Buy lots of seeds from local flowers and spread them on any possible patch of earth you can find in your city. In a period of time both people and animals will enjoy your deed. An idea from Philipp

add trees to that as well and plant a food forest!

you can get free seeds just about everywhere when you look for it on the internet. Guerilla gardening yeah!!!

It certainly is a brilliant idea. But if this idea becomes the winner, it can better be realised one or maybe two months later. March is not the best month to spread seeds and as winter comes late this year, spring may start not before april.

@Sara: Yes, maybe this idea could be combined with the "plant-a-tree-every-day" idea.

@Martine: I thought March was a good month for spreading seeds but probably you have more experiences. And winter certainly does come late this year. I would suggest that in case this ideas wins this months lottery to postpone it to April or May. Instead in March Maarten could take on the second idea.

@Philipp, sounds like a good possible solution, because it would be a pity to spread a lot of seeds when nothing will come out of it! Would be good food for the birds then though...

As long as the ground is not solid frozen, something will come out of it eventually. The seeds will germinate when it gets warmer. But it's nice to see progress a bit sooner maybe, although there are ways to make your progress visible by making photo's or a map that marks all your visited spots...
The actual result will show itself much later. This does have a point in itself: you do something but nature cannot be forced. It's also about trusting the laws of nature. One sows one reaps, in natures time. People always want instant result, but in a way we should learn that everything needs time and sometimes it's worth to wait. A bit like making the world a better place maybe?
Planting trees: you can stick a willowbranche into the ground anytime. It's bound to start growing at one point. Really fantastic.

also most seeds will be happier if they are placed a bit deeper down in the soil. so just spreading them would perhaps need to be refined by some easy digging?

I still love this idea and suggest you also give people a chance to participate in the execution of it if it wins? Like announcing when you will be going out to plant seeds so others can join you? You could also just bring seeds with you where ever you go, in case you see a place where they might be welcome?

Sure! The more people helping out the better. I guess first thing would be to find locations where the plants have space to grow and where there is the most chance that they won't be immediately cut down by the municipality.

Not just any seeds right? Organic, local, none gen modified seeds I hope. Maybe even try to find native forgotten ones which will rediversify your "fake" city roadside nature patch.

While you're preparing for this winning idea watch docu "The Future Of Food".
And maybe some extra info: http://youtu.be/XPFk4S1Q6vo

You can also buy special bee-seeds, a perfect mixture of flowers for bees to feed on. Since, as most of us know, the bees are not doing very well lately (in fact, they're pretty much dying!). This way, you can make the world a double better place.

www.bijenstichting.nl
http://www.vitexnatura.com/c-446121/help-de-honingbijen/

Ook: http://www.guerrillagardening.org/ en http://www.guerrillagardening.org/onguerrillagardening.html veel over te vinden, er zijn hele gemeenschappen. Ook op Twitter en Facebook.

En vandaag een handvol zakjes bijenzaad besteld online: ga ik binnenkort de bloemetjes buiten zetten :)

Wow, lots of nice tips.

One of my dads hobbies was being a beekeeper for a while and I was his little helper at the time. Enjoyed it a lot actually, even though at some point I looked like an astronaut because I didn't feel like getting stung anymore :-)

The dying of bees is indeed increasing a lot, already then we had a lot of problems with the Varroa mites, which are a large part of the problem. Sadly enough it's very difficult to treat your bees when they're infected. A lot of beekeepers use chemicals, but this can also contaminate your honey. And there isn't really a good healthy option found yet which gets rid of them, even though you can prevent it from getting worse.

So yes! :-) Spreading seeds which help the bees is a good idea for sure!!

@Philipp: since the long discussion in the 'find the maker of your t-shirt' idea evolved in an interesting way i am curious if we are able to get things more clear for this idea as well. Maybe we can convince each other to change our votes :)
I voted against this idea. Absolutely not because i dislike the idea of having flowers and plants allover the city, but because i doubt the effects of the idea in the end. Ofcourse a lot of people will appreciate it, but i wonder how it'll influence other peoples behaviour. I love ideas that have the power to create a domino effect or butterfly effect... An idea should not only have a outcome on itself but it should invite people to do the same.
This idea is guerilla gardening, a form of action that exists for a while... To make this idea spread, it needs something extra that makes it more inspiring.

Well, I got inspired by this discussion to help Bees as well and since then also got the local school (2 classes) involved: they will plant seeds and maybe even built Bee-hotels this spring. There will be a small project on bees in one class, so I'm very curious what the effect will be :) Shall I bring some seeds tomorrow to share?

Wow, nice Verena! What a great initiative! And seeds are of course very welcome, also since it's still unclear which idea will be number one. Anything can happen!!

Maybe we will know the most chosen idea not before the last minutes of february. The 'T-shirt-' and the 'flower' -idea are both good ideas in my opinion and they both will be a challenge for Maarten. I prefer the flower-idea: one of my hobbies was beekeeping and I like to work in my garden very much. But as I noticed in an earlier comment: I think it is still very early to spread seeds, not impossible of course.
If someones march-idea will be to spread seeds from local flowers and to plant trees, I will certainly vote on that idea. And if a lot of people do the same I think Maarten will have to work very hard in April, especialy if we supply him with seeds and ideas.

@ Bart & Verena: I agree this idea would be more complete if it would have a communal aspect to it. Seams like there are already initiatives (very impressive Verena!) coming up.

I came up with the idea because in modern cities green 'patches' are anyway rare and the ones that exist are so organized that there is not much natural about it. It's a monoculture which means all the grass is basically just one cloned species. Simple ecosystems, like monoculture lawns, support very few other species. In fact, lawns have been called biological deserts because of the lack of other species they support.
So spreading local seeds preferable of wild flowers will improve the habitat of insect. Insect are very important for a healthy environment not only because they are the base of any food chain.

Another aspect is the beauty of it. I think there is no human being that does not enjoy a blossoming flower. Maybe people even become more aware of the little nature that surrounds them.
I read an article recently which claimed: "Residents living in “greener” surroundings report lower levels of fear (...) and less aggressive and violent behavior."
(Does Vegetation Reduce Crime? FRANCESE.KUO and WILLIAMC.SULLIVAN)

This is all aiming very high. Probably the cities maintenance team will destroy it too quick for any insect come or flower to blossom but maybe not.

It's an experiment.

creating more biodiversity is a good thing to do, especially within cities. You fear that city maintenance teams will destroy the new plants and flowers. Why not try to convince the city council that they should let this plan go through? They might just cooperate, since it will not cost them money or effort.
In rotterdam we now have stadsinitiatief (http://www.rotterdam.nl/stadsinitiatief/). People can come up with ideas and vote, the winning idea gets quite a lot of money to execute the plan. Philipp's idea just fits in a program like this. This idea has the best chances if you try to cooperate with local politics, i guess.
I still have the feeling that this idea might not get the impact that some of the other ideas on this website have.