I came across this really clever and simple Martha Stewart idea the other day and I just had to try it out. There’s almost nothing I like better than finding an idea that I can just jump up and start working on right away, using things I already have around the house. If it’s actually a useful idea, then that’s of course a huge bonus!
I honestly haven’t really been that into using garden markers for the last few years. My reasoning has always been that our garden just isn’t that big and we can always remember what we planted. Once the plants actually come up, there really isn’t any need for garden markers because you can just look right at the plants and know what they are, at least once you’re familiar with how all of the usual plants you like to grow look as they’re growing. So I just never wasted my time with garden markers.
Well, of course this year we’ve planted a bunch of really close rows in one section of the garden and a few of the things were really slow to come up… only we weren’t sure what we’d planted in those rows in the first place. Oops! That was a bit of an issue because we were trying to figure out if we should wait a little longer or replant, and of course, we didn’t know what was where, so we couldn’t really do much about anything! Guess it’s time to get those garden markers working for us!
For these mason jar garden markers, all you do is grab a paint stick, a clean mason jar (or you can use one leftover from pasta sauce), and your packet of seeds.
Using a sharp knife or a pair of scissors, cut a slit in the bottom of the seed packet (once it’s empty) and slip it over the paint stick. Stick the paint stick in the ground and place the mason jar over the top, protecting your seed packet from rain and making it look really pretty cute and fun actually!
I love that you have all of the seed packet information right there with you while you’re working in the garden, and you actually get to see where everything is that you planted.
This area of the garden that we’re in is definitely the wildest part. We had sunflowers here last year and we found that they had re-seeded themselves there this year. They looked so happy and healthy growing here in the early spring that we just left them be. I’ve only really been pulling out the biggest of the thistles around here and I’ve just been leaving it to do what it wants other than that. No weeds are going to outgrow these sunflowers at this point! We planted two different types of sunflowers here last year, so we’re not really sure which ones we’ve got here now but we think they’re these pretty dark red ones. We’ll just have to wait for the flowers to come out to know for sure!
I love that gardening is just one big experiment and our garden definitely looks the part this year. Our garden is visible from the road so we often have neighbors ask us about the different cones, mini greenhouses, and various other structures that they see popping up in here as we try different things. I think there mason jar garden markers fit right in with that look! 🙂
What kind of garden markers do you like to use? Have you seen this mason jar garden marker idea used before?
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Courtenay Hartford is the author of creeklinehouse.com, a blog based on her adventures renovating a 120-year-old farmhouse in rural Ontario, Canada. On her blog, Courtenay shares interior design tips based on her own farmhouse and her work as founder and stylist of the interior photography firm Art & Spaces. She also writes about her farmhouse garden, plant-based recipes, family travel, and homekeeping best practices. Courtenay is the author of the book The Cleaning Ninja and has been featured in numerous magazines including Country Sampler Farmhouse Style, Better Homes and Gardens, Parents Magazine, Real Simple, and Our Homes.