Father's Day Gift Ideas - Summer seed balls

Making eco growing gifts is a wonderful way for children get back to nature and learn the basics of gardening. These seed bombs are also a great use of all your old paper and help get the garden blooming in time for summer. 

What you need

• Recycled paper (any raw uncoated paper - letters, newspaper, school worksheets etc)
• wildflower seeds
• plastic bowl or tub for soaking paper
• blender
• mixing bowls
• optional food colour
• cookie cutters

Method

1. Tear up your paper into very small pieces and put them into a plastic tub.
2. Cover the paper with water and let it soak for 2 hours. Keep topping up the water for the first hour to ensure it remains submerged.
3. In small amounts, place the wet paper into a blender, fill the blender with water and blend until mixed and mushy. The best paper to water ratio is ¼ paper to ¾ water but you can play around with the ratio to get the best results.
4. Transfer mix to your strainer and repeat until all the paper is blended.
5. Using your hands, press down on the paper mix to get most of the excess water out. Transfer to your mixing bowl.
6. Pour your seeds into the paper mixture and mix into the pulp until all combined. If you want to make them a different colour, you can place a few drops of food colour into the mix. For a more natural alternative, you can use beetroot liquid.
7. Take out a small handful of paper and seed mixture and roll into a ball, place on a drying rack. If you want to make a special shape, press into a cookie cutter and use a paper towel to soak up the excess mixture. Once the shape is formed, then press it out of the cutter and place on a drying rack.
8. You seed balls will be dry in 1-2 days in the sunshine or 3 days in the shade or inside.

Once your summer seed bombs are dry, you can wrap them up to give as a gift to Dad for Father's Day or plant them in your garden and watch them bloom.