Seedballing Makes NPR!
Neighborhood organizations across the U.S. that want to improve the environment are using a surprising weapon: seed balls. It's a technique for planting in abandoned places and often inhospitable land that was developed in Japan by Masanobu Fukuoka, a pioneer in "natural farming."The technique has worked its way to Brooklyn, N.Y. In the Greenpoint neighborhood on a recent Sunday afternoon, a small group of activists walked the streets carrying paper bags filed with little balls made from clay, compost and seeds. They are members of a local group called NAG, or Neighbors Allied for Good Growth. They drop the balls on dirt piles and throw them into abandoned lots...
Gallagher says that seed balls allow people to take control of their small piece of the planet. She says walking around on a Sunday morning throwing seed balls is fun and easy.
"I think it is really important to break down these larger tasks — of taking back our neighborhoods and cleaning up our open spaces — into tasks that are completely doable," she says.
Check out the story, audio available online at 7pm

Labels: greenpoint, guerilla gardening, open space, seed balls




6 Comments:
Permapoesis: meaning-making through active participation with one's local community-ecology.
Maybe you could make these "balls" a lot faster if you rolled them out like dough and cut them into little cubes.
I'm working on guerilla gardening in the seattle area and taking back public spaces, especially all the failed construction projects that ran out of funding leavin us with empty fenced in lots. my see balls don't work though, i haven't been using clay, just sand, i think that's my problem, where can i find the red terracotta that you use? i can't find it at hardware stores, where should i look? do you use clay kitty litter?
HI Sarah,
I got terra cotta clay ordered for me at the local pottery studio. They were able to order 50 lbs for me for about $20, which was enough for HUNDREDS of seedballs. A lot of websites reccomend using dry terra cotta powder but that is really difficult to find and wet clay worked just fine for us. I also used a simple organic humus fertilizer that I found at our local Crest Hardware for $6.
I first heard of these as "seed grenades" referring to the Green Guerrillas using them on the Lower East Side.
I've got compost! Turning loads of it in the back yard, if needed, I am in Greenpoint. kcauleyAThotmaildotcom
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