Rum Balls -- Not!

Clay pellets with various kinds of seeds embedded within them are a viable way to plant areas that are too wet for walking or otherwise not accessible to the person doing the planting. 

Generic, clumping cat litter.  I think I paid $5 for twenty pounds.  Mix the seeds with the dry litter mix.  Add appropriate inoculant if the seeds require it.  Mixed 2 part clumping cat litter to 1 part water makes a good stiff clod.  I used 16 ounces (by weight) of cat litter and 8 ounces (by volume) of water.

The clods were very sticky after hand rolling.  This is the flour-corn meal mix I dredged tomorrow's pot roast through before searing.  I dusted the clods with this to make them easier to handle.  Waste not, want not.

This particular project involves planting native, tall grass prairie  species into a sod of Smooth Brome Grass.  I chose a vigorous perennial sunflower (Helianthus maximiliani) and a vigorous nitrogen fixing plant (Astragalus canadensis).  I also got permission from the land owner so it is not technically "guerrilla gardening".  These clods are about one ounce (30 grams) each and I will fling them with my ball thrower.

And I wonder why I never get invited to Christmas parties.

I found that I needed to squish the "Rum Balls" into slightly pancaked shapes (like blood cells), otherwise they rolled down the slope all the way to the bottom.  The corpuscules did not roll.  God willing, some of the 48 Rum Balls that I planted today will grow.