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Seedbombs

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38 pointsvamsee14 comments

As an owner of a house with a garden, I'm not sure of the advisability of throwing these "seedbombs" into sidewalk cracks or similarly constricted places, as many plants, if left uncontrolled, can turn into pretty destructive suckers.

This is what I'm thinking. It's all fun and games until someone trips on an uprooted pavement slab.

This is a commercialized version of a technique used by the "guerrilla gardeners" movement that has taken root in many blighted cities. The idea is that there are many vacant, ugly, fenced-off, lots that the owners/flippers have no plans to do anything about—so you might as well try to add some nature since local residents are the ones who have to look it at.

That's some background, I guess it's HN worthy if you are looking into various sub-cultures for ideas to mainstream in a popular marketplace.

This seems like an idea that could only come from Portland or San Francisco. Disregard for property and a brief personal self-esteem boost for tossing a ball of dirt and seeds somewhere, so you can feel like a game-changing rebel on your way to buy your next chai tea.

On the other hand, I would rather have this in my neighborhood (as long as it doesn't have any sort of invasive content that is going to drift into my yard that I'm going to have to deal with for years to come) than live in a neighborhood with a bunch of those annoying urban "I raise chickens in my backyard" people.

>Disregard for property and a brief personal self-esteem boost for tossing a ball of dirt and seeds somewhere, so you can feel like a game-changing rebel on your way to buy your next chai tea.

If you're going to go appropriating other people's property and sticking it to the man, at least go the whole hog. This is how we roll down where I live:

http://www.lewesroadcommunitygarden.org/

http://www.lewesroadcommunitygarden.org/gallery.htm

The Man won out in the end unfortunately. It was brilliant while it lasted though.

I think these sorts of efforts are to combat property owners who have a disregard for their community and the people who traverse their space. Neglect and decay require some intervention outside of property right systems at times.

#1 question: What kinds of seeds are in there?

Other questions: are the plants an invasive species? will they crowd out other plants? I imagine if they can be thrown "anywhere" they don't need much water/soil to survive. Like most of the weeds growing around my backyard.

Here's the link to the vending machine: http://greenaid.co/pages/Greenaid-Vending-.html

Their prices are $15/lb of seedbombs. I don't know how much each weighs, but: if it has clay, soil, etc. then it can't be light. I'm guessing about 10 bombs/lb. So I'm not sure how many people would pay $1.50 for a seedbomb with questionable efficacy.

If the price was lower (by an order of mag), then this could have serious potential.

The product is neat, but I'm having a horrendous time navigating their site, trying to find, for instance, how much they cost vs how long they last vs the price of the vending machine, which should be some sort of available thing...

Can't say whether I'm willing to buy one and put it up in my shop if I can't run some numbers..

Here is their store: http://greenaid.co/pages/Store.html. But the vending machine doesn't seem to be featured, not sure if that's "yet" or if the vending machine itself is not a product. I guess you can contact them and ask, especially if you're interested in hosting a machine.

I saw one of these vending machines a while ago in SF about half a block east from Dolores and 18th, I think near the Bi-Rite.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masanobu_Fukuoka

http://www.onestrawrevolution.net

Great book, and definitely a "guerrilla gardener" and Permaculture technique.

I'm kinda wondering why this is on Hacker News

It's a great way to "hack" your physical space.

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