He’s not quite advocating seed bombs, but in this 1908 gardening magazine article, Thomas McAdam urges readers to join “The Roadside Gardening Club” (a fraternity without officers or dues) to help restore some of the disappearing local plant-life. Here’s an excerpt:
“All we ask is that in your leisure time this year, you spend the equivalent of one day’s time in beautifying one portion of the roadway that you use daily. You can become a member of the Roadside Gardening Club if you move one native tree to the roadside, or three bushes or six vines or two dozen perennials of one kind, or sow one ounce of seeds in such a way as to form a permanent, self-supporting colony.”
McAdam was way ahead of the sustainability curve.
“If you will write me…I will send you without charge any interesting news or help I get; tell you the Latin names of any of the plants mentioned below and where you can see pictures of them; explain how you can get seeds of native plants cheaply by the ounce or pound; and show you how you can get plants in quantity of any desirable variety that has been exterminated from your neighborhood.
In return I ask two favors: first, that you send me a stamped, self-addressed envelope for reply; second, that you send me for publication any photographs that will help the cause, preferably a picture showing “a colony established by yourself.”
In the early 20th century, folks in the U.S. were (already) panicking about nature, vanquished and vanished from their lives. And McAdam was (already) seeking a solution with “no bulky committees and no red tape.”
Enter, Guerrilla Gardeners.
Thomas McAdam. “Join the Roadside Gardening Club Now – a new fraternity that has neither dues nor officers and only one aim, viz., to make every foot of your daily walk or drive delightful the year round without expense.” The Garden Magazine. Vol 7. No. 6. July 1908. 322-323
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