Easy Peasy Easter Project

April 4, 2012

Remember when you were a child and you used to do little experiments at school that were actually very simple, but at the time you thought they were totally amazing? One of my favourite’s was growing bean sprouts in cotton wool. I was so excited with those seeds started to sprout. Growing something from a scratch still excites me to this day, so I have been looking forward to Easter so I could pull out this DIY from my childhood…

A few months back I stumbled across Egglings. Naturally, I was smitten with the idea of ceramic eggs in which you could grow your own herbs and plants. It’s pretty much the most adorable idea ever! While the ‘real’ egglings are obviously a little more permanent, my little brother and I used to make something similar every year on the Easter holidays when we were kids.

You will need:

Egg shells (as many as you want to grow)

An egg carton to house your eggs while growing

A pin or sewing needle

Potting mix

Bean, grass or Herb Seeds (I used dwarf butter beans)

A piece of A4 paper

1. Step one should really be: make some breakfast. That’s what I did! Be careful to only crack the small end of the egg as shown, so that you still have 80% of the body intact. Rinse well. I wanted my eggs to be a whiter colour so I gave them a light coat with some matt spray paint. Once dried, I gently, using a pin, poked 4 - 5 holes for drainage.

2. Using a piece of paper folded in half, roll a funnel and carefully prop inside the egg shell. Then pour small amounts of dirt in through the funnel. You want to do this slowly and carefully so that your shell is mostly full of dirt but you do not crack the shell.

3. Poke a hole in the center of the soil with your finger and plant your seeds. If you are using larger bean seeds, you will only need one or two. If you are using small grass seeds use a few so that you will have many teeny sprouts.

4. Water well and place in a sunny spot to grow. Depending on the type of seeds you have used, your plants will take anywhere between 2-3 days up to a week to start sprouting. Lightly water daily, making sure the soil is moist, but not too wet.

Once your egglings have started to sprout you can place them where ever you like (still making sure they get plenty of light and water). Don’t worry if all of your seeds don’t sprout. Only 2 of the 3 egglings I planted actually sprouted properly. The ones that did, I popped them into some eggcups and now they are living happily on my kitchen window sill.