DIY Garden Markers

Okay… dare I say it. I’ll say it with my fingers crossed and my eyes closed, spring has arrived here in Michigan. No Snow just sun rays and 60’s. Thank goodness… I understand, it is a love hate relationship here in Michigan, the trade off of enjoying all four seasons, but this year… phew I was ready for these warm days of optional shoes and required sunglasses. At the first sign of warm weather, all I have on my mind is GARDEN-GARDEN-GARDEN. I’m very much a novice, but I love the idea of a fresh start to some fresh veggies. Every year i’m sure we will build up our foot print and learn from our mistakes, but I can’t wait for one of those super efficient homesteads, where every square inch is used and meaningful… all in time. Learning from our mistakes last year, we accidentally when planting crazy and got mixed on what-was-what in the garden. We started nearly everything from seed, except peppers and tomatoes, but mistake one gladly brings one of my first spring DIY’s of 2018, DIY Garden Markers. LMB has been crazy obsessed this year with vintage and metal garden markers. Check out her post here. Looking at a set of them, I couldn’t help but want to make a pair of my own. Super easy, but for these type of DIY’s sometimes its hard to build them for less money then buying them… but nonetheless I wanted to build a set.

The Materials.

1. 12 x 12 Sheet Metal (Link)
2. 1 Bundle of Marking Flags (Link)

The Tools.

1. Sharpie Marker
2. Dremel
3. Carpenter Square
4. Needle Nose Pliers (With Wire Cutter Option)
5. Clamp

The Build.

Label Section:

1. Take the 12 x 12 piece of sheet metal and market out your garden marker labels at 1″ x 3″. You will be cutting individual 1″ x 3″ mini tabs.
2. Once you have marked out your piece of sheet metal, it should look like a little grid.
3. Clamp Down the sheet metal, this will hold the piece to allow you to make your cut with the Dremel.
4. Once the cut is made on all the piece, using the sand wheel, soften all the edges of the tabs. This should mitigate any accident cuts when positioning the lanes onto the Marking flags.

Leg Section:

1. Rip of the flag section of the flag
2. Bend the Legs in a “U” shape. The Flags are 18 inches, I bent the legs at 8 inches on each side.

 

Attach Label to Leg:

1. Use the needle nose to bend the label over each leg, pinching in the corners to keep it from sliding up and down.

That is it. Write your plant name on the label with the sharpie and stick in the ground. Overall if you have all the tools it cost under 20 dollars to build about 48 flags. I didn’t get too creative, but you can get unique with the bends of the legs to get some different looking markers. I did try to cut these markers with tin snips, jigsaw, but found the best tool to be the Dremel. Lines weren’t razor straight, but thats part of the charm… at least thats what I tell myself. Thank you for stoping by, and we are so excited to get out to the garden this coming week… as always Give Grace.