How to Grow Easter Grass

How to Grow a Plate of Easter Grass (For the Cutest Easter Table Ever)

I’m going to show you how to make a really cool thing for your Easter table: a plate full of real Easter grass.

This is the perfect backdrop for Easter eggs your kids have decorated, Peeps, chocolate bunnies, or bowls of Easter candy. You could even do this project inside a lined Easter basket and make a little spring centerpiece.

Anyway, I’m just giving you the idea and the steps. You put your own spin on it.

What You Need

• A dish or two or three
• Potting soil or honestly any soil you can get your hands on. (I’ve done this with soil from dried out Christmas plants before.
• Grass seed of some sort

I’m used red winter wheat that I bought at the co-op three or four years ago. This stuff lasts forever. I wasn’t even sure if it was going to grow this time but it did.

If you can’t find winter wheat, or you don’t live near a food co-op with bins of grains like I do, just grab a little packet of grass seed from the hardware store.

I’ve never done that because I live in hippieville (I say this with affection, I’m the love child of OG hippies), but surely grass seeds will work for you.

How to Grow Easter Grass 

Start by putting about a half inch of soil in whatever dish you’re using.

Lightly dampen the soil. Ideally you’d use a little spray bottle, but I don’t own one of those, so I just used a cup of water and tried not to dump it all in one spot.

If your container has drainage holes, this part is easy. My dish was a serving plate with no holes, so I had to be a little careful not to drown the whole thing.

Next, scatter your grass seed evenly across the soil.

You don’t have to be super precise. Just try to cover most of the surface.

If I were doing it again, I’d use a few more seeds and leave less space between them. Mine came up a teensy bit sparser than I imagined, but it was still super cute.

After the seeds are scattered, sprinkle a very thin layer of soil on top. Just enough to lightly cover them so they can do their little germination magic.

Then give the top another very light spritz of water.

Seeds like damp soil, light, and warmth. They’re pretty low-maintenance that way.

Create a Warm Growing Environment

Once everything is planted, cover the dish with something clear to trap warmth and moisture.

Plastic wrap works great for this. If you’re in an anti-plastic household, wax paper would probably work too. You might just want to tape the edges down so it stays put.

The idea is to keep things warm while still letting light through.

You can put your dish near a sunny window, but it doesn’t have to be in direct sun. Just don’t stick it in a dark closet and expect miracles.

I kept mine next to a sunny window for the first couple of days because I was impatient and wanted it to get going. After that, I mostly left it on the kitchen table where it gets indirect light.

What Happens Next

Now you wait.

It may take a week or two before you have actual grass. Check on it every couple of days.

If things start looking a little moldy, take the plastic off for a bit and let some air in. My house is pretty damp, so that’s something I keep an eye on. If you live somewhere super dry like Colorado, you may not have that issue.

I use Colorado as my reference point because that’s where my son lives. By young son I mean twenty-three. And wow is it dry there.

At first it will look like absolutely nothing is happening.

Then you’ll check it one day and suddenly there are little green sprouts everywhere. A couple of days later you’ll have a whole plate of grass. It’s pretty cool.

Improvising With What You Have

If you don’t have plastic wrap or wax paper, don’t worry.

I ended up using one of those green plastic produce bags from the grocery store. The kind your lettuce comes in.

My plate was small enough that it fit right inside the bag, and that worked perfectly.

Once the Grass Grows

When the grass gets tall, you can trim it if you want.

Or you can leave it wild and grassy. Both look great.

Then decorate your plate however you like. Add dyed eggs, candy, little chocolate bunnies, Peeps, whatever makes you happy.

It’s a really fun thing to do with kids, too. I did this with my son when he was younger and he especially loved trimming the grass and making it look nice.

Also, if you have cats, they may handle the trimming for you.

My cat had a blast chomping on the grass yesterday. Oddly, he ignored it while it was sitting on the kitchen table, which is strange because normally he takes his meals on the kitchen table so he doesn’t appreciate clutter.

But once he noticed it, he was very interested.

If you have cats, they will think you are the best cat parent ever.

And honestly, isn’t that what we’re all striving for?