This past summer saw our milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) come into their full potential: a 20 ft by 5 ft plot crammed full of of plants, and they blossomed like crazy, blessing our back yard with their terrific smell. And, while the Monarch butterfly egg laying I witnessed this past summer didn’t succeed (ants or some other predator nabbed the eggs) I was able to harvest nearly three cups of seeds — which is a lot of seeds!
To put this bounty to use I’ve been making “seed bombs”: compost and clay (aka plain, unscented kitty litter) along with a sprinkling of seeds, moistened slightly and pressed into balls, then left to dry.
Once hardened, the balls are ready to go on a “bombing run” — tossing them into suitable places. I only use them in appropriate places like powerline or pipeline cuts, roadside ditches that are already grown with plants, or vacant lots or nature parks. If I’m going somewhere, instead of taking the highway I’ll purposefully hit the back roads where I’m more likely to find such suitable homes for the seed bombs, tossing them out the car window as I motor past.
New England doesn’t have much vacant land, with subdivisions, strip malls and more having gobbled up just about everything, but usually along some secondary road I can find a railroad cut or high voltage power line crossing the road that is suitable habitat. A quick fling out the open window and hopefully in a couple of years there’s some more Monarch food available.
I’ve tossed somewhere between 800 and 900 so far, I have another 80-100 ready for the next excursion — and I haven’t used even 1/3 of the seeds I collected!
One wag called me “Johnny Milkweedseed”. I can live with that.
