by Texas Homesteader ~
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Well, garden season is in full swing in NE Texas. It’s the season all gardeners have been dreaming about for weeks. Much work has gone into planning, seed-buying and dreaming.
One of the things I still needed for my garden was plant markers. I’d love to have an easy way to identify plants in their teeny-tiny stage as I’m strolling through the garden. But you know how strong my #UseWhatchaGot drive is!
Thankfully I’ve found an easy way to repurpose items I already have in my home to use for the actual plant markers. Using these markers helps me to remember what I planted where without having to come inside & look it up. Check it out!
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Weeks ago before I ever planted my garden, I first laid out what would be planted where using my multi-year spreadsheet.
It’s a great planning tool for me. The information on the spreadsheet I made for my garden allows me to take advantage of past year’s garden successes, avoid past year’s failures and even take advantage of companion planting.
Then I used my indoor greenhouse to plant my heirloom seeds so I could get a head start with actual seedlings in the ground when planting time came.
When the danger of last frost had passed I dropped those tender seedlings into the ground. But there are seeds I always direct-plant in the garden as well.
So I’m always sure to mark the spot of any seed or seedling planted with a stick. (What a great homestead hack realization years ago!)
This stick marker helps me to know what foliage is weed to be removed verses what foliage is veggie plant while I’m performing the never-ending weeding chore in the garden.
It also helps me know where to focus watering in the weeks to come when the vines get to rambling. Did you ever try to figure out where to focus the water stream when watering a long cantaloupe vine? Yeah, me too.
This stick at the base of the cantaloupe plant let’s me know where the water stream is needed.
Using Canning Jar Lids For Plant Markers
I was looking for plant markers though. I had saved some of my used canning jars that had a white background.
Although I’m sure the ones that are solid colored would probably work as well, I liked the contrast of those white sections.
So I pulled out a *permanent tag-marker pen with black ink and got started. Each lid was marked with a veggie variety I was planting. Jalapenos, elephant garlic, bell peppers, green beans and more!
I added an infinity-type symbol under the type of veggie to indicate that these plants are an heirloom variety.
Almost all of my veggies are heirlooms, but there are some veggies that I sometimes plant that are hybrid. This lets me know which plants I can save seeds from for next year’s garden.
I even made a marker for the volunteer vine that showed up in the garden. It may be cantaloupe, or spaghetti squash, or even pumpkin. Time will tell… (I can’t wait to see what it ends up being! LOL)
I love these little plant markers, and since I’ve used canning jar lids they also have a food preservation theme. Cute, economical, effective!
~TxH~
This post categorized in 
My Favorite Garden Hacks
- Easy Garden Planning Spreadsheet
- Getting A Jump: Planting An Indoor Greenhouse
- Repurposed Cardboard Seed-Starting Pots
- 3-Sister’s Garden – The Original Companion Planting
- Low-Cost Vegetable Gardening
- Planting A Large Galvanized Trough
- Using Cheap Biodegradable Weed Block
- Tricking Birds AWAY From Your Strawberry Plants
- Easy Compost For A Healthy Garden
- Propping Tender Seedlings
- Cheap (or FREE) Wood Mulch For The Garden
- Homestead Hack: Remember Where You Planted Seeds
- How Vegetable Gardening Can Change Your Life!
- Easy Deep-Soak Watering
- Planting Potatoes In Galvanized Trough
- Planting A Blueberry Bush In Galvanized Tub
- Stevia – Growing Your Own Sweetener!
- How I Use EcoBricks In The Garden
- Making An Inexpensive Temporary Cold Frame
- Easily Disposing Of Old Confidential Documents
- Repurposing A Coffee Can For Deep-Soak Watering
- How Leaves Benefit Your Garden
- My Simple, Zero-Waste Herb Drying Setup
- How To Grow Fresh Salad Greens In All Seasons
MORE Gardening Posts
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It’s the little things that make repurposing so fun and as you say “effective”. Love it !
That volunteers looking healthy what ever it is …lol I think it’s a squash.
Good Job ! ~TxH~
Great idea!
Great use of canning lid! Thanks for sharing with us at Merry Monday. Your garden sounds great.
Thanks Shirley, I’m thinking of making these canning-lid markers for a bunch of plants that I’ve divided up to share to kind of pass the idea along! ~TxH~
wonderful idea but I had used up all my used flats for Christmas tree ornaments, photo ornaments, refrigerator magnets, etc.
…sounds like you already have repurposing in place for them Colleen – good for you! ~TxH~
Great idea, I will start saving my lids too. We have some old bean polls since we found we like bush beans better that I’ll have DH make short stakes of and screw lids to them.
I think they turned out cute Tonia, and I can reuse them every year. Gotta love it! ~TxH~
Very cute 🙂
…and reusable too! I’ll tuck these into my ‘indoor greenhouse’ after the season is done & bring ’em out again next spring for the garden. ~TxH~
I use heavy duty clip type clothes pins for my trellised or staked veggies, writing the ID with a permanent marker; this works since I grow 90% the same heirloom types each year. I station the clothes pins toward the top, to the side, in approximately the same position for all the tall items, so I know where to look for the ID once the vines start covering everything. For the catch-crops, fairly short veggies, mostly greens of one sort or another, I use craft sticks written on with the same permanent marker, separating the types of crop/variety with sections of 24″ high white wire fencing; looks good, and helps me remember where the turnip greens end and the green mustard starts, without wasting planting space on a open border section. Those sections of wire fencing also work well to stake/contain sections of bush beans and peas.By the way, those heavy duty clothes pins (the ones with the big circular gap before the clip) also work well to hold Remay frost protection onto conduit hoops. I DO love things with multi-purpose; keeps my tool shed from having so many different things in it!
I love this idea!!! I save some of my used canning lids for storing herbs and dry goods in canning jars, but I have lots of them. This will be a great way to use them. Now I won’t have to buy the little plastic markers, which I reuse, but this is a much better idea. 🙂
I had lots of them too Michelle. Some people figure out ways to hang them around the garden and while I may experiment with that as time goes by, I love the way they look just propped up against my plants. ~TxH~