Did you know that bees pollinate most of our food?
Imagine a world with no strawberries, no watermelons, no corn. Yikes!
Did you know that Honey Bees are not native to the United States?
It’s true! Our honey is made by European Honey Bees which were brought here in the 1600’s.
What pollinated plants before honey bees arrived?
Native bees! Though most don’t produce honey, our native bees pollinate most of our food crops and they need our help! Many species of native bees are dying out. They rely on native flowers for most of their food and native flowers are getting harder to find in many areas.
How can YOU help the native bees of our area?
By helping to replant native wildflowers! These aren’t just flowers that look pretty or flowers that grow well in our area. They are native to Southern California and the native bees love them!
What should you do if you DON’T live in Southern California?
Use flower seeds native to where you live! You’ll want to get them out in the wild before the spring growing season starts in your area.
What else can you do?
You’ll find more information and ideas on the National Wildlife Federation’s website, including information about helping the Bumble Bee Watch!
For this Take Action Project, you will make seed balls with native flower seeds inside. You’ll throw the seed balls out into the wild just before the winter rains come, giving the seeds a great chance of sprouting and growing. Hopefully there will be a LOT more native flowers for our native bees next spring and even more the next year as those flowers make more seeds!
Let’s get started!
Step 1: Gather Your Supplies
You will need some NATIVE flower seeds. This is different than flowers that will simply grow well in our area – those can be VERY invasive and bad for the environment. If in doubt, get California Poppy seeds.
Here’s what you need to make three seed balls:
- Your seeds
- 12 to 16 squares of toilet paper
- 2 Tablespoons of flour
- ¼ cup of water
- A helper (An adult might be needed for the cooking and an extra pair of hands is helpful, too.)
- A drop of green AND a drop of red food color can also be added. This makes a nice muddy brown so your seed bombs will blend in with the ground and not look like trash.
Step 2: Make the paste
- Mix the flour and water together in a bowl until there are no more lumps.
- Microwave the mixture for 30 seconds. You can also cook it on the stove over medium heat, stirring it just until it starts to thicken.
- Stir the mixture well so it is nice and smooth.
Set it aside to cool while you do the next steps.
Step 3: Get the paper mache strips ready
Rip six squares of toilet paper into strips. Set them aside.
Step 4: Make Your Seed Balls
Put a few seeds in the center of a square of dry toilet paper. You don’t need many seeds for your seed balls. If you use too many, the seedlings will compete with each other and none of them will thrive.
Ball the dry toilet paper around the seeds. Why dry paper? If the seeds get wet, they may sprout too soon and they will die before you get a chance to toss them out into the wild.
Wrap another square of dry toilet paper around that little ball to make it bigger and to help keep the seeds dry.
Dip one of the torn strips of toilet paper into your flour mixture. Use your fingers to scrape most of the flour mixture back off. Don’t pull too hard! Wet toilet paper rips easily.
Wrap that damp strip around your ball of seeds.
Keep going until the entire ball is covered.
Set the finished seed balls someplace safe to dry.
Repeat for the other two seed balls.
Step 5: “Plant” your seed balls
Once the balls are completely dry, put them in a baggie to keep them safe until it’s time to throw them out into the wild. When will that be? In Southern California, December or January would be great! That gives the winter rains a chance to get the seeds growing just in time for spring. Where should you throw them? Someplace local but wild. A good choice would be along a local hiking trail.
