Upcycling is a term used to describe reusing a material or object which produces something with higher value than the original.  Any quick search on Pinterest will bring you to an abundance of items made from repurposed or upcycled materials.  Of those, garden markers (a.k.a. plant markers) seem one of the most practical.

If you have gardened for a while, you know that garden markers fade with exposure to the elements.  While some pre-made solutions are out there, I think of these plant identifiers as part of what a gardener does to get ready for planting season.  It’s great to try new approaches and when you find one that is your favorite, you can easily repeat it as part of your garden-planning routine year after year.  It’s also a great project for kids to help you with and empowers them to feel like they contributed to preparing the garden for the new growing season.  At the very least, you won’t wind up like I do when I skip getting crafty with plant markers – finding I have no idea which tomato plant is which until it actually starts to fruit.

The wonderful, wooden spoon-turned-plant-marker image is from Playground Parkbench and was inspired by Lois Ehlert‘s Growing Vegetable Soup.  The Micro Gardener also proposes numerous ways to repurpose items to make garden markers.  Anne (The Micro Gardener) even suggests different techniques depending on whether the markers are to be a short- or long-term solution.

What creative ways do you mark your plants?