Have you seen some of the amazing Easter Garden ideas around the internet? I love these beautiful gardens, but I also love simplicity. I like it when I can create something from what I have around the house.
Use your Easter garden to help visualize the story of Jesus’ burial and his resurrection. A lovely thing to do on Easter morning is to be able to roll the stone away from your Easter garden tomb and find it empty, just like Mary did in the Bible. You could also let your children play and act out the story if they have something to use as the figures.
Read or listen to the whole Easter story found in the Bible or use a children’s book, here are my favourite Easter books this year.
When to Start an Easter Garden
I find it works best if you start three to four weeks before Easter so that you have time for the seeds to sprout and be somewhat grown by Easter morning.
Materials needed to Create an Easter Garden
- Soil or compost
- A shallow tray
- Egg shells or a small plant pot
- Seeds (grass seeds work well, but anything you have on hand works)
Other things you could add on:
- Stones or sand
- A largish stone to cover the front of the tomb
- A cross or three made out of what you’ve got on hand such as sticks and twine, lolly sticks and glue, or pipe cleaner
Build your Easter Garden
Fill your tray with a shallow layer of soil. Create a tomb somewhere on the tray using a plant pot on its side or an eggshell. Add a bit more soil over the top of the tomb if you like. Sprinkle some fast-growing seeds over the soil (grass seed works well) and press them gently into the soil. Moisten with water often, a misting spray bottle works great and is easy for children to control.
That is the basic garden, add a largish stone in front of the tomb and decorate it with a cross, small stones, sand and toy people to represent Jesus and others that were at the tomb.
When your children have learned the story of the tomb, ask them what else they would add to represent the story.
A similar idea is to create a no grow garden like this one.
