Painted Egg Shell Garden!

April showers bring May flowers, right?

I'm always looking for ways to bring the outdoors inside as a way to freshen up a dreary spell or a cold season. When Spring rolls around, I get anxious to do some planting and bring in fresh flowers, but we don't have a square foot of real dirt to our name living in a Boston apartment, so every Spring, I like to do some "mini planting" inside tiny pots--eggshells! I call this my Painted Egg Shell Garden.

This project ties together a lot of seasonally beautiful things: eggs, flowers, and bright colors. It brings the outdoors in, so that you can enjoy a tiny bit of green when you have limited counter space and minimal time. Plus, you can do this whole project for under $5!

Choosing a variety of eggs can make it fun. You can try different sizes and shades of white and brown. Crack a small chip in the top and shake out the yolks, and try this on a day you're in the mood for quiche!

Try to keep the openings small so that you have more shell to paint. Seed packets and potting soil should be really easy to find this time of year. I found these seeds for $.25/envelope and this huge bag of potting soil for $1! Thank you, dollar store.

Take note of the "days to germinate" on the back of your packets if you're interested in having sprouts at the same time. I tried to gather a variety of seeds that germinate in 6-10 days. You know, using egg shells as plant starters for larger gardens is actually a really smart idea. The shells contribute calcium to the plant and soil, as well as other elements that make them a practical fertilizer.

Water daily, but only the amount you can squirt out of a medicine dropper. One year I planted grass seed, and I remember them sprouting quite quickly. My eggs had full heads of hair in a matter of days, and we gave each a face and a family member's name.

So here's one thing you should know if you're not a planter. You may get sprouts in a few days (and these seedlings are only about 2 weeks old), but you could be waiting months until you get flowers. I always try to have flowers by Easter, then forget that I should have planted them in January.

Regardless, the sprouts are friendly and a little green in the home is just so cute! You can use almost any paint you'd like on these shells. Tempera, acrylic, watercolors, etc...

Enjoy your mini indoor garden!