All the little gardeners and those who love to have greenery in their house, today’s craft is related to gardening and that also in a potato. Though it will not last, as life expectancy is merely a month, you can still see your little plants growing from scratch, right in front of your eyes in this potato. Perhaps many of you may have tried with pearl millets (bajra) which grow easily and have simple straight leafy blades, however, we will be making our craft with mustard seeds, the leaves of which are small and heart-shaped so it looks pretty cool.

You can try this craft but do take your mum onboard first.

Things you need:

1. One large potato

2. Half teaspoon of mustard seeds

3. One inch cotton wool ball (flattened)

4. Water to spray

Directions:

1. Ask your mum to cut the top of a potato vertically, as in picture 2. You can do it vertically or horizontally, but just remember, you don’t have to cut in half, it should be one inch deep from the top.

2. Scoop out the flesh of potato with a spoon, see picture 3.

3. Your potato should be hollow in the centre to hold the cotton wool, as in picture 4.

4. Put cotton inside evenly. Picture 5.

5. Now take a pinch of mustard seeds and scatter on the cotton, leaving no space. Picture 6.

6. Spray water (if you don’t have spraying bottle you can gently drip water with your fingers, remember don’t over water. Picture 7.

7. Put the potato at a place where it is not directly under the sun, but it gets a little daylight.

8. Remember you have to spray or drip water every day. If you find it very dry by night, spray again.

9. After four or five days, you will notice little leaves protruding from the seeds, as in picture 8.

10. After eight days, your potato will grow a cute bush of mustard plants, a little wonder in itself. You can keep this indoor garden anywhere in the house and don’t stop watering.

Published in Dawn, Young World, May 27th, 2017