Earth Day seed bombs

We've been spending a lot of time in the garden recently, and with Earth Day just around the corner, we thought these seeds bombs would be the perfect activity. They are so simple to make - you just need paper, water and seeds!

If you're plating in Spring time or around Earth Day like us, you can plant these cute little seed bombs straight away, ready for beautiful flowers all summer long.

They also keep for quite a long time, so you can make them in advance and plant when the risk of frost has passed, or give them as a lovely eco gift.

You can even try 'guerilla gardening' and pop your seed bombs in a public space for everyone to enjoy.

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We thought it would be fun to make our seed bombs look like cute mini Planet Earths, so we used some blue, white and green coloured paper leftover from our crafts. You can use any paper as long as it doesn't contain plastic so it will break down properly in the soil.

To make the seed bombs you will need:

• Coloured paper (we used blue, white and green)

• Packets of wildflower seeds

• Water

• Bowls

• Blender
  

Start by tearing up the paper and putting into three separate bowls. Cover with water and leave to absorb for about half an hour.

A grown-up is needed for the next step - put one colour of paper into a blender and blitz thoroughly until it forms a wet pulp. If you find it doesn't blend very well you can always add a little more water.

Do this for each of the colours and put them in separate bowls. The mixture might try to separate a little but don't worry, you can always squeeze out any excess water.

Choose which seeds you want to add to your seed bomb mix. We used bee-friendly seeds in ours, including cornflower, borage and poached egg plant. We want to encourage lots of wildlife into our garden so we can enjoy spotting all the mini beasts in the summer.

Tip your seed mixture into the blue bowl and mix thoroughly. While you're getting your hands messy this is a great chance to talk about seeds and how they turn into flowers.

Have you tried our sprouting seedling craft? It's perfect for learning how plants grow!

Scoop up a small amount of the blue pulp and seed mixture (around the size of a large marble) and form it into balls.

Take smaller pieces of the green and white pulp and press them onto the surface to create the continents and the ice caps. To give them an even finish, roll the balls gently between the palms of your hands.

Our continents weren't really in the right places (that was far too tricky for Mr 5) but we tried to pop white at the top and the bottom to show the north and south poles.

Celebrate Earth Day with our activity pack

You can plant your seed bombs in the ground straight away, just make sure you follow the instructions on the seed packets.

If you need to wait to plant them, you can leave them to dry, just make sure you give them a good soak when it comes to planting time!

Plant your seed bombs about 1" deep in some new compost, water well and put in a sunny spot. You can also plant them in existing borders, or even wasteland (if you are guerilla gardening) - the great thing about wildflowers is they don't need too many nutrients to thrive.

This is such a fun way to getting children involved in gardening - giving them hands-on activities such as planting seeds is not only very rewarding but it's a great demonstration of the life cycle of flowers.

Want to have more Earth Day fun? Check out our Earth Day activity book.

Celebrate Earth Day with our activity pack of scavenger hunt, colouring pages and fun worksheets!

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More ideas for you to try:

Sprouting seedling craft

We're going on a sound hunt

10 ways to play with sticks

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