DIY Plant Markers

I'm always looking for ways to save money.  Sometimes I want to save to purchase another item and there's times when I just don't want to pay the asking price.  I don't consider myself frugal, I just choose wisely on what I spend my money on.  When I started gardening I decided to do it as economically as possible.  I weighed my start-up cost, and decided to invest in good quality tomato cages, fencing and a good supply of heirloom seeds.  My thinking, I won't have to replace flimsy cages, my fencing will last for years and I can save seed from heirloom plants for the next growing season.    

Since I work outside the home and divide my time between the job, family and my home I decided to also weigh cost versus my time.  For example, other gardeners have suggested newspaper pots versus the peat pots that I purchase.  For a few bucks versus an hour or two of my time, I purchase the peat pots.  I purchase them on clearance and save them for the next growing season.  I have made the newspaper pots, see my post here, but I prefer the peat pots because of the time it takes to make them.   They work great and I may use them again when time is on my side or when I need to save money for something else that I want.  Maybe a new variety of seed!   

Now lets talk about plant markers.  I just couldn't spend the money that retail stores were asking.  Here's where I make my trade, I made my own.  I had tons of milk jugs from my winter sowing.  More than I needed.  I will save the extra for next year's sowing, but decided to use a few to make plant markers.  I cut out as much as the milk jug as I could from each side, and whipped these babies out in 10  - 15 minutes.  Nothing fancy, but worth the effort and the money that I'll save.  Maybe enough to cover the cost of my clearance peat pots or new seeds for next season, hehe.  You can use a marker or pen to trace an old marker or just make them free hand.  I made mine free hand.  You can make them as long or as wide as you like.  Use a permanent marker for writing the name of your plant.   That's my DIY gardening tip for the week.  If you've already purchased markers this year, there's always next year.  Happy Growing!  Please share a DIY project that you use.  Maybe I'll implement it next season or this one if  I can. 

Making Newspaper Pots

Have you tried making newspaper pots?  I watched several videos on Youtube that I just found too complicated, but I found another that was right down my line.   I love Patty Moreno, The Garden Girl.  She has great tips on vertical gardening, making raised bed etc.  She also had a great video on how to make newspaper pots.  I've modified a little, but here it goes:

In the above picture, I'm using a 1/4 sheet of newspaper folded in half.  You will want to fold it across not length wise.  Next,  I used a pint size canning jar, leaving about a 1/4 of the mouth of the jar out of the newspaper and roll the jar until all of the newspaper is used.  Using biodegradable tape, tape the ends of the newspaper together.   If you don't have biodegradable tape, you can remove it from the newspaper later and toss the newspaper in the compost bin, which is what I plan to do.  I actually used scotch tape, but duct tape will work too. 

Turn the jar upside down on the opening of the jar.  Fold the bottom of the newspaper as if you're wrapping Christmas gift.  Tape the folds down.  

Remove the jar from the newspaper, and you have a great newspaper pot.  You can adjust the opening of the pot to the height you would like by just folding the top inward.  Fill with seed starter or potting soil and you're ready to go.  The newspaper will absorb water just like a peat pot.  I used the newspaper pots to try to start my sunflower seeds.  So far, so good.