I've been a fan of Masanobu Fukuoka ever since I read
The One-Straw Revolution five years ago. I've blogged about modifying his grain planting method
for seeding my pastures. Another of his ideas is coating seed with clay before planting. I've thought this would be an excellent way to hide the seed from birds. And goats! But I never quite understood how I'd do it. Then I watched
this video on how to make seed balls and seed bombs. Last month, I finally made some for seeding several small bare soil areas in the pasture. So, here's my first attempt.
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| Mix of pasture seeds. |
Because it's for winter pasture, my seed mix contained cool weather grasses, legumes, and forbs: crimson clover, arrowleaf clover, hairy vetch, purple top turnip, annual ryegrass, wheat, oats, winter peas, rape, radish, white clover, perennial rye, timothy, brome, echinacea, chicory, and oregano.
Here's what I needed to make them.
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| Seeds, compost, and clay. |
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The mixture calls for equal parts of each.
How do you like my southern red clay? |
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| And enough water to dampen. |
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| Mixing and testing if it can be shaped. |
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| Formed and pressed into balls (bombs). |
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| My yield was roughly 4 pounds worth. |
These could be dried and saved for later or planted immediately. I went out and dropped them onto various bare spots as soon as I was done because the forecast was for rain.
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| Seed bomb on a bare bit of soil. |
The clay protects the seeds and gives them soil to get started in. The compost feeds them. Here they are several weeks later.
Has anyone else tried this? It would be a great activity to do with kids! Like mud pies but better! Kids would have fun planting them too.
