If your planning to sow some seeds with your children this year, remember, it’s always good idea to label your pots so you don’t mix up or forget what you’ve sown.
There’s nothing worse than mixing up your plants as you won’t know the correct way to care for them.
Making simple DIY labels is a fantastic garden craft to keep the kids interested and get a sense of ownership when they see their plants grow.
Firstly, If you want to try sowing some seeds with your kids…
Choose your pots
You don’t need a lot of money to sow some seeds with your kids. You can simply reuse some of your cardboard tubes, yogurt pots and other household materials as pots.
Get more ideas for sowing containers here.
Now, decide what to grow.
There are many seeds that grow well with little effort and i’d suggest starting with these. Also, try to choose larger seeds like peas and pumpkins which are easier for little hands to work with. Radish is really fast to grow and can be harvest in 4 – 6 weeks, and growing microgreens and sprouting seeds can give you a crop in just 7 days. You can grow flowers, fruit, leaves, vegetables or even herbs. Find some our our favourite suggestions for kids here.
Then just sow your seeds
Simply follow this guide on how to sow your seeds and get started. If you are growing with little ones Try these tips for growing with toddlers.
There are plenty of posts to help you sow seeds with your kids.
- Try How to care for your seed,
- How to read a simple seed packet
- Make seed bombs with your kids
- Or read our seed sowing guide for beginners
Here are some fun ways to recycle, get outdoors and get crafty by making DIY Plant Markers with your kids.
Wood slice Garden Markers
This is a cute and simple idea you can se in different ways. Simply draw out the name or picture of the crop your going to grow.
Then paint it and hang it from a piece of wire and ribbon or push a wooden skewer into the base and push into the ground beside your plants.
Another way to use these slices is to use a wood burner and literally burn the name or image into the wood. this can be a longer lasting option as the marker may eventually fade but the burning won’t.
Using a wood burner is one is for older children with supervision. Also, If you are going to try this, it’s a good idea to practice on some scrap wood to get a feel for the tool. Usually these tools come with various shaped tips so you can experiment with different effects.
You can get a starter wood burning kit like this one here. They are so useful for a lot of garden projects.
Simply use a pencil (or a stencil if using) to draw out the name of the crop onto the wood slice (or you can also use the shaved end of a branch) then slowly and carefully use the wood burner like a pencil and trace over the text to burn the letters into the wood.
Make soda bottle flags
Take an empty soda bottle, cut off the top and bottom which allows you to open the long strip of plastic and lay it flat.
Use permanent markers to draw a flag shape. Cut out the shape and write out the name of the plant you want to mark and colour it in. Now, using a kebab stick pierce 2 holes in the wide end of the flag shape.
You can use a hole punch to make this easier. Now insert the kebab stick in and out of the flag as if your sewing it through. Simply push the stick into the ground to mark your plant.
Use wooden Pegs
This is a fantastically simple way to label posts and let kids help mark their plants. Gather some wooden pegs , colour them in and write the name of the plant on the peg.
To label the plant, you can clip it to the pot rim, or push in a kebab skewer or bamboo stick next to your plant and peg on your peg.
Clay shapes.
Using air drying clay, roll it out flat and decide what shape you want.
Cut out your chosen shape using cookie cutters or a knife. Make a hole for a kebab stick to be inserted into the bottom of your shape.
We tried this idea from Ehow
We took it one step further and used mini letter stamps pressed into the clay to write the names of the plants we were growing on the flat surface and left to dry. Once they were dry the kids had fun painting some of their creations and others we left white.
Make great DIY Garden Markers with stones
Collect, paint up, and display simple garden pebbles to decorate your garden and label your plants. There are many ways to do this so experiment with a few ideas on a long sunny day in the garden.
This cute post from adventureinabox.com explains how to make the vegetable garden markers above.
Try these acrylic rock painting markers which make it easier for little ones to draw out thier designs
Lolly sticks
A simple lolly stick gives you a spot to record the name of your seeds. Buy the extra large ones for the little kids and let their imagination flow.
Tin cans
Paint the top of a tin can with acrylic paint and place over a stick at the head of a row or pot. This moves around and makes a noise to help scare off birds and labels your plants. Use acrylic paints or these fantastic acrylic paint pens for this craft.
Milk jugs.
I like to use milk jugs as labels. Simply cut up a milk jug into label sized lengths, (approx 10cm x 2cm) Write on them using a permanent markers and off you go. To reuse these time and time again simply rub off the letters with sand paper and your good to go again.
Wooden spoon labels
Similar to the plastic spoons below, you can colour in or paint the spoon with your chosen info.These are super cute from The Crazy Craft Lady. They don’t need to be complicated. A great font and some paint.
Bottle caps are awesome DIY Plant Markers
There’s so many colours and sizes of caps so you can even colour code your plants. The simplest way to use these gems is to write on them with a permanent marker. However you can let kids go with here with bottle caps and craft sticks and maybe some hot glue. Make them into flowers, towers or anything you can think of.
Plastic spoons
Using acrylic paints to paint the names or a picture of your plant on the bowl of the spoon. These are a cute pastel set from Craftsbyamanda
Coffee lid labels.
The plastic coffee cup lids from fast food chains can be recycled into plant labels. If you take a pipe cleaner, piece of wire, or a kebab stick and pierce it through the lid top and bottom them use a permanent marker or white paint pens to write out the name of your plant.
Simply push this in beside your plant.
Mini jar bubbles.
Take the empty seed packet and insert it into the jar so you can read the info. The jar helps keep the packet out of the rain.
Simple, quick and easy and the seed packet and information is kept close at hand and dry.
So there’s some of our fab DIY plant marker activities to try with your kids. Get them sowing and growing then try out some of our favourite gardening projects.
Remember to tell us below which labels you like to make for your seed sowing fun.