CUNY Institute for Sustainable Cities Blog

Seed Bombing the City

A little bit of light-hearted, but never the less important stuff.  We are starting to learn that the aesthetics of urban ecology are utilitarian as well as pretty. It is possible that people function better in green space. I say “possible” because of course more research is needed, but the evidence thus far is compelling.

But what about the small scale tiny cracks in the concrete jungle that serve as brief reminders of the benefits and beauty of these other elements that often seem to evade us? How can we all play a role in finding space for those cracks? Two words: seed bombs. Last year, the Bed Stuy Meadows project worked as an intervention in this vein. And this year, the good people at DoTank in Brooklyn, are running an urban agriculture Do It Yourself workshop to teach the art of the seed bomb (as well as home composting and window farming. Full disclosure, I am helping out with compost skill share component.)

But this intervention, the GreenAid Change for Change seed bomb dispenser is just fabulous. What if this were in every store where chicklets and runts and gum balls were sold? What if children nagged their parents for a quarter so they could throw this gum ball shaped object onto the ground outside their house and see what came up in the cracks of asphalt or in the street tree bed? It could inspire wonder in younger urban children who are not necessarily exposed to the rites of spring in the same way as those outside of a city are.  And going back to the idea of beauty as utility, would it benefit everyone in the space–not just youngens–by creating spaces that promote a higher quality of life? Again, more research is critical. But this intervention takes a product that we are already used to as a consumer and retrofits it for the public good. I like it. Now, just to make them.

Tags: Flowers, seed bombs, urban ecology