On Guerrilla Gardening: A Handbook for Gardening Without Boundaries by Richard Reynolds
You should also check out the website: www.guerrillagardening.org if you have any further interest or if you want to become a volunteer for a Guerrilla Gardening troop.
Through this website, I have found a recipe or guide to making see bombs (aka green grenades) and will no longer be buying seed bombs in the store (I have found them for purchase at an outrageous expense at the store Anthropologie).
I find it important to make your own for several reasons. First and foremost, when purchasing seed bombs, you are not tailoring the bombs themselves to suit the needs and native ecology of the area you are throwing them. This was my primary concern when throwing store bought bombs. Second, when creating your own, you are absolutely sure of the ingredients which go into the mixture. Just like when cooking your own food, you want to know exactly what you are putting into the ground and whether it is actually harmful or not. Third, I prefer to not pay an exorbitant amount of money to a retail store when I can create the items on my own for a meager fraction of the cost.
I chose the most common type of seed bomb. Here is a description coming directly off from the provided website:
"1. Classic Clay Seed Ball
A mixture of clay soil (or potter's powder), compost and sees in the ration of 5:1:1 with water to bind. This is the most widely used method and their invention is credited to Japanese biologist and farmer Masanobu fukoka.
PROS: Easy to make at home, cheap and easily customised to local condition, moulded into any shape. All the ingredients are entirely natural.
CONS: Dirty to carry, the clay can easily become baked solid which then slows or prevents germination if there is insufficient rain."
Included on the site is a video demonstration as well as a documentary. Generally, for the other methods of seed bomb creation, there are pdf directions for how to make them.
If you are interested in volunteering, go to the previously posted website and click on enlist. You will find me as Natleenewt. Also, while reading On Guerrilla Gardening, Reynolds listed many areas in NYC as well as (more surprisingly) Delaware County, NY as hot spots of Guerrilla Gardening. I will be spending a lot of time in Delaware County, specifically in Delhi, and will post back to you anything I see or hear about this progressive movement in this area.
