Native prairie garden seed balls

"How I Did It"

This fall, I spent $100 and a lot of time making seed balls¹.

You place the balls on bare soil. When they become wet, they break apart, the clay breaks down, and (hopefully) your seeds sprout.

Wild columbine seeds

I had never done this before, and results online are mixed at best, so I can’t guarantee that this recipe and method will lead to success.

Seed collection

However, here is what I’m doing to increase my chances:

• Planting in late autumn to encourage stratification (exposure to freeze/thaw cycles), which many native prairie plants require in order to sprout.

• Placing on bare soil to reduce interference from invasive plants in the area.

• Tracking results to tweak methodology in future years, if I have the energy to do this again.

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Seeds that later went moldy

Ingredients:

• Seeds harvested from my native prairie garden

• Crayola air-dry clay

  • Pro tip: I’ve seen recommendations to use a specific type of cat litter, with a little water to help it clump. I couldn’t get past the idea of rummaging through cat litter with my hands and so I shelled out for Crayola.

• Organic matter - I used potting soil. Lots of recommendations say to use compost.

Bottles with lids cracked for air flow

Laboratory

Instructions:

• Harvest seeds when they are dry, dark, and ready (i.e. they are either attached to their pappus (fluff) and ready to float into the wind at the slightest provocation, or they are tiny and black and can be easily shaken out). Remove the fluff before saving seeds if possible.

  • Pro tip: Stop trying to harvest the seeds too early, like some sort of wretched seed goblin².

  • Pro tip: It looked really cool to save seeds in used prescription bottles with cute sticker labels, but seeds are best collected in brown paper bags. Some of my seeds, with fluff still attached, went moldy after two months in a closed bottle because they did not dry out.

• Mix a hunk of clay with some soil.

• Incorporate seeds into the clay and form a ball.

• Let dry until hard (at least 24 hours) and then store in a dry place.

Bags and containers of seeds

I have since placed some of the balls, in (redacted). A few more to go, and a few more to share with friends and family.

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• Native prairie garden

1. Most people call them seed bombs, but I think that’s too violent.

2. I will never stop