DIY Seedling Markers

 So when I purchased all the stuff to plant my seedlings I totally forgot to buy popsicle sticks or something to mark them. I was trying to think of a cute way to mark them without having to go out again or spend more money, when I thought about trying to do something cute with little bunting banners. I know its one of those cliche trends right now, but I thought it'd look nice. That's when I remember that I'm lazy, and I totally wasn't ready to commit to making small triangles for every letter, for every plant. So I decided a small banner would be cute. I used to scrapbook, so I have a bunch of card stock scraps, you know, the kind you can buy in a bag from Michael's for like $5. Perfect!

The first thing I did was pick out some colours that I liked. This image is from Design-Seeds (I unfortunately can't find the original link!), and I just love all the way these colours look together. It's definitely going to be the palette I plan on using outside. Luckily the card stock I had on hand matched this nicely.

Gather your supplies. For this project you'll need:

• Pen/Pencil
• Card Stock
• Dirty Scissors. Or clean ones if you're fancy.
• Measuring Tape
• Toothpicks
• Hot Glue Gun (you could try Elmer's if you want. I originally used a small super glue tube thing, but it didn't hold at all)
• Optional: Beer. I do most of my arts and crafts mildly intoxicated, and listening to the radio. I suppose it doesn't help with efficiency, but it definitely makes it more interesting.

Then I grabbed my peat cells to measure how much space is between the center of two cells. 2" was perfect.

This is the design I went with. Its basic, and sort of looks like a banner. I tried a few other shapes, and if you're artistic more power to you. This was the best one I made. I free handed it, so its not perfect, but I'm okay with that. You could also print a clip art banner from Word and trace it onto the card stock. I don't have any ink in mine...

Whatever you decide to do, make sure your design is a little longer than the space you need. This is so you have enough room to glue whatever will be holding your markers in the dirt.

For a little preview you can hold up your marker to see what it'd look like. This way you can tell if you've left enough room for your tooth picks to be glued into the right place.

Trace your template onto the card stock. Mine just happened to be big enough for a few banners on each piece.

Once you've got them all cut out, write the names of the plants on the side you didn't trace on. Then flip them all over and glue your tooth picks on the traced side making sure they are facing the right angle. Leave them a few minutes to dry.

Then you're done! Again, this is a cute project to do if you've got stellar handwriting. My normal handwriting is the bubbly print of a high school girl, but I attempted to do some cursive. Some of them came out okay, like this Sugar Snap Peas one.

Most of them turned out like this.

Or this. Clearly, I don't care if I use an "O" or a scribble for a letter.

But, they came out alright. These obviously wont really work in a garden unless you laminate them to prevent soaking them each time you water, but for seedlings you don't have to worry very much about the moisture.

What do you think? How do you mark your plants?

Seedlings Planted!

That's right, over the weekend I finally made it to Home Depot, no thanks to that old to-do list, and managed to pick up some seeds while I was there. I managed to pick up the following:

• Peat Cells (3 Packages of 32)
• Vigoro Tomato and Vegetable Food (I'll admit I have no idea what to do with this, yet)
• Miracle Grow Flower and Vegetable Soil
• Vegetable Seeds:
• Watermelon (didn't plant yet)
• Roma Tomato
• Big Boy Hybrid Tomato
• Gourmet Blend Lettuce Leaf (didn't plant yet)
• Black-Seeded Simpson Lettuce Leaf (didn't plant yet)
• Green Onion
• Broccoli
• Sugar Snap Peas
• Green Peppers
• Herb Seeds:
• Catnip
• Italian Parsley
• Oregano
• Cilantro
• Chives
• Sweet Basil

I have no experience gardening, or starting seeds. I read a little bit about it online, but really, not enough to actually know what I was doing. I figured I'd just jump into it and see what ended up growing.

This was my set up. I don't know what the weather is like where you're from, but it was 30 degrees in Mass, and I did not feel like bundling up, so I grabbed a cardboard box, a little packing tape to make sure the bottom was all sealed so dirt didn't fall everywhere, my peat cells, seeds, spoon, and (not pictured) a small glass bowl.

 I filled each cell with one spoonfull of the soil. Some seeds said they had to be buried 1/4" from the surface, others were 2" so make sure you plan your soil accordingly! I lightly packed the dirt down with my fingers.

This is my photographic attempt at showing what the soil looks like with a hole in it for the seeds. I suppose if you're smart, you'll just follow the instructions for planting the seed however deep its supposed to go. I did a sort of mixed method where I put some seeds in the hole, then spread some out along the rest of exposed dirt, just so there more chance of getting them to grow. Or to smother them, I'm not really sure.

I was having a really hard time getting the seeds out of the bag and into my cells without dumping too many in one and leaving others bare, so I grabbed a tiny glass bowl to dump them into. It made it so much easier to distribute!

These are the tomatoes, you can see a few of the seeds are tucked away in their little holes, and some are spread out on the top layer.

Then I just topped them off with more soil, lightly packed, and spritzed them with lukewarm-ish water. Should the water be lukewarm? I don't know. I read on one of the prepared green house starter kits at Home Depot it should be for that kit, but I figured, it couldn't hurt my little seeds. Right?

And that my friends, is how I started my seedling journey. To those who are interested in perhaps starting their own seed adventure, here is how much mine cost:

3 Peat Cells (Package of 32):	$7.77 ($2.59 each)
Vigoro Tomato & Veg. Food (3.5 lb):	$5.98
Miracle Gro Flower/Veg Soil (1 CF):	$3.33
Seeds:	$15.19 (~$1 per pack)
Total: $32.27

Anyone else starting some seeds? Or a garden? I plan on posting a tutorial on how to make your own plant labels, and if you have nice handwriting (in comparison to my awful handwriting) they are super cute! Stay tuned!