Keep Track Of Your Plants With DIY Clay Garden Markers!

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Have you ever forgotten what you planted in your garden? I don’t know about you, but I cannot tell the difference between a pea or cucumber plant until they show the vegetables! That’s where clay garden markers can keep your garden organized!

You could create simple garden markers using just a permanent marker and some popsicle sticks, but I like how cute these markers turned out and they won’t break your bank account or take hours. To create four markers, it cost me around $20 and it took me roughly 30 minutes to sculpt them.

Garden markers like this pretty grape are easy to make!

And they will last you some time and cured polymer clay is quite durable.

So what are you waiting for? Let’s get started!

What You Will Need:

Polymer clay (I like oven-baked types)
Clay tools (these help smooth out any finger marks)
An acrylic rolling pin.
Wooden dowels (like popsicle sticks).

You could also consider air dry clay if you’d rather, but I love the option of tossing that clay into the oven for 15 minutes to harden it. My favorite clay kit to buy is available on amazon! You can also find clay at any crafting store, like Michaels or Hobby Lobby.

You can find individual clay colors or buy a larger package like this one!

My clay tools came with the above kit, but if you can’t find ones in your budget, you can use silverware to help shape your clay as you need to. If you buy one thing, I recommend the rolling pin as it’s easier to clean than a wooden one!

Working With Polymer Clay

Shaping polymer clay is easy, but first you need to work it a little to warm it up!

It’s important first to work with the clay. The warmth from your hands will make it more pliable and easier to work the more you knead it.

I made four markers, a pea, a tomato, a grape and a carrot, but some other ideas include:

Cucumbers
Peppers
Onions
Potatoes
Herbs
Celery
Strawberries
Raspberries
Blackberries

The possibilities are endless, basically if you can plant it, you can make a clay marker! You could even create pretty flower markers if you’d like for your flower garden!

Stake your Markers

When you’re happy with the look of your veggie marker, carefully insert your wooden stake into the bottom of the clay. You’ll want to leave this stake in while curing your clay.

Curing Oven-Baked Clay

Once you have finished making your garden markers, it's time to harden that clay in the oven!

Once you have your garden marker ready to cure, place it onto a baking sheet and insert into a preheated oven. Your clay package should include instructions on the oven temperature and how long the clay needs to bake.

You’ll know your clay is ready when it feels more rubbery. I checked the carrots “leaves” and knew things were ready when the leaves would bend a bit, but return to their position.

Enjoy Your Garden Markers

Once the clay is cured, you can simply stick those garden markers in the ground!

I love how easy this craft was to complete, and the results were adorable. The best part is, I don’t have to remember what the heck I planted in a certain garden bed with these little markers.

And the best part of all is that you can just reuse them year after year. I wouldn’t leave them in the ground for winter though as I think the snow and ice might ruin them!

I hope you enjoyed this blog post. Please share it on social media and spread the inspiration! Also, don’t forget to pin it to Pinterest so you can refer to it later!