Every year we plant a garden. Every year I try to label everything, so we can remember when things come up, what they are. But it seems, every year, those darn markers get lost, broken, or just unreadable.
We have expanded our garden this year, fenced it in and built a gate to keep the chickens, children, ducks and dogs from running amuck. No more trampled or pecked plants! No more playing with garden markers! Now that’s not to say, the children will not be allowed in the garden, because they will, but this year I made garden markers they CAN’T loose. Move? Yes. Lose? No!!
We love including our country kids in planting and growing a garden. These are wonderful skills and memories to grow up with. We try to make our garden as “kid friendly” as possible, this means we don’t use harsh chemicals and fertilizers. But we also want to make it a magical, welcoming place. We have put in a brightly colored homemade hop scotch path through the garden for them, to encourage them to spend time in the garden. So, when it came to garden markers this year, I decided to go with the same bright colors, a much bigger size, and a little whimsy!
Your first step is to raid your local home improvement store. Sneak back to the paint department and grab a fist full of paint stir sticks and RUN! I’m just kidding! If you go to your local home improvement store and just ask, they will give you a bunch of paint stir sticks for free. I have used paint stir sticks in many projects and never had a store tell me I couldn’t grab a bunch. Sometimes, they even ask what I am making with them!
Once you have your stir sticks it is time to paint them. I went with bold colors that represented the plant that would grow….
Yellow – corn, sun flowers, and summer squash
Red – tomatoes and peppers
Brow – potatoes
Orange – pumpkins
Green – green beans, zucchini, watermelon, broccoli, onion, etc.
You get the point, right? Since I have younger children, I wanted them to be eye catching and relate to the plants, but you can use what ever paint scheme tickles your fancy!
It did take a couple coats of paint to cover the writing on the back of the paint sticks, but I think it was well worth it to make them look good from the front and the back. You could also use spray paint. which would cut down on the time it takes to paint them, but since I already had acrylic paint on hand, I used what I had. So far I had invest NO MONEY on this project!
When it came time to label the markers, I did buy some puff paint because the tip of the bottle would make it easier to write and I thought the texture of the puffed up paint would appeal to the kids.
What I didn’t know about the paint I grabbed, which was only a couple dollars, is that it was glitter! *smacks forehead* I thought this was going to be a disaster, but the boys loved that the markers sparkled, so I played it off like I totally planned it. *wink* The markers look ever more whimsical in the sun as the light plays off the glitter!
These markers are big, bold and totally fun! The go great with the hop scotch path we made a few years ago. And while my children may not necessarily want to eat the broccoli we planted, they will at least know where it is growing!
What a simple, but effective, idea! I'd have never thought to use paint stirrers to mark out my garden. I've always just relied on the tags that came with the plants. With 57 tomato plants in my garden this year, many of which were part of four and six packs, it made things a big confusing. LoL!
I love the bigger is better motto when it comes to garden markers LOL
very cool! Love the paint stirrer idea and it looks like it would be a fun arts & crafts project to do with the kids
We had a great time making them 🙂
I wish I had a garden to plant my veggies.
Lovely tips! Thank you for joining #WednesdaysWisdom.
You could always plant a container garden!
I love this idea – and I am so glad I am not the only person who forgets what I planted where!!
Your hopscotch path sounds like a terrific idea!
I like having fun in my garden, getting my boys involved 🙂
Oh they look great and I love the colour co-ordination! Thanks for sharing with us at #WednesdaysWisdom hope your crops thrive!
Well thank you!
Color coded markers! A brilliant idea that leaves me wondering why I hadn't thought of it earlier! Thanks for sharing!
So simple it was over looked? LOL
I love your sparkly plant markers! I've been using black plastic ground cover in my garden the last few years to keep the soil warmer and reduce weeding. I found that a silver Sharpie will write directly on the plastic- even if it gets a bit dusty. So my tomato and pepper row has each variety written right beside the plant. I'm using painted $.49 bricks that i painted white to label my perennial plants.
Neat idea with the sharpie!!
These are a colourful addition to the garden! Thanks for sharing with us at Over the Moon.
Easy to spot!
Those are really cute! We are looking into starting a garden this year and this would be awesome to remember what everything is 🙂
I love mine, hope you enjoy gardening as much as we do!
What a fantastic idea! I will definitely be trying this 🙂
Hope you have fun!
Very clever use of paint sticks! Thank you for sharing this week on the Art of Home-Making Mondays Mindie! 🙂
I love using paint sticks for everything but stirring paint! LOL
Wonderful idea. I love that they are large and easy to read.
Large and hard for my kids to lose! LOL
Aww…this is such a cute idea!
I would love for you to share this with my Facebook Group for recipes, crafts, tips and tricks: https://www.facebook.com/groups/pluckyrecipescraftstips/
Thanks for joining Cooking and Crafting with J & J!
Thanks for the invite
What a fun way to mark out the plants in your garden, and what a great project for kids! Thank you for sharing your Homemade Garden Markers with us at the Hearth and Soul Hop. I've featured your post this week!
Thank you for the feature!