Crafting & Artwork - Garden and Orchard - The Frugal Homestead

DIY Flower and Veggie Row Markers

flower and veggie garden row markers

Make Your Own Garden Row Markers for Flowers & Veggies!

These flower and veggie garden row markers are a pretty and practical way to remember what you planted in your garden! Every spring I plant my rows and then have trouble remembering what I planted and where. I’m pretty sure I’m not the only gardener who does that…right?! (Please tell me I’m right!)

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So I decided to start making my own row markers from scrap wood we had piled up in the barn from a previous project. I wanted to get these done in plenty of time before spring arrives and now I want to make more for gifts for some of my gardening friends!

I’m a thrifty sorta gardener. Using scrap wood, paint I already had on hand, and some permanent markers, I created these row markers for free! I like free. 🙂

These row markers were simple to make and I didn’t have to buy anything extra!

How to Make the Flower & Veggie Row Markers

There are a number of ways you could make these row markers. I’ll show you how I made these and then share some ideas for alternatives to my project. So let’s get started!

Here’s What You Need:

  • Wood
  • Paint and Paintbrushes
  • Permanent Markers
  • Linseed Oil or Polyurethane for Outdoors
  • Saw and Sandpaper

Cutting the Row Markers

I started out by cutting my row markers from scraps of 1″ x 2″ pine we had leftover from my Dad’s Redneck RV Rebuild.

I used a crosscut saw to cut each marker 9.5″ long but you can make yours longer or shorter. A miter saw and miter box would have come in very handy for this project!

Then I used a straight edge and pencil to mark off the v shape on the bottom of each marker. I used the crosscut saw to cut the v shape at the bottom of each marker.

Once I had the shape I wanted, I used coarse sandpaper to sand down the rough edges. Since these row markers are for my garden, I wasn’t too concerned about perfection. The woodworkers reading this may cringe at my ‘finished’ edges. 😉

Decorating the Flower & Veggie Row Markers

After cutting and sanding the garden row markers, I fussed a little over how to apply my flower and veggie decorations. I looked at clip art but I wasn’t excited about anything I found. So I practiced sketching flowers and vegetables on some scrap paper. Once I was happy with my sketches, I started drawing free-hand on my row markers.

Ideas for Drawing Your Flowers & Veggies

If you don’t feel confident in your drawing skills, you may search online for some clipart that is free to print out and use. Another option is to purchase some stencils to decorate your markers. To be honest with you, I think most people will do just fine drawing their own. Channel your inner child and don’t fuss too much!

Just be sure to draw lightly with your pencil. Don’t press hard enough to leave indentations in the wood! You can erase and draw again until you’re pleased with the images. Remember that you don’t need details…you want them to be easy to paint!

Once I was happy with my images, I used a permanent marker to outline them.

Another option instead of using a permanent marker is a wood-burning tool. I don’t have one and I haven’t tried this skill since I was a kid. But now I’m wondering if I should ask for one for my birthday. 🙂

Painting Your Flowers and Veggies

I had to do a little scrounging to find all of the colors I wanted for my garden row markers. Most of the paint is acrylic craft paint, but I didn’t have any orange. For my pumpkin and carrot, I used orange watercolor paint. It worked out just fine.

You don’t have to paint your images if you don’t want to. In fact, you could make your row markers with just the printed names of the vegetables and flowers you will be planting. That would be easier to stencil!

Protecting the Wooden Row Markers from Water

Since you’ll be using your row markers in the garden, you’ll need to protect them from water. You can treat them with linseed oil or use a coat or 2 of polyurethane for outdoor use. If you are an organic gardener, I recommend using the linseed oil. Even a coat of mineral oil should do in a pinch. Just be sure to clean them and treat with a fresh coat of oil at the end of each gardening season.

Other Ideas for Flower and Veggie Row Markers!

A quick search online will probably give you so many cute and functional ideas for garden row markers that your head will spin! I know this from experience. 🙂

There are ideas for painting stones to look like vegetables, using sticks to create row markers, writing on popsicle sticks, metal markers, broken clay pots, tops of cans, clothespins, corks on forks, and metal spoons. Check out 20 Creative DIY Plant Labels and Markers on The Micro Gardener for more ideas!

Do you make your own garden row markers? Leave a comment!

This post is part of a group collaboration called Gifts from The Homestead…

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5 Comments on “DIY Flower and Veggie Row Markers

  1. I love your creativity. This would be a great project for winter months. I’ll be Pinning and saving your post to my garden board. I would love for you to join my Sunday’s Best Linkup. Starts every Saturday night at 8:00 pm EST. Thanks for sharing.

  2. Since I plant a variety of things from year to year and seasons, I’d end up a tote full of these. I found a painting the sticks with blackboard paint works well. You can buy a whole box of chalk from the Dollar Tree for a decade worth of plant markers. On raised beds, a strip of duct tape and a marker works well. But yours are cute! I tend to be more functionally minded.

    1. Hi Jo!
      Great ideas! The blackboard paint would be another wonderful way to create garden row markers to give as gifts! Some of my friends would probably be happy with duct take too 🙂

      Thanks so much for sharing!

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