Project: Easter Garden

The Project - create a tiny Easter Garden, depicting an empty tomb! So cute, but very meaningful.

Pinspiration for our "Spring has Sprung" project. :)

My Aunt Q and I work together at Dept. of Corrections. One of our co-workers found this on Pinterest, made it herself, and then showed it to my Aunt. Then she and her family made one for themselves, and two more to give away as gifts. She showed me the project, and I was "pinterested" immediately!

She had leftover supplies, and so she brought me a bag to church on Sunday full of potting soil, tiny pebbles, a big rock, a little clay pot and the rye seed. All we had to get was the container to put it in, and we were set! (That ended up being quite a hassle actually, but finally found a good enough Terra-cotta tray at Hobby Lobby.) Last night was our weekly Family Dinner Night - and my Mama was doing a "Spring has Sprung" theme. What a perfect theme to incorporate this fun project!

Supplies: tray, potting soil, pebbles, tiny pot, rye
grass, twigs, twine (scissors), & a large stone .

We all began working on it after dinner, and everyone took turns helping and contributing to our project. A thin layer of soil goes first, followed by your little pot, then more soil in order to form a hill over the pot. Place little stones at the entrance of the tomb, and a big stone off to the side to look like it's been rolled away from the empty grave! However, one of us were particularly fond of the big rock we had, and we wished we could find a "better" one.

Papa jokingly suggested we leave and go find a new one, and we all jumped at the idea. It turned into a little scavenger hunt/competition - complete with deadline and everything. We left in teams (couples), drove around the neighborhood and surrounding Midtown, and all returned with our finds! Turns out it was a great idea, and we came up with some good options.

Testing out the options. Meg & Bo won the impromptu competition.

All that was left was to tie some twine around twigs to form the crosses. This was easy enough, but Jeff was definitely the best at it. Place your crosses at the top of the hill. (We made "Jesus' cross" a little larger than the other two.) Then simply throw the rye grass seed all over the soil. It doesn't have to be "planted" necessarily, but just scattered all around.

Jeff tying twine around twigs for the crosses.

We may have planted entirely too many rye seeds, but we'll have to wait to find out after they start sprouting in a few days. I plan to mist it with some water every morning, and hopefully get it outside every now and then for some real sunshine. Right now, we think it's super cute, and can't wait to see it once it starts turning more green! It was definitely a fun project, and was done in perfect timing for Easter in a couple of weeks.

Final project. At least for now until the grass finally grows! (We're not feeling very patient about that...)