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a fan-shaped seed kit breaks down into the garden bed

Created for a windowsill or small patch of shared ground, this Terra Seeds kit looks closer to a piece of molded earth than a conventional seed kit. Designed by Tom Fosbery at Shenkar College of Engineering, Design and Art, the Green Concept Award project proposes a planting tool that arrives without the usual plastic tray or disposable packet, using the body of the product itself as both carrier and growing medium.

The project is aimed at urban gardeners and families who want to plant with fewer tools and less waste around the process. Each fan-shaped unit is made from compressed local soil, tapioca starch, nutrients, and seeds, forming a small biodegradable piece that can be placed straight into the ground. Once watered, the unit breaks down fully, feeds the surrounding soil, and supports germination from within the same material that held it together.

terra seeds packages growth in compressed earth

Tom Fosbery’s design for Terra Seeds begins with a simple material question: what would happen if the seed packet could become part of the planting process itself. Instead of separating packaging from use, Terra Seeds folds storage, handling, and growth into one dissolving object. The tapioca starch binds the compressed soil during transport and handling, then softens with moisture as the seeds begin to sprout.

The fan shape gives the unit a distinct visual identity while keeping the act of planting easy to read. Its ridged form can be held between the fingers, set into soil, and covered by hand, making the instructions almost physical. For gardeners with little experience, that directness carries weight. The product explains itself through touch.

tom fosbery designs for waste-free planting

At Shenkar, Fosbery developed Terra Seeds through an ecological design approach that looks closely at how small consumer objects leave traces after use. Conventional seed kits often come wrapped in plastic, paper inserts, labels, and containers that outlast the growing season by years. Here, every part of the object is meant to return to the ground, leaving the plant as the only remaining presence.

The use of local soil gives the proposal a material closeness to its intended setting. It suggests a planting kit made from the ground it will enter, instead of a universal product shipped as a sealed container of parts. That relationship between material and use gives Terra Seeds its strongest quality. The design feels modest in scale, though its logic reaches beyond gardening.

biodegradable design for a garden bed

The project also points to a shift in how sustainable product design can work at a domestic scale. Many eco-minded products focus on replacing one packaging material with another, while the object’s basic use pattern stays the same. Terra Seeds changes that pattern by asking the package to perform a biological role once its retail function is finished.

There are practical questions that would shape any future production, from shelf life to humidity during storage. Those details would decide how the units travel, how long they remain stable, and how they behave across climates. As a concept, though, Terra Seeds makes its argument through a clear loop: the object is bought, planted, dissolved, and absorbed into the same ground it helps bring to life.