Create a Good Friday Garden: A Family Easter Activity

Create a Good Friday Garden! A family Easter Activity. It’s a tradition that points to Jesus and a hands on way to make memories together.

Create a Good Friday Garden: A Family Easter Activity

Both my grandfathers planted their gardens on Good Friday. We’ve adopted this tradition as well. The Good Friday garden.

And while it’s a good practice to wait until Good Friday because all danger of frost has past, we’ve discovered another significance.

A Good Friday Garden Points to Jesus

We talk about Easter. We pour that fresh soil into a flower bed. And a little finger makes a little hole for a sunflower seed. It’s then that we talk about Jesus. About the tomb and how it was closed up. Sometimes we talk about how dark it must have been in there. How the disciples must have felt on that Friday. And we talk about the seeds and how we place them down in the hole, in the darkness.

But then we focus on the promise. The promise of a risen Savior. The hope! The Son and the sun. And we anticipate those new garden sprouts.

Then, on that same afternoon as the planting, a youngest boy stops and he asks. He asks, “Where is my tree?” (Back when Middle Girl was born, we planted a maple tree. She was less than a month old and the tree was nothing but a tiny stick. Today, it is taller than her and we are very familiar with all the seasons of her backyard maple.)

Picking a Backyard Tree for Year Round Seasonal Nature Study

Lil’ Buddy, he asks, “Where is my tree?” and the answer comes to me immediately. “Which one would you like?” I ask. He thinks. And he surveys, the boy of four, he is.

And he chooses the tall pine tree next to the playhouse. I ask why he chose that one. “Because it is big and tall,” he says. Yes, and you are growing big and tall too, I say. And he is. Rather quickly.

And now we have yet another tree to watch and to notice through the seasons.

The anticipation of growing seeds and other gifts of Easter…

• Just simple little patches of growing things. Just enough to enjoy.
• Littlest Girl’s sunflower garden.
• A daisy patch relocated out of the mower’s path.
• Middle Girl’s squash and cucumber.

• Lil’ Buddy’s basil and pretty patch of grass from Sunday School.
• Zinnias, black-eyed susan.
• Containers of red geraniums and lime-green sweet potato vine.

A glorious Easter celebration!

More Easter and Garden Homeschool Activities

• Maybe your children would like to choose a tree and study it? We recommend the tree studies at Homeschool Nature Study.
• These beautiful Easter Nature studies are full of fun learning!
• Make a Wagon Garden with Nana
• April is National Garden Month! Explore more Garden Ideas for Your Homeschool
• We know you will love Nana’s nature art lessons – including her How to Plan a Garden Map and more in the You ARE an ARTiST Clubhouse!
• Have a Memorable Easter and Draw Your Way Through The Resurrection Story.

How does your garden grow?

-originally published April 2012 and updated April 2025