What you’ll need

To make around eight balls:

  • Six tablespoons of peat-free potting soil
  • One teaspoon of seeds:
    • Use native seeds only, e.g., daisies, poppies, cornflowers, marigolds or vegetables, e.g., pumpkin seeds
    • Make sure that they can be sown in your local area. Check the back of the seed packets for information.
  • Four tablespoons of purified or non-purified clay (also called clay powder or medicinal clay and can be found in drugstores)

From home:

  • A bowl
  • A tablespoon
  • A teaspoon
  • Water
  • Layer of material to dry the seed bombs on (e.g., some newspaper)

How to do it

1. Mix the potting soil with the seeds.

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2. Mix in the clay.

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3. Mix it all together by hand.

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4. Gradually add water until you have a doughy but not wet mixture (otherwise the seeds will germinate before the balls are dry).

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5. Roll out some walnut-sized balls in your hands.

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6. Leave them to dry for two to three days, for example on an old newspaper

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7. Place the seed balls on a grassy area in your garden or in a planter on your balcony (you don't need to bury them in the ground). If it is dry outside, feel free to give them a little water to encourage the seeds to start germinating.

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8. Keep checking to see if the flowers have started growing and if they have enough water. Depending on your seeds, you may see a few flowers sprouting from the soil after just a couple of weeks. Once the flowers have blossomed, you will be able to spot butterflies and other insects among the petals.

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Topsy’s tip

  • Wrap your finished seed balls in small paper bags or tote bags and give them to your friends.
  • Observe closely to see which flowers grow first and then draw them. Next, draw the animals that collect pollen from the flowers.

Learn with Topsy

  • Have you already made and sown your seed balls? By doing so, you not only help to make the environment a more colorful and beautiful place, but also help many native insect species in their daily quest for food. Honeybees, butterflies, bumblebees and beetles need flower nectar as food. When they drink it, the pollen sticks to the fine hairs on their body, which they then carry to another flower. This is called “pollination.” The pollinated flower then forms fruits and seeds from which new plants grow.
  • Flora and fauna are finely attuned to each other. Just as one kid might like spaghetti and another might prefer mashed potato, each insect has its own likes and dislikes. Bluebells, for example, are only pollinated by a single bee species. If this species were to die out, bluebells would too. This would create a gap and animals that rely on bluebells as a food source would have nothing left to eat. That is why it is very important that we take care of nature and that there are many different plant and animal species. Everything is needed; everything belongs together. It's also a good idea to include many different types of seeds when making seed balls, as this supports biodiversity.