Tales of a Seedcaster, Spring 2023

Knowledge Exchange

5th May 2023
SHARE

‘Twer never suche men more happily freed,
Than they who cast grene flowery seed’

- Robyne Høde of Loxley, 137 BC

I love guerrilla gardening.

Well, I love the idea of guerrilla gardening, but I’ve always been put off by the ongoing maintenance and logistics of squatting a specific patch of wild abandonment. Sideways baseball caps off to anyone with the staying power to do it, but I already struggle to keep on top of my medium sized garden.

So last month I rustled up a handful of friends, colleagues and neighbours and founded the Nottingham Seedcasters. The goal is to plant zero maintenance hardy perennial plants, flowers and herbs in our communities. If any or all of the group decide they can no longer be arsed then the things we’ve planted will thrive just fine without us – beautifying street corners and providing nourishment for pollinators. But either way, there should be no need for any Seedcaster to revisit a cast plant except to bask in its tiny glory.

The structure is simple and casual. Seedcasters are encouraged to start off a batch of something wholesome at home (I’ve currently got a few dozen lavender seeds sprouting on my windowsill). When they’re big enough to survive outdoors, they’re shared with the other Seedcasters to be planted in neglected spots on their dog walks, commutes to work, local street corners, etc. On my first few missions I felt a bit self-conscious digging away with my little trowel and suspiciously squirrelling away secret stashes. But now I just get on with it, either being totally ignored by passers-by or exchanging a few pleasantries with them. 

There’s no rules about what to plant, but I’d avoid anything controversial like mint, which is lovely & aromatic but tends to colonise. Perennial herbs like lavender, sage and thyme are safe options that will almost definitely be loved by humans and bugs alike. Self-seeding wildflowers are brilliant but might struggle to compete with grass so they’re a little more advanced. Bulbs are great because they have the oomph to push up through grass & weeds each spring without any human assistance. However, some bulbs are quite toxic to humans and/or animals (looking at you, lilies) and some plants are invasive, so spend some time reading up beforehand. You are responsible.

When it comes to picking locations, that’s when things get a little grey. We don’t interfere with anyone’s personal garden, or anywhere that is clearly being looked after by someone because rude. But office car parks, apartment block communal gardens, neglected parks, bases of suburban pavement trees... you probably walk past hundreds of spots every day. From micropatches of dirt for a single tulip, to shady glades for a grand bluebell and lavender meadow.

Just for fun we tag everything we plant. One of the Seedcasters is a member of our local Hackspace. He designed a simple vector logo in Inkscape (shout out Free Open Source software) and laser cuts batches of them out of laser-safe scrap plywood. These get painted and stuck in the ground with our plants. As a bonus bit of fun the Hackspace embroidery machine is used to produce group mission patches.

I have high hopes that our small band of merrymen will sow flora aplenty over the coming seasons, spreading joy to the good people of Nottingham and endowing multitudinous pollen for the good bugs of the same.■

Written by Parsnip
Audio Reading by Aces

Read More

/

1st October 2024
Anarchism's Least Wanted: Organizing In conservative Regions| Spindrift

This essay is dedicated to all those who say to us “Why bother? It’s hopeless. Just move away to a more progressive state.”

Read More
16th September 2024
Organise Developments into 2025| Editorial

Hello subscribers, readers, everyone, apologies that it's been some time since we gave a general update and have in fact quite quiet in general. Hopefully the following addresses the reasons why and what we intend to do about it.

Read More
6th September 2024
New Ways To Nurture Fire | Theory

A few months ago, I came across a funny anecdote in this article summarising police surveillance against Black Anarchist jailhouse lawyer and radical educator, Martin Sostre & his partner and comrade Geraldine Robinson. It described a peculiar scene during a three day riot in Buffalo, New York against police brutality starting on the 27th of […]

Read More
3rd September 2024
Hull: Standing Against Hate | Reportback

After the chaos of the racist rally-turned-riot on Saturday 3rd August, further action had to be organised. Us anti-fascists were heavily outnumbered and had to flee, leaving the rioters to terrorise the city into the night. The following week passed as a fever. As in other cities, leaked screenshots from a group chat showed plans […]

Read More
5th August 2024
Preston: A Day Out at the Protest | Reportback

Protests are not always this light, and not everyone will have had such a positive experience this Saturday. Our intention is to show that activism can be a productive and joyful experience in these contested times

Read More
5th August 2024
Hull: Countering the Far Right | Reportback

"... The organisers wanted to achieve an obviously Right-wing, but dignified protest ... they ended up on drunken, deranged riots, causing a lot of damage to the city that won’t disappear quickly. I think most of the general population are afraid and horrified."

Read More
1 2 3 44