Garden Markers on the Cheap

I think I’m going to have to file this one under “Now why the heck didn’t I think of that?”. I was perusing Pinterest a while ago, and came across this brilliant idea for cheap (free, actually) row markers for the garden. I was happy with the stone markers I made for my potato bed, but perfectly smooth river rocks aren’t always easy to come by. Alder branches, on the other hand, are something that we have in abundant supply.

So I cut myself a bunch of sticks, and shaved a flat spot onto the end of each one. Easy peasy:

I let the flat sides dry in the sun a bit while I was planting, thinking this would prevent the ink from bleeding (not sure this matters, but whatever):

Using a UV stable felt pen, label your fancy-pants marker accordingly:

We’ve spent the last few weeks prepping the garden for planting, including mulching the rows with wood chips. We lined them with empty feed bags to keep the weeds down, and piled the wood chips on top. It’s a little thing, but it makes the garden feel so much nicer. We’re going to build a long, narrow chicken run along the back fence as well. Nothing grows that close to the alders anyway, and I’m hoping the birds will keep the forest from encroaching on our little veggie plot.

Ahh, spring!