How to make wildflower seed balls

Looking for something to keep the kids occupied this weekend? Seed balls are a really easy craft project and perfect for kids of any age, teaching them about gardening and plants and helping mother nature by targeting those hard to reach spaces in your garden.

All you will need is:

- Old paper (junk mail, old newspapers etc)

- Seeds 

- A bucket or bowl for soaking paper 

- A blender or food processor

- A colander/strainer

- A few bowls for mixing

Directions:

- Tear up or shred your paper, the smaller the pieces the better!

- Place your shredded paper into a bucket with enough water to soak the paper. The longer the paper is soaking the easier it is to blend!

- Place the torn paper into a blender about 1/3 full, then fill the blender with water to about 1 or 2 inches above the paper. NEVER let a child near a blender unsupervised. We prefer to let the adult do the blending while the kids watch!

- Blend until you have a pulp similar in consistency to oatmeal.

- Use your colander or strainer to get rid of most of the excess water, then transfer your pulp to a bowl.

- Add your seeds! You can pick whichever seeds you want, but it's always good to choose seeds which are native to your area. Pour them in and knead the mixture around, mixing them into the pulp.

- Take a small handful of the mixture and roll it into balls, repeating this step until you have used up all of the pulp mixture.

- Now you just need to leave them to dry! This can take longer than you think, sometimes up to three days, but placing them out in the sunshine or in an airing cupboard will speed up the process.

And there you have it! Your seed balls are ready to be planted. A craft project that's also great for the environment, what's not to love?!

Fun tip: You can add colour to your seed balls by using coloured paper or by adding a small amount of food colouring into your mixture.

Extra fun tip: You can flatten out the paper pulp and use cookie cutters to make fun shapes!