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Spring Garden Centerpiece Craft

Spring Garden Centerpiece Craft

Total Time afternoon or evening Ages all-ages

This centerpiece is anything but garden-variety.

What you'll need

  • Potting soil
  • Aluminum foil tray
  • Shade-mix grass seed
  • Water
  • Clear plastic bag or plastic wrap
  • Butter knife
  • Popsicle sticks
  • Scissors
  • Glue
  • Acrylic paint
  • Green pipe cleaners
  • Stems of artificial foliage
  • Artificial vines
  • Wire tendrils
  • Disposable pie plate
  • Bamboo skewers
  • Nuts
  • Fabric strips
  • Mini straw hat
  • Tacky glue

How to make it

Spring Garden Centerpiece step 1

1. Pour potting soil into an aluminum foil tray (ours is 11 by 16 inches), patting it down flat.

Spring Garden Centerpiece step 2

2. Sprinkle on a generous layer of shade-mix grass seed, then cover the seeds with a light layer of soil, pressing it down gently.

Spring Garden Centerpiece step 3

3. Water the soil, then loosely cover the tray (do not seal) with a clear plastic bag or plastic wrap. Check your garden regularly and remove the plastic when you see the first sprouts. Keep the soil lightly and evenly moist, and you should have a tray full of grass within 3 weeks.

Spring Garden Centerpiece step 4

4. Use a butter knife to remove the grass from a small section of the tray and replace it with a layer of fresh potting soil.

Spring Garden Centerpiece step 5

5. Install a Popsicle or craft stick picket fence. To make each section, use scissors to trim the tops of 7 sticks (a parent's job), then lay them in a row, with equal space between them. Glue two uncut sticks across them. Once the glue has dried, turn over the sticks and glue two more across the back. When dry, paint the fence with white acrylic paint.

Spring Garden Centerpiece step 6

6. Set the finished fence sections in the soil and fill your garden with tiny vegetables, miniature gardening tools, and a scarecrow.

7. Scarecrow: Use tacky glue to secure two sticks and a walnut together, as shown. Wrap the figure with fabric strips for a shirt and overalls. Glue on yarn hair and a mini straw hat (available at craft stores).

8. Radishes: Paint hazelnuts white and red, then glue on green pipe cleaner stems.

Carrots: Paint Brazil nuts orange, then glue on stems of artificial foliage.

Watermelons: Paint pecans in shades of green. Add artificial vines and wire tendrils.

Squash: Paint almonds in hues of yellow and orange, then glue on artificial vines.

9. Tools: Cut shovel and hoe blades from a disposable pie plate and glue them onto trimmed bamboo skewers.

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