How to Grow a Crystal Garden with Salt and Water

Create beautiful salt crystals at home using simple kitchen ingredients for a fun family science experiment.

1. What You'll Need. Gather these simple supplies: table salt, hot tap water, a clear glass jar or container, a wooden spoon for stirring, string or pipe cleaners, a pencil, and food coloring if you want colored crystals. You'll also want a magnifying glass if you have one to get a closer look at your crystals as they grow.
2. Make Your Salt Solution. Fill your jar about halfway with hot tap water. Start adding salt one spoonful at a time, stirring after each addition until the salt dissolves completely. Keep adding salt until no more will dissolve and you see salt settling at the bottom. This is called a saturated solution. If you want colored crystals, add a few drops of food coloring now.
3. Create Your Crystal Garden Base. Take your string or pipe cleaner and tie one end to a pencil. The string should hang into the jar but not touch the bottom. If using pipe cleaners, you can twist them into fun shapes like flowers or spirals. Lower the string or pipe cleaner into the salt water, then rest the pencil across the top of the jar so the string hangs freely.
4. Wait and Watch. Place your jar in a quiet spot where it won't be bumped or moved. Within a few hours, you should start seeing tiny crystals forming on your string. Over the next few days, these will grow larger and more crystals will appear. Check on your garden daily and observe how the crystals change shape and size.
5. Care for Your Crystal Garden. Don't move or shake your jar while crystals are growing. If the water level gets low, carefully add more hot salt water using the same ratio as before. Your crystals will continue growing as long as there's salt in the water. The process can take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks for full growth.