Permaculture in Practice: Seed Balls Project!

Uses
Seed balls are a no-till method for vegetating an area, especially well suited for disturbed areas, compacted, or barren soils. Seed balls create a protected venue to keep seeds safe from blowing away, drying out, or being eaten by animals while they germinate and get established. The clay provides protection and the compost provides beneficial nutrients and microbes to help the seeds thrive. When seed balls are spread on a site, they don’t seed any irrigation, because they wait patiently until the rains come to wash away the clay and germinate the seeds.
You can use seed balls in your driveway, the barren lot next door, construction areas, in your garden, native habitat restoration, or to spread edible plants around the city guerrilla gardening style. It takes less time, effort, and money than more traditional till-methods of farming.

Seed balls have been used by some First Nations indigenous peoples, and developed into this current form by Fukuoka Masanobu, a Japanese ecologist and founder of the ideas of “natural farming.”

Recipe
Recipes available online are specific. I’ll say that at the Earth Activist Training our method was much more casual. Throw together some compost, some wet clay dug from the ground, and whatever seeds you have lying around. Don’t get too worried about getting it right! The seeds that are right for your location will flourish, and the others will struggle and not last, and that’s OK!

-One Part Seed Mix
-Three Parts Compost (not animal manure)
-Five Parts Clay (red or brown clay provides more nutrients, use local if you can)
-Water as needed (especially if you are using dried clay or compost, you will add enough water to make the mixture stick together)

Take out any rocks or clumps from compost and clay and mix together. Lay out in a layer on a tarp and sprinkle seeds on top. Add enough water to make the mixture sticky. Roll into calls about the size of a marble. Let the balls sit in a shady place until dry (a few days). Don’t store in plastic.

Distribute your seed balls at any time of year at about one seed ball per square foot.

Selecting your seeds: Plant Guilds
The key here is OBSERVATION, as in all aspects of working with nature. Think strategically about where you are sowing the seed balls and the seeds’ particular habitats before you sow. If you are using non-native or cultivated varieties of seed, only use them in areas that are close to human habitation, in the thick of the cities. Lots of damage to ecosystems has been done by spreading introduced seeds from other places in natural areas where they can potentially become weedy and out-compete native plants. Native seeds can be sown anywhere, because if they are not suited to a particular site, they simply will not grow there.

Plant guilds are a group of plants which grow together in a self-sustaining system of mutual support. Plant guilds could be seen as a loose associated community. They are not the same as companion planting, which combines specific species of plants which work well together. Plant guilds emphasize the functional roles of the plants instead, as well as the overall function of the guild as a whole. Functional roles include nitrogen fixers, dynamic accumulators, and insectary. Diversity is emphasized as important because species diversity strengthens the resiliency of the system and adds more interconnected beneficial relationships. We chose one plant from each functional category to highlight these roles, but ideally one could have dozens of plants that filled these roles, with many that have overlapping functions! We chose three native plants so that you could use these seed balls to spread beautiful native seeds anywhere you want, especially wild, disturbed or degraded areas (think areas around the housing developments on the Westside!). Within the overall function of your guild, design to have representatives from each functional category.

Some examples of plant guilds:
Prairie restoration (native grasses and wildflowers)
Pizza garden (basil, tomatoes, zucchini, onions, garlic, oregano, etc.)
Greywater filtration
Erosion control

Insectary
Insectary plants are attractive to beneficial insects, providing important habitat, nectar, pollen, or other resources to pollinators and predatory insects which will help control the population of insect pests, such as aphids. Insectaries are also plants which repel unwanted insects. They are also pretty!
Some examples: Anything in the carrot family (Apiaceae), anything in the sunflower family (Asteraceae), the mint family (Lamiaceae), roses, yummy smelling and bright colorful flowers!

Nitrogen fixers
Nitrogen fixers form a symbiotic relationship with soil bacteria on their roots that capture nitrogen from the air and transform it into a form accessible to plants. Nitrogen is essential for healthy plant growth, especially leaf and stem development! Nitrogen fixers help build healthy fertile soil, especially important for depleted or eroded areas.
Some examples: Anything in the pea family (Fabaceae; Acacia and carob trees, vetch, garden peas or beans, lupine, scotch broom), Ceanothus (red root), alders.

Dynamic accumulators
Dynamic accumulators are deep tap-rooted plants which reach far into the soil layer and draw up micronutrients from the lower soil, making those nutrients more available for other plants to use! This restores depleted soils. Also, the hearty thick taproots help break up compacted soil and return oxygen and organic matter after they decompose, building fertile topsoil.
Examples: Any deep tap-rooted plant! Comfrey, dandelion, plantain, mustards (any Brassicaceae), dock, borage, Echinacea.

Our Seed Mix: Yarrow, Lupine, Lomatium

Insectary: Yarrow!
Achillia millifolium
Asteraceae
-grows in nutritionally poor soil
-attracts wildlife
-pollinated by insects
-flowers from June to August,
-seeds ripen July to September
-Adaptable to many soil types
-Drought tolerant, semi-shade or sun
-Edible and medicinal
-First aid- stop bleeding,
-increases body temp for fevers and colds,
-Bitter and aromatic digestive stimulant

Nitrogen fixer: Lupine!
Lupinus Polyphyllus
Fabaceae
-flowers July to August
-seeds ripen July to October
-Bee pollinated
-grows in nutritionally poor soil and a variety of soil types
-requires sun, drought tolerant
-Seeds may be marginally edible; some contain a bitter toxic alkaloid which can be leached out through soaking, draining, and cooking

Dynamic accumulator: Lomatium!
Lomatium nudicaule
Apiaceae
-Needs sun, tolerates a range of well-drained soil types
-Insect pollinated
-Edible raw or cooked
-Young plants high in Vit C
-Leaves, seeds, or dried root as a spice
-Root roast
-Seeds medicinal to end pain, increase sweating, reduce fever, as a laxative, and for respiratory ailments.
-Many plants in this family are deadly poisonous!!


Resources

The Earth Path, by Starhawk.2005. HarperSanFrancisco.

The Earth Activist Training
www.earthactivittraining.org
The Permaculture Activist
www.permacultureactivist.net

City Repair in Portland, OR
www.cityrepair.org

Resources/References for Seed Balls

Television Trust for the Environment
http://www.tve.org/ho/doc.cfm?aid=1401&lang=English

Path to Freedom
http://www.pathtofreedom.com/pathproject/gardening/seedballs.shtml

www.seedballs.com
(Although I could not find this site, many other sites reference it, and it may be temporarily down)

Plants for a Future
http://www.pfaf.org/index.html

Ryan Drum on Lomatium and Yarrow:
http://www.ryandrum.com/threeherbs2.htm#icp