Seed-bombing as recuperative pedagogies: Activating wit(h)nessing in blasted landscapes

The practice of seed-bombing, or guerilla gardening, has its roots in radical environmental activism. As a community-generated response to ecological degradation and capitalist ruins by way of development and gentrification of city spaces, seed-bombing as it is commonly practised involves the subversive dispersal of seeds in an attempt to beautify or reclaim spaces otherwise perceived as unsightly or damaged. In this article I think with common worlding and Louise Boscacci’s word-concept wit(h)nessing to explore the possibilities for seed-bombing with young children as a practice of enacting recuperative pedagogies in landscapes shaped, in part, by the ongoing global waste crisis. I draw on moments from practice in a walking-based, post-qualitative inquiry with young children at a former quarry and landfill to explore recuperative pedagogies through the culminating pedagogical gesture. I suggest seed-bombing as an act of thinking and doing recuperation in blasted landscapes, one not limited to a singular event, but a cross-temporal attunement to children's waste relations with particular futures in mind.