Make your own grass-head plant friends

Materials

• Pair of tights (any colour will do). You can also use knee high pop socks
• Potting mix (wear a mask and wear gloves when adding this)
• Grass seed
• Rubber bands or string
• Bits and pieces such as googly eyes, felt, pipe cleaners (to make the face)
• Craft glue or glue gun (the glue must be waterproof)
• Something for your plant person to sit in, such as a small plant pot or a decorated tin can

Instructions

1. Cut a 15-18 cm piece of the tights, including the toe. Sit the toe end of the tights in a small bowl or a mug and stretch the open end over the edges– this will make it easier to fill. The toe end will be the top of the head.  

2. Add 2 to 3 teaspoons of grass seed to the tights. Fill the rest of the space with potting mix and tie it closed. Don’t cut off the extra length of tights once you have tied it. Use your hands to gently mould the ball into a head shape.

3. You can make a bulbous nose or ears by grabbing a bit of stocking and twisting. Fasten the base of the nose with some thread or a small rubber band.

4. Sit the head in your chosen container with the grass seed side on top. Add googly eyes, a pom-pom nose, pipe cleaner eyebrows – whatever you like!  Attach with craft glue or a glue gun, but make sure it’s waterproof as you’ll be watering your plant friend.

5. When you’ve perfected your plant friend, water them until the soil is moist. Place in a warm location. Keep an eye on it to make sure the soil stays moist (if it’s drying out quickly you can keep a reservoir of water in your container). In about 5 days, your plant friend’s hair will begin to sprout!

A full head of hair takes 3-4 weeks to grow, and it might start to go bald after about 6 weeks!  

Once the hair has grown, you can give them a haircut, or just let it go wild! You could have a competition with friends and family to see who can grow the longest plant people hair! Or you could create a whole family of plant friends.