Children, depending on age can help adults out in the garden. They can be taught how to pull weeds, water plants, label them, and how to harvest them when the time is right. All young children should be supervised when in the garden by an adult or older sibling.
Every year to kick off a new gardening season my grandchildren come over to help me make new plant markers. We start a lot of our plants by seed and need to label each pot with the plant’s name. When it comes to transplanting them into the ground we use those same markers to identify them too. To keep things interesting, we change up our plant markers every year.
For this year, 2022 we made them out of unfinished wood sundae sticks (ice cream sticks) which we picked up a large pack at our local Dollar-Type of store. While there I picked up bottles of acrylic paint, paint brushes, and Sharpie markers. We already had a can of clear acrylic spray sealer at home. You can find that on Amazon or at your local Home Depot store.
You can keep them plain, natural, and simple by just writing on them with a Sharpie Marker. We decided to get a little bit more fancier by painting the sticks a solid color with non-toxic acrylic paint (front and back) and left them dry. We then wrote the plant names on the front of each stick with the Sharpie Marker. Some sticks got further decorated with an image of a pepper, tomato, onion, beans, whatever it is you’re planting.
Let your sticks completely dry. Take them outside and spray them (front and back) with 1-2 light coats of clear acrylic spray sealer. This will protect the painted finish from the weather elements. You could do the same thing with your indoor houseplants if you wanted to remember their “names” for years to come! Certainly more attractive than the plastic markers that come inside pre-purchased pots.
Money-Saving Tip – If you eat out or buy take-out ice cream sundaes you can save the wooden spoons. Wash them under warm soapy water and air dry. Don’t have access to ice cream spoons? Popsicle sticks and Craft Sticks work equally as well for this project.
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These are great spoons and it would be a fun project to make with kids. I always appreciate your crafts.
What a great ideal my great niece has been planting flowers and a garden with mommy. she could make this markers and decorate them.
This is such a clever idea for a craft project. I am thinking of all the fun colors we could use to make these thanks for sharing.
Another fun project and way to get kids involved with gardening. I like the idea of also drawing a picture of the vegetable.
That is a good idea. That way they are a part of it. Thank you for these hints and tricks.