Hello! I'm an artist/sculptor and have been playing around with an idea for growing wildflowers from the surface of an outdoor clay sculpture. I'm not an experienced grower of anything so the only references I have to make this work is Chia Pets and these "seed bombs" that are popular amongst guerilla gardeners.
I want the structure to be hollow unfired clay with a layer of seed-compost-clay over it. The inside could be hold water and keep the outside moist enough. I don't mind the structure decaying over time but I'm afraid of the seed layer just slipping off. I'd love to work up to full sized, vertical human figures so the plants would be growing out of a 90 degree surface.
The variable I'm most worried about is what flower/flowers to use. The seed layer needs to have enough clay to hold in the rain and enough compost/loaminess to allow roots to grow.
Any ideas/tips/suggestions are great, especially about wildflower species (Hardiness 7, I live in north/central NJ). I'd like to experiment inside for the fall and winter and have some structures ready to go for the spring.
