Seed balls are a type of permaculture gardening that I learned about in the book “Food Not Lawns” by Heather Flores. Heather described seed balls as “one part seed mixture, three parts compost, and five parts clay”. I made them this way with my daughter in the spring of 2011 when she was 3 and a half. They produced a lot of squash, radishes, pea pods, sunflowers, and even our own pumpkin for Halloween. The pumpkin was very hard to carve though, and my father had to do it with the electric knife.
These days, I ask for “clay” in gardening stores and they don’t know what I’m talking about. I’m not sure what I used as clay in 2011- probably some dirt from the ground that looked red, which I sifted. I don’t remember exactly.
But this year I bought this mix on amazon. I got seeds for three different kinds of squash, cilantro, spinach, and catnip. I started them in pots because my 88 year old father in law likes to just randomly ride the tractor around, and last year he unknowingly killed all my seed balls. We didn’t tell him, of course I just let it go. It was funny, because one of the main reasons he liked me was because I asked if I could have garden space.
On my inlaws’ property (where we live in the guest house), there are about a million pots lying around. I used some of them for these seed balls. When they grow big enough, I’ll put them in the ground. That way when my father in law enjoys his tractor rides, they’ll be easier to see.
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