Becky McCane: Berea Sustainability/Rain Barrel/Ecovillage Projects; Laura W.: Seedballing

(Becky sent this to us after the presentation today.)

I live in Berea and here is a link to a local project that sounds similar to what you are doing. Each home that participates in the Edible Yard Project posts a sign in their yard about the project. That generates more interest.

Edible Yard Project
Edible Yard Contest

Berea is also having a Rain Barrel Festival in April. Pretty cool! Generates more community interest.

Rain Barrel Festival

Here are some painted rain barrels. An art class could even participate in a rain barrel art contest or something like that.

Artistic Rain Barrels

Site w/ info on building rain barrels

How to Build a Rain Barrel

The Rain Barrel Festival will be held just down the road from (well, actually beside) Berea College's Ecovillage. They offer free, informative tours on a regular basis. If you have not heard about the Ecovillage, here is a link.

They have a community garden that everyone helps tend. I think some group at Berea College even has a long-term goal of having the college only provide local food.

Here is another tidbit. Something you or Danny may be interested in, perhaps on a smaller, less structured scale? Check out the complete mission statement. V. cool!

Berea Garden Party

I don't know if this is something you or Danny would be interested in, but here is a grant opportunity that funds student-learning/community service projects. If you scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on "Hallmarks of Effective Service ..." you can see what they are looking for in the projects. I just thought it could provide a little money to help students create community gardens --as part of a course's curriculum perhaps?

Learn and Serve

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(Laura, who also lives in Berea, wrote up some info on Seedballing)



...

WHAT WE WILL NEED:

• Dry, powdered, red or brown clay (the kind potters use)


• Dry compost/humus


• Lots of non-invasive seeds!


• Containers for water — spray bottles, etc.


• Containers to mix them all up in


• Trays to set the finished seed balls on


• Storage for the finished seed balls to dry in/on - need to dry for 24-48 hours before "distributing"


• People willing to "adopt" finished seedballs (take them home to dry)

Okay then. Now, on to the resources.

The first use of "seed bombs" or "seed grenades" in guerrilla gardening was in the 1970's with Liz Christy. While some were just compressed clods of soil, many more were glass Christmas ornaments or balloons filled seed and soil and thrown over a fence — what seems to be one of those "sounded great at the time" methods, as the broken glass and balloons also contributed to litter and pollution. (Here are the original seed bomb instructions.) A more eco-friendly technique was later (re-)introduced by Masanobu Fukuoka — the seed ball.

SeedBalls.com archive
Here's an archival mirror of the now-extant SeedBalls.com, an essential resource compiled by Jim Bones.

Heavy Petal
A brief history of the seed ball
This page explains seed balls thoroughly and concisely...
How to make seedballs
...This page explains how to make them...
Seedball progress
...And this page shows seed balls in action.

Path to Freedom has two different seed ball-instruction articles:
Making Seed Balls
How To Make Seed Balls

Making Hay with Clay (Greece)
This website includes a brief history of the seed ball, the benefits of seed balls/seed ball theory, instructions for making them, and examples of how they're being used to combat soil erosion in Greece.
There are similar efforts going on in New Zealand and in Bangalore, India:

Seed Ball NZ
The New Zealand project's page has simple seed ball instructions as well as information on its benefits. This page is somewhat cumbersome to navigate, so fortunately, they've also published all the information in a PDF format, which you can download here.



MillionSeedBalls
MillionSeedBalls is an ambitions and inspiring project out of Bangalore (by the BCIL Alt.Tech Foundation), with the goal of "painting India green."

Permaculture Reflections has an excellent post on the philosophy of seed balls and of Masanobu Fukuoka:

"Imagine tanks used, not for warfare, but to pull land imprinters to give seedballs an advantage. Imaging cluster bombs, not killing, but being used to distribute seed balls over deserts creating green explosions..."

Kathryn Miller of the Green Museum shows us how she used a sort of seed bomb to regreen the Raytheon Plant in Santa Barbara, CA.

Last but not least, an inspiration for fun — a photoset of a seed bomb party!

So, is everyone ready to get their hands dirty?

— L. W.