Guerrilla Gardeners

Following from National School Tree day the senior grades of our school were involved in making bombs......

BOMBS!!??!

Yes bombs. But not of the destructive explosive type. Quite the opposite.

The students were involved in making Seed Bombs.

On the coldest day of the year the students got down and dirty. They rolled up their sleeves and stuck their hands in the mud.

Firstly students were introduced to the idea of Guerrilla Gardeners and we talked about the process of making the seed bombs and the ingredients that are required. Then after watching a short video on the making of seed bombs the students braved the cold and wet weather (mind you we were in the undercover learning area) and got busy making their own.

The idea for making the bombs at school was to introduce the students to a sustainability activity that they could easily get involved in at home. I also wanted to ensure they had some hands on practical tasks to do to engage them further into the sustainability focus of our school. There are many studies that are done about children and the outdoors and the importance of it so the focus of the sustainability rotations will be around interaction and engagement in our environment.

At first I had many comments like "I'm not putting my hands in the mud", "It's cold" and "do we get to blow stuff up"

By the end all of the students had made several of their own seed bombs.

Once they are dry the students will find suitable places to 'throw' their bombs. Over the term they will observe and record the success of their bombs and even get to take some home to do a little bit of guerrilla gardening at home. Of course part of our discussions about our 'bombs' was the safety. Both safety of the children and of the environment. The children were informed about the dangers of using potting mix and breathing in the dust and also that we wouldn't really throw these; more toss them into suitable locations. Secondly they were also informed about the dangers to the environment. We would need to make sure we are being responsible guerrilla gardeners by not introducing any invasive weeds. So to make our school a bright and happy place our seed bombs are full of sunflower seeds. If successful we might see several heads of sunflowers popping up around our school and community.

How to make seed bombs

Materials
1 part seeds 
1 part potting mix
2 parts soil
2 parts clay
a little water

Procedure
Mix all ingredients together so they are well mixed (only add a little water to bind the materials not to make it sloppy)
Roll golf ball sized portions of mixture to form firm tight bombs
Dry out of the sun for up to 2 weeks
Toss them into a location that will not cause issues later on. (Be mindful of who they might effect and if they will be disturbed)

The bombs contain all the essentials to promote and grow happy plants all is required is the sun and rain.

I will keep you posted on their success at our school.

Next week we will be making our own seed paper just in time for fathers day.