With Easter just a few weeks away, it’s time to start thinking about this year’s Resurrection Garden! The kids and I look forward to this every spring, so we thought we’d share this little tutorial with you. Enjoy!
There is no Easter centerpiece that shouts “HE IS RISEN” quite the way a Resurrection Garden does! This is such a beautiful and intentional activity to do with kids leading up to Easter. It’s sure to be a favorite activity for the holiday, plus it’s as easy to grow as it is beautiful! Forget blowing eggs (yuck), this green-thumb Easter project is far less messy and time consuming.
Best of all, this table-top garden keeps Jesus’ resurrection at the center of the Easter celebration; a living, growing reminder of God’s mercies to us. And our kids will see, even as their little gardens grow, that these mercies truly are new every morning.
What you need to grow your own Resurrection Garden:
- large garden pot or bowl with optional base
- potting or seedling mix
- chia, millet, or clover seeds (or a mixture)
- a small terracotta pot, glass jar, or other “tomb”
- spray bottle
- a stone to roll in front of the “tomb”
- optional: moss, pebbles, cross(es), little animals, “He is RISEN!” banner/sign
Resurrection Garden Tutorial
For best results, sow two to three weeks before Easter Sunday
1.) If using a ceramic bowl, line with parchment paper or a plastic bag, cut to size
2.) Fill with seedling mix.
3.) Nestle a “tomb” into the landscape.
4.) Cover the tomb with potting mix, packing as needed.
5.) Generously sprinkle seeds (pictured is a mixture of white clover and chia) all over the surface and top dress with a dusting of soil.
6.) Spray well until all soil is damp to the touch.
7.) Place in a sunny window and keep moist by spraying whenever needed. Make sure it doesn’t dry out.
8.) Leading up to Easter, or on Good Friday:
- Cover the tomb with the stone.
- Add *optional little animal figures and moss to any bare spots.
- Consider singing a hymn as a family, such as “Jesus Paid it All” or “Nothing but the Blood of Jesus.” Click here for our printable Easter hymns.
9.) The Eve of Easter Sunday: add *optional flowers in celebration of Christ’s resurrection.
10.) On Easter Sunday:
- Roll the stone away with your children and shout “He is RISEN!”
- Consider reading the resurrection story.
- Consider singing “Christ the Lord is Risen Today.” Click here for our printable Easter hymns.
11.) Use your Resurrection Garden as the centerpiece for your Easter feast.
“But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared.
And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb,
but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.
While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men suddenly stood near them in dazzling clothing;
and as the women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, ‘Why do you seek the living One among the dead?
‘He is not here, but He has risen. Remember how He spoke to you while He was still in Galilee,
saying that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.’ ”
-Luke 24: 1-7
Thank you for reading! Please share with another family, and if you do this project with your kids, I’d love to hear how it goes!
Love, ~Candace Arden~
