Seed Bombs, Distributed through old gumball machines. Brilliant!
Candy machines repurposed to vend garden seeds. Who thinks of these things?? Brilliant!
Los Angeles-based Common Studio, Greenaid, has coined the term “guerrilla gardening” and is targeting many forgotten grey spaces of the urban world, including sidewalk cracks, vacant lots and parking medians. Toward that end, it has reclaimed a series of old, quarter-operated candy machines and converted them instead for use selling seed bombs—mixtures of clay, compost and seeds that can be thrown anonymously into derelict urban sites to (temporarily) reclaim and transform them.
Sort of like humans finding a way to take on the role of ancient Bison, I suppose – with less fuss and mess.
Greenaid invites business owners, educators and concerned citizens to purchase a machine—pricing is about USD 400 each, with potential income generation of between USD 1,000 and USD 2,000 per year. Greenaid will then develop a seed mix and a strategic neighborhood intervention plan in response to the unique ecologies of the particular area. The purchaser can then simply place the machine at a local bar, business, school, park or wherever it seems likely to have the greatest impact. Greenaid supplies all the seed bombs needed to support the ongoing success of the initiative.
Common Studio explains: “Greenaid is equally an interactive public awareness campaign, a lucrative fundraising tool, and a beacon for small scale grass roots action that engages directly yet casually with local residents to both reveal and remedy issues of spatial inequity in their community.”
Similar in many ways to Anthropologie’s recent initiative featuring seed bombs produced by Cincinatti studio VisuaLingal, Greenaid is currently focused on its hometown of LA. One to partner with or emulate in other parts of the urban world?
Website: www.thecommonstudio.com/index.php?/project/greenaid/
Contact: info@thecommonstudio.com
Christine Haskell
