HOW TO MAKE AN EASTER GARDEN

 

1. FILL A  SHALLOW TRAY WITH POTTING SOIL, or dirt from your yard.  Planter bottoms used to catch water from potted plants work well for this. 100 yen stores sell many different sizes and colors. If you are afraid of bugs coming in with the dirt from the yard, bake at 200 F. (100 C) for 2 hours (but NOT in the plastic tray!).

 

1. GRAVE OPTIONS:

-plastic cup or can put on it’s side and piled on top with dirt forms a grave. If the dirt won’t stay where you want it, moisten with some water so it clumps together.

-planter pot that looks like stone, turn it on it’s side so the hole for the plant becomes the entrance to the grave.

 

3. GRAVE STONE OPTIONS:

-Find a round stone big enough to cover the mouth of the grave when you are out on a walk, or

-make one out of a modeling compound such as Hearty or Sculpy, -mix vermiculite and plaster of paris and put in a mold the size and shape you want (Follow manufacturer’s instructions.)

 

2. CROSSES:  Pick up sticks and make crosses. It is probably easiest to fasten on the cross pieces by tying it on with thread or twine. Then poke the crosses into a “hill” in the background. Just be sure to make the vertical sticks quite a bit longer than typical crosses because the bottom 3 inches or so of the stick has to be poked into the dirt to make it stand up..

 

3. GROUND COVER OPTIONS:

-Cover the dirt with moss or

-sod--it doesn’t take much, so you might want to share with a friend, or just dig up a couple of feet from a corner in your lawn

-grass seed. Just be sure to start making the garden early enough for it to sprout, and be sure to keep it watered and that it gets enough sun.  

-sheet moss--sold at a craft stores. Sheet moss should not be watered--keep it dry, and you can use it year after year

-bare dirt-- is probably more realistic. Be sure to save the bag the dirt came in so you have something to put the dirt back into after Easter, to store it till the next year.

4. STONE PATH: Make a path of stones leading to the mouth of the grave.

5. FLOWERS AND “TREE” OPTIONS:  

-small potted flowers and plants that look like trees

-flower seeds--you have to start early if you want them to bloom in time for Easter!

-cut flowers from your yard, and put them in a small glass jar embedded in the dirt. Just replace each time they begin to wilt.

 

Hint: most potted flowers need more light than you can get from a window, so if you want the plants to keep flowering over the course of several weeks, you can put the whole thing out in the yard while the kids are at school. In this case, you may want to use 2 planter bottoms--the bottom one can always be kept inside, while the top one can be taken inside and out. The reason--drill drain holes in the top layer so that it doesn’t drown the plants if it happens to rain. Then you can bring it back inside to nest in the bottom layer, and don’t have to bother with wiping off the bottom of the large heavy tray. Can you guess why I came up with this?