There's lots of ways to make recycled plant markers. I'm always baffled why you can buy them in the shops. Who would pay money for rectangular bits of plastic?
I've used yogurt pots, plastic milk containers, ice cream tubs, but this time I used an old margarine tub. You'll also need some scissors and a marker pen.
Cut down the sides of the margarine tub to get lots of short plant labels suitable for plant pots. If you want longer labels suitable for the garden or allotment, you could cut down one corner of the tub, then cut horizontally. Or you could use a bigger container to start with.
When you have made lots of vertical cuts, snip all your rectangles off along the bottom.
You can use the bottom of the tub, too. Just cut it into strips.
Trim one end of your label into a point to make it easier to push it into the earth.
Make sure you write with a permanent marker. It's really annoying if the plant names when you water them.
I've used yogurt pots, plastic milk containers, ice cream tubs, but this time I used an old margarine tub. You'll also need some scissors and a marker pen.
Cut down the sides of the margarine tub to get lots of short plant labels suitable for plant pots. If you want longer labels suitable for the garden or allotment, you could cut down one corner of the tub, then cut horizontally. Or you could use a bigger container to start with.
When you have made lots of vertical cuts, snip all your rectangles off along the bottom.
You can use the bottom of the tub, too. Just cut it into strips.
Trim one end of your label into a point to make it easier to push it into the earth.
Make sure you write with a permanent marker. It's really annoying if the plant names when you water them.
9 comments:
They're surprisingly expensive to buy too. When there are a lot of pots to mark, it's a boring old job to write them out - I wish the ink in my printer was waterproof; I'd do 'em straight on to small sticky labels. I have printed them on to paper, cut them out and stuck them down with sticky tape, which lasts until the plants are large enough to plant out, but it's still a lengthy process.
I do that too. It's a nice little job to do sitting in the sunshine in the back yard while you're having a cup of coffee.
I plan to be doing that any second now, although I don't plan to make plant markers today, but go through my shrub book, choosing a new shrub for a tub.
I wish I could find a *really* waterproof marker.
I also use the cut off bottom halves of plastic bottles as mini-cloches, but I expect *everyone* knows about that..
I really need good plant markers. With over 116 varieties of daylilies, it's the only way to keep them straight. My senior brain can't possible remember all of their names from year to year. I have used every kind imaginable and I still have to make new ones every year. Last year I used a paint pen on plastic. The wording lasted a little better but the plastic still got beat up by the winter.
I used to do this, too, with plastic containers...until I discovered mini-blinds I buy cheaply at yard sales. They're much faster to make, more uniform and I can cut them any length. I bundle a bunch of them together with a rubber band, and have even given these to gardening friends as a gift.
I've had very good results with plastic milk bottles - a good way to recycle any milk bottles not brought by the milkman!
I use plastic milk bottles, too. I write on the back of the label bit. You can never find a permanent marker pen when you need one either!! lol
Find an /aluminium/ drinks can and cut strips from it. You can do this with an old pair of scissors, the metal's so thin it won't be hard.
Write on the strips with a ball-point pen, but make sure there's a magazine or similar underneath to give a softish surface. The writing will be neatly indented into the metal - can't fade!
At the end of the season, throw the strips in the metal recycling just as you would have done anyway.
Hi Melanie, good idea. I always forget to label my plants!
Thanks for the idea! I've been wondering how to label my sprouting cosmos to distinguish them from their weedy neighbours.
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