make | Personalized Potted Plant Stakes

Urban living means missing some of the touches of home, like having a garden. Unfortunately, a plush green lawn isn't really possible on a cement stoop. But, an herb garden is - and it's a great way to ease into gardening, even when you have a decidedly non-green thumb. {you can see in these pictures that my plants are struggling a little bit in the summer heat}

Even though summer is passing here in Oregon, potted plants do just fine indoors. These herbs, which are ridiculous expensive dried at the grocery store, can give you farm fresh year 'round and cost you no more than a little tender love & care.

Here is an easy way to personalize your potted patio plants.

A cute touch for moving them indoors for the winter months.

NEED:

white cardstock paper
a typewriter, or a typewriter font on your computer
magic markers
a trip to Office Max
bar-b-que skewers
tape

1. Design:feed the white card stock into your typewriter and choose a way to format them. I did the full plant name in capitals (HOT & SPICY OREGANO), and highlighted something from the generic plant tag that came from the store underneath in parenthesis. (harvest when sprigs are 6 " tall). You could also try the plant name (OREGANO), and putting the variety (hot & spicy) beneath, or the plant name (BASIL) and a good kitchen use (pesto) beneath. If you are using a computer you can vary between capitals, italics, bolds and different fonts.
2. Print
3. Doodle a picture of the plant: I know, i know, you say you aren't artistic. But just give it a try. If you are nervous, google searching "sketches of oregano" can help, because it helps you by-pass the hardest part of drawing: translating something 3d onto a flat surface. Nothing about this needs to look professional, mine are done with magic markers from the dollar store.
4. Laminate: At home or at a copy center. Plants, naturally, require dirt and water which can mess up the pretty tags so it's best to protect them
5. Snip to a proportional size: I have small plants so mine are about the size of a match box.
6. Tape : use scotch tape to adhere the tags to a bar b que skewer. I was nervous about whether or not this would hold up - but they did excellent in my potted plants. (I don't know how they would do against a sprinkler though)
7. Stick in your pot & admire!