender. The slurry is like mulch for the seeds and absorbs water.

Seed Balls are fun to fling and sling-shot! Here are the basics:

5 Parts Clay ~ 3 Parts Compost ~ 1 Part Seeds ~ 1 Part Slurry or Water

OK, let's back up a minute.... where do you get the clay? Seeds need the minerals found in living soil; clay that you purchase for art projects is quite sterile. Clay can be found, for free, in the ground. Keep a lookout for clay deposits near your home, fill up a bucket when you find some and let it dry until you're ready to make seed balls.
Using a hammer, crush the clay into a powder and sift it.

A note about seeds: Notice which flowers and vegetables are prolific in your community, watch for those plants to produce seeds and save them! No money needed. We like to combine certain seeds to create a micro-garden. Clovers will add nitrogen to the soil and help feed the other plants. Primrose can grow almost anywhere, people, birds and critters love to eat the seeds, they're beautiful, AND they can provide shade and a tall stem for vines to climb. Morning Glories are also very resilient, beautiful and will climb the taller stems. Kale, Lettuces, Arugula, Dill, and Coriander are some of our favorite salad greens to use. The seeds are small and the sprouts are fairly low-maintenance.
Feel free to experiment!
Once you have chosen your seeds and mixed all the dry ingredients in the proportions listed earlier, it's time to add the wet stuff.

Some notes on slurry.... this step is not essential, you can just use water. We like slurry because it acts as a cellulose mulch for the seeds, retaining moisture from the rain that helps the seeds to sprout. Junk mail comes to our door step everyday. We simply tear up a piece or two, put it in a blender with some water and pulp it. Make a little well in the center of your dry mix, add just a dribble of slurry and stir until it feels like the consistency of oatmeal cookie dough. Make any needed adjustments, if it's still too crumbly, add a bit more liquid. If it's too wet, add a bit more clay. When it's just right, you will be able to form it into a dough ball like this:

Now comes one of my favorite parts (aside from loading my sling shot and blasting the world with beauty), pinch off little wads of dough and shape them into gumballs.

Don't eat them.

Lay them out to dry, if they stay wet for long, the seeds may begin to sprout before you have a chance to fling them. Use them as soon as possible!

As always, have fun, plant seeds, and sing songs! Grow Joyward, in all directions!