ABSTRACT
Introduction I have a vivid memory of a cold bike ride on February 27, 2012, with the Occupy Wall Street Sustainability Committee and several garden and cycling groups. We rode from Zuccotti Park up through some vacant lots throughout the Lower East Side. Borrowing a page from the Green Guerillas, we threw seed bombs into vacant lots along the way, sharing seeds (Guerrilla Gardening 2015). According to Rob Sproule (2015) seed bombing, also known as aerial reforestation, allows guerilla gardeners to hurl balls of compressed seeds and clay from bikes or cars. He regards seed bombs as a less risky, albeit less accurate, method of planting: ‘While its modern incarnation traces back to Liz Christy flying balloons full of tomato seeds over New York in 1973, its actual history goes back much farther’ (Sproule 2015). Falling, each seed clashed on the ground, mixing and colliding with the dirt while laying the groundwork for a new community garden, and by extension a different way of looking at the city. Each offered a new possibility for a spring which just might sprout something wonderful. Those taking part in the seed bomb ride were all invited to see urban lots as green spaces and the city as a sustainable space capable of regenerating itself.
