A living Easter basket - salad greens grown from seed in a plastic-lined basket as leafy cushion for eggs

Sunset, Spring-Summer, 1996 by Lynn Ocone

Plant one as a centerpiece, or plant several for gifts

Tender salad greens grow in the rustic basket pictured at left. Keep it in a kitchen window to harvest leaves for sandwiches. Or add a few eggs colored in natural vegetable dyes and you have an Easter basket for gift-giving or decoration.

The essential ingredient for this basket is a mix of salad greens known as mesclun. Many greens will germinate just a few days after planting, and you can start harvesting in two to four weeks. Create your own mesclun mix by using seeds of greens with favorite flavors, textures, and colors, or buy a premixed blend. For piquant flavors, try arugula, various chicories, mizuna, red mustard, and curly cress. Mellow and sweeten the mix with loose-leaf and romaine lettuces.

One mail-order source for ready-made mesclun mixes (or components you can blend yourself) is Shepherd's Garden Seeds, 6116 Highway 9, Felton, CA 95018; catalog is free.

PLANTING THE BASKET

Choose a sturdy basket that can support the weight of wet soil. Line the basket with 3-mil plastic cut from a heavy-duty trash bag; let the surplus drape over the top edge. With scissors or a large nail, poke drainage holes in the plastic. Fill the plastic-lined basket with a moistened, fast-draining potting mix, then trim the plastic to just below the rim.

Scatter mesclun seeds thinly over the soil surface (when blending your own mesclun, mix the different seeds together before planting). Cover the seeds with 1/4 inch of soil. Water, then keep the soil moist until the seeds sprout.

For quick germination and to keep the soil surface from drying, cover the basket with plastic until the seeds germinate.

CARING FOR THE BASKET

Once seeds sprout, place the basket in a sunny, frost-free outdoor location. Water regularly to keep soil moist. Feed weekly with a complete liquid fertilizer.

Harvest mesclun leaves when they are young, tender, and 3 to 4 inches long; cut about 1/2 inch above the soil surface. If the weather stays cool, you can have successive harvests before plants turn bitter.

RELATED ARTICLE: EARTHY EASTER EGGS

Onion skins and water make a great natural dye in muted brown and tan shades. When you combine the dye's earthy hues with simple plant shapes, you get eggs that perfectly complement the rough-hewn living Easter basket. Pick flat, pliant leaves that are no bigger than an egg. For each egg, center a leaf on a 4-inch square cut from a nylon stocking, and bind the square firmly around the egg by gathering the corners, pulling them tight, and tying them with string; a second pair of hands can help. The nylon will hold the leaf or other piece of vegetation firmly against the eggshell so that no dye will seep underneath.

Throw the skins of six yellow onions into a pot, then fill the pot with water and add 2 tablespoons of white vinegar to the mix. Bring the pot to a boil, and completely immerse the eggs; you may need to press them down into the onion skins with a spoon. Simmer them, uncovered, for about 20 minutes. Remove the eggs, and let them cool. Remove the nylon and leaves, and dry the eggs. Rub each egg with a light coat of olive or salad oil. Wipe the eggs dry, and buff them to bring out the highlights.

By Peter O. Whiteley, Chantell Cordova