I read “The boy with the green thumbs” by Maurice Druon (1957) when I was a child. The boy was Tistou and his father owned a cannon factory. Before I could read I remember my mother reading it to us. In the end of the story canons are loaded with flowers. That really impressed me then and made me happy and it still makes me happy today. I do not have green thumbs which my brothers do and my mother did but I can make the world bloom by being a guerilla gardener.

Why not make the vacant lots and boring places in the city more fun by bombing them with seed-bombs? This is the good kind of bombing. A seed bomb is a ball of compressed soil and seeds which you throw on a place with soil so that flowers will bloom. I did some bombing outside my father’s retirement home window. His window faces a very boring back yard and he has no view except a steep hill with only grass and soil. This spring there were some beautiful tulips, the wild flowers I put in my seed-bombs did not survive. I will try again this fall.

The seed bomb is cheap, natural and organic, easy to make, pocket sized, and you can easily cover a large area with seed bombs in a very short time. It is a great tool for guerrilla gardeners when you quickly need to get the job done.

What you need is clay, water, compost and native seeds.

Mix 5 parts clay with 1 part compost and 1 part flower seeds, put some drops of water into the mixture – it should be like a soft but not messy boll, knead bolls into desired sizes. Now just let them dry in the sun. Get to work!

Like these guys in northern England.

Related articles

• The good kind of bombing (dothegreenthing.com)