Learn how to grow your own grass for Easter baskets from Taryn at Wooly Moss Roots. A wonderful, kid-friendly project with beautiful results. And check out our Easter Collection for creative basket ideas!
Children can participate in this entire process; it's a great hands-on project. I think many children enjoy how tactile it is. And it's great to have another excuse to get your hands dirty and dig in the soil!
To make your spring baskets, first choose your baskets. Look for baskets that are rounded on the bottom because the shape makes for such wonderful, grassy nests. I cover our baskets with aluminum foil because I want to keep using our baskets afterward. You can skip the aluminum foil, but know you might not be able to use your basket for anything else in the future, except planting. You would also need to water your baskets in a place where you didn't mind the water running out; the aluminum foil keeps that from being an issue. We like to keep our baskets inside to water them every day and watch them grow.
Next, cover the bottom of the aluminum foil with some slightly damp potting soil. Cover the soil thickly with a layer of wheat berries so that plenty of grass will grow.
After the layer of wheat berries, cover with another layer of soil. For the watering, we like to use spray bottles. You can get the soil nice and damp, but are less likely to overwater (there are no drainage holes, after all). Children love to be able to spray their basket every day; it's fun!
We typically have our baskets in the vicinity of the wood stove, where the windows are, so the soil can dry out a lot faster from the extra warmth, and needs to be watered more regularly. The temperature and humidity of where you keep your basket will determine how quickly your soil will dry out and how often you'll need to water it.
It's so fun to see the first, green shoots popping up and then to watch the grass grow day by day!
