Kathy Walsh, of Sprout, pours seeds into a seed bomb mixture. (Photo by Noah R. Bombard)
By Noah R. Bombard
Kathy Walsh is building bombs.
Her June Street flower shop probably doesn’t fit what you’d imagine a bomb-maker’s lair to look like. It’s brightly lit and smells like spring. But the row after row of spherical bombs that sat on tabletops in her shop Wednesday night are part of a guerrilla war. They’re seed bombs – tiny clumps of flower seeds, dirt and natural kitty litter. And on May 1, Walsh and other guerrilla gardeners will lob the tiny missiles from their automobiles into vacant lots, highway medians and blighted areas throughout the city.
Guerrilla gardening is the act of growing things – typically flowers – on property that is not your own. Guerrilla gardeners could, potentially, be committing acts of trespassing. But would someone call the police on a person planting flowers? Walsh and other volunteers are willing to take the risk.
“I don’t think there’s any harm in tossing seeds into places that need a little more beauty,” says Katie Crommett, who helped organize this year’s Guerrilla Gardening Day in Worcester. It takes place here and worldwide on Sunday, May 1. “It’s just really nice to see flowers growing in places. It makes me feel like I’m contributing to beautifying the city, bringing more color to the city, if possible, in a rogue kind of way.”
Katie Crommett tries to dodge the earthy hands of Daniel Durken, 3, at a seed bomb-making at Sprout flower shop Wednesday. (Photo by Noah R. Bombard)
And there is an element of rogue to it. Although some of the areas the group targets may be public ways, there are also privately-owned properties that are targeted. They’re usually deserted and neglected properties, but even throwing something onto them could potentially be an act of trespassing.
Worcester blogger and activist Mike Benedetti says it’s a small act of civil disobedience he’s willing to risk. And he already has some targets in mind.
“The two places I would most like to throw them would be the South Worcester Industrial Park and the Mason/Winfield lot,” Benedetti says. “At this point, well over half the fencing has been stolen and probably sold for scrap.”
What exactly are these guerrilla gardeners throwing?
A crew of about a dozen or so worked at Sprout, Walsh’s June Street flower shop, Wednesday clumping together composting cow manure, sunflower and clover seeds and kitty litter (it makes them clump better).
“Sunflower is kind of the symbolic happy, cheerful, easy-to-grow, cheap seed that they go for,” Wash says.
It’s also the official flower of Sunday’s Guerrilla Gardening Day, which was spawned in London by Richard Reynolds, who’s been planting without permission on land he doesn’t own since 2004. The movement has spread worldwide, although Walsh isn’t aware of any other organized guerrilla efforts in Massachusetts. Reynolds began his efforts as a way to combat litter by picking up trash around London’s streets. Soon, however, he moved to planting flowers on public land.
According to London’s Evening Standard, Reynolds asked the city council in London if they would have given him permission if he’d asked at the outset and was told “absolutely not.” It only spurred him on.
Nicole Apostola makes seed bombs at Sprout Wednesday. (Photo by Noah R. Bombard)
Walsh said she participated in a small guerrilla gardening effort in Worcester two years ago, but at the time they didn’t track where they’d thrown the seed bombs and had difficulty telling if many of them took root. Since they don’t actually tend to the seeds after they’ve thrown them there’s a large measure of luck involved. And since sunflower seeds are tasty to birds and squirrels, they may just be feeding the city’s wildlife.
“These could just be snack bombs,” Walsh says.
Of course, it all sounds very covert – cars creeping along roadways by cover of night, while someone tosses a seed bomb from a cracked window and then speeds off. It sounds that way because, actually, that’s pretty much how it goes. Some guerilla gardeners will toss the bombs during the day, but others will seek the anonymity night provides.
“I might do a little of both,” Crommett says.
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