If you
love Christmas, gardening, upcycling, and keeping the kids busy – you’ll be
popping over this project! December is about abundance, but sadly a lot of this
is waste too. So, dear gardeners, let’s play our part in reducing, recycling,
and remembering that we can incorporate a little green in everything. Instead
of the usual cracker filled with plastic nonsense, which ends up in the bin,
imagine an upcycled cracker filled with veggie, herb, and flower seeds to plant
for summer! Hooray! Get the kids on board and let’s make eco seed crackers for
Christmas.
Get cracking
For this
DIY project, you will need:
Some empty
toilet rolls
A few pieces
of tissue paper
Used ecp wrapping
paper
Twine/string/ribbon/elastic
bands
A pair of
scissors
Light duty
glue
Colouring in
goodies
Seeds to
plant
After the
cracker has been cracked, you will need:
Soil and
compost
Some sweet
sunshine and water
Selecting seeds
Give your
guests something meaningful to take home after Christmas lunch with a stunning
selection of summer seeds for you to choose from:
Full sun,
summer veggies: Broccoli, brussels sprouts, capsicum, cucumber, brinjal, sweet
melon (spanspek), pumpkin (flat boer), spinach, tomatoes, and watermelon.
Full sun, summer
herbs: Catnip, chamomile, chives, coriander, dill, fennel, garlic, paprika,
rocket, and sage.
Full sun,
summer flowers: Alyssum, black-eyed Susan, chrysanthemum, cosmos,
forget-me-not, helichrysum, marigold, nasturtium, petunias, and sunflowers.
Elves at work
Green
fingers at the ready! It’s time to assemble our crackers:
Wrap your
selected seeds inside a few pieces of toilet paper or tissue. Tie them up with
a piece of string. Set aside.
For a
personal touch and the enjoyable element of surprise, decorate the toilet roll
according to what seed is inside. Kids can draw on veggies, herbs, or flowers
and decorate as desired. This also adds to the excitement as guests won’t know
what seeds they got until the cracker has popped and they behold your child’s
delightful loo roll artwork.
Cut your
leftover wrapping paper so that the length is double that of the toilet roll.
Cover the
toilet roll with your wrapping paper, making a sort of tunnel. Secure the
wrapping onto the body of the toilet roll with a little glue.
Place your
seed bundle inside the decorated toilet roll.
There should
be enough wrapping paper left on both sides of the toilet roll for you to twist
on each end, forming the shape of a traditional cracker.
Twist the
ends of the overlapping wrapping paper against the ends of the toilet roll and
secure with string around the twisted parts.
Once you have
cracked the cracker, guests can then reveal their seed surprises and compliment
your child’s fantastic decorating skills! This will make kids feel proud and
recognised as important contributors to Christmas lunch, while also getting
everyone engaged in a meaningful gardening conversation! Another win for Mother
Nature!
Our green
Christmas doesn’t stop there. You can also use the toilet paper roll as your
seedling tray for the new babies. Top it up with some soil and compost, place
your seed inside, sprinkle a little water and seal with a kiss from the sun.
There’s always an opportunity to go green and get kids in on the action too. Having everyone around the Christmas table applauding their hard work and discussing their creation is a fantastic way to reward their growing green fingers. Give your guests something meaningful to take home and let’s ditch the plastic this festive season.