Earth Day seed bombs

For me, the idea of a perfect craft to do with younger children is one with various small steps, small enough to retain your child’s interest before mixing it up and moving onto the next step. This craft also involves getting your hands a bit messy - a great sensory element!

Please be warned, for these particular seed bombs I did use some dark navy coloured card... 2 days later and my hands still look like they belong to a Smurf! This didn’t happen with any of the other colours but please bare this in mind. It might be a good idea to wear some old clothes, and if possible, work on a hard surface where any water can be wiped away quickly and easily.

What you’ll need:

• Coloured paper (Construction paper works really well) 
• 3 - 4 packs of flower seeds
• A food blender
• Scissors
• Water
• Cookie cutters or muffin tray 
  

 Let’s get started…

• Cut your paper into roughly 1 - 2cm wide squares and be sure to keep the colours separate.
  

• You will now need to add the paper to a bowl, again keeping the colours separate.
• Fill each bowl with water ensuring that the paper is fully submerged.
• You now need to leave the water to soak, I soaked the paper over night however a couple of hours is sufficient. The heavier the paper stock the longer it will need to soak for.
• Once the paper has soaked, it’s time to get out the food blender! For this, I suggest squeezing about 40-50% of the water out of the paper, if it becomes too dry you can always add some extra water back into the pulp whilst it’s in the blender. Pulse the blender (making sure not to over heat the motor)
• Alternatively, if you do not have access to a blender then you can soak paper in hot water and repeatedly stir and cut with a serrated knife. Repeat this process until the paper is broken down and has become pulp. This is a longer process but it’s a bit kinder on your blender.
• Now that your paper is pulp, return it to its original bowl, not mixing the colours at this stage.
• Sprinkle some flower seeds into each pulp. We’ve used a selection of perennial native British wildflowers. Wildflowers often provide a diverse mix which will appeal to all sorts of wildlife.
• *It’s important to consider where you plan on planting your flower bombs and choose seeds that work with your climate and terrain. Wild flowers are a great choice as they don’t require much watering, food or fertiliser. Mother Nature is all the care these seeds will need.
  

• Now you’ve added your seeds to the pulp, it’s time to get creative! Since we’ve chosen to do this activity for Earth Day, we picked the colours blue, green and white and to add some extra fun to the activity we have raided our cookie cutter drawer to create seed bombs in all different shapes and sizes. For this step you can also use a small muffin tray, a small cup cake mould, or simply roll the pulp into balls.
• Now you’ve chosen what shape your seed bombs are going to be, you can start putting them together. If you find your pulp is still sodden, squeeze the excess water out until it’s almost dry but still moist enough to mould
  

• Once your seed bombs are formed, let them dry. And voila! These can be planted straight away - plant these about 1cm deep in compost, or add to an existing border and enjoy.
  

Making seed bombs is a really fun and easy activity that the whole family can get involved with. If you decide to make some, we would love to see how you get on and what colours and shapes you chose! Please tag us @nestieuk on Instagram.


Hope to see you again soon!