Guerilla Gardening In May

It is May. I am thinking of May Poles, children dancing with colorful ribbons, and floral dresses. You know, the standard May Day stuff. Not the madman – he’s thinking of Beltane with its associated bonfires. Since both of these events celebrate summer, I guess we’re not too far apart.

May Day is the European festival celebrating the first day of summer. Celebrations center around wildflowers, green boughs, dancing and feasting. Beltane is a cross quarter point on the Celtic Wheel of the Year. It’s half way between the spring equinox and the summer solstice. In Scotland, people drove cattle to their summer grazing fields. Throughout the Celtic regions celebrations were marked by feasts and bonfires to celebrate the arrival of the summer season.

Summer Is Here

The madman has always felt that May 1 is really the start of summer – not June 21 which we call the first day of summer these days. After all, the solstice marks the highest point of the sun and it’s all downhill from there. The days start getting shorter as the sun heads south toward the winter solstice.

Our ancestors in Europe referred to the solstice as mid-summer. Even Shakespeare got it right in his “Mid-Summer Night’s Dream.” But for us, summer starts in June on the solstice. The madman thinks it has something to do with schools being let out on summer break.

It’s A Wonderful Month

It doesn’t matter what you call it, May is a wonderful month. The madman says the earth is coming to life and it’s time to get busy planting more than just the onions and peas. Around here, the last frost date is still May 15, although lately it seems to be creeping closer to May 1. Traditionalist that he is, the madman will hold off planting his tender tomatoes, peppers and eggplants in the garden. (I have to admit that I have found some Suicide Tomatoes out there). But everything else has a green light. May is gardening season.

In his excitement over the new gardening season, the madman has stumbled upon an interesting concept – guerilla gardening. Apparently, it’s not new, but it’s new to him. And, I think the name fascinates him, although he insists that it’s the idea that excites him.

Gardening On The Sly

Guerilla gardening is exactly what the name implies. It’s the act of growing food or flowers in neglected spaces without anyone’s permission. Guerilla Gardeners are looking to make empty lots more attractive or grow fresh food. Sometimes they even want to make a political statement. Growing something in an abandoned space is appealing, but it is technically illegal. And that’s what excites the madman.

The term was first coined in 1973 by Liz Christy. She and her “Green Guerilla Group” planted seed bombs in window boxes and in vacant New York City lots. (More on seed bombs later). The madman loves that idea – you know, strolling the streets under the cover of darkness with a pocket full of seed bombs. See a dirt patch, toss a seed bomb and keep moving (you thought he was such a mild-mannered gent!).

Guerillas Lead To Community Gardens

Anyway, when the Green Guerillas discovered an empty trash-filled lot in the Bowery section of Manhattan, they saw a potential garden – one that required more than a few seed bombs. They approached the City and received permission to lease it for $1 a month. After many long hours of work from volunteers, the site, called the “Bowery Houston Community Farm and Garden” became New York’s first community garden. It is still going strong 50 years later.

Seed Bombs

So, let’s get back to the seed bomb used in guerilla gardening. A seed bomb is pretty much what it sounds like – a bunch of seeds enclosed in a capsule of earth. Its roots go back to the ancient Japanese gardening practice called Tsuchi Dango, meaning “earth dumpling.” This method was resurrected in 1938 by Masanobu Fukuoka, a Japanese microbiologist, farmer and philosopher who practiced pollution-free “natural farming.” Seed bombing was an important part of his gardening methods.

Creating a seed bomb is easy. But to do it correctly requires a bit of thought. It’s not actually meant to explode when thrown – much to the disappointment of the madman. Nor is it meant to be eaten – much to the disappointment of the grandchildren. The outer capsule protects the seeds until they germinate and keeps them safe from hungry birds and rodents. The most successful seed bombs need good contact with the soil. In fact, if you press bombs into soft soil they germinate more readily than those that are merely thrown.

DIY Seed Bomb

There are a lot of recipes on the internet for DIY seed bombs, but the madman says he likes this one the best:

3 parts sifted compost

5 parts sifted pure clay powder from a craft store or clay soil from your yard

1 part seed

Water

Combine the first three ingredients in a bucket. Begin slowly adding water as you mix the contents. Continue adding water until you reach the consistency of paste. Roll into 1” balls and let them dry 24-48 hours before deploying.

Careful Selection

The hardest part of the process is selecting the seeds for your bombs. Like any gardener, you need to know the germination requirements of the type of seed you are working with. Take for example Milkweed (and many other New England wildflowers), these seeds need to go through a winter in the ground before they germinate. So, don’t be bombing Milkweed in the spring and expect to get results. As we’ve said before your seed packet (or the catalog) will tell you how the seed germinates best. In the spring, you may have luck with easy annual flowers like Cosmos, California Poppies, Zinnias and Sunflowers. Native wildflowers are best bombed in the fall.

Group Efforts

Seed bombing is most fun when done in a group. In fact, a group of Guerilla Gardeners in Brussels organized in 2007 to plant sunflowers in neglected spaces such as ditches, public flower beds or their neighbors’ yards. The event caught on and has become a yearly event celebrated worldwide on May 1 as International Sunflower Guerilla Gardening Day.

The madman thinks that even his squirrels have joined this effort. For the past few years, he has found sunflowers growing in the strangest of places. If you plan to try your hand at seed bombing, remember to bomb responsibly – and, most of all, have fun!

You know all this guerilla gardening makes me thirsty. Even though it’s Beltane, we’re still drinking hot cocoa.