Who doesn’t love free garden supplies?  Well, free as long as you are a milk drinker.  Or if you know people who are willing to give you some of their recyclables.  All you need is a clean, empty milk jug, a pair of sharp scissors, and a black Sharpie.

After my close call with dampening off I wanted to get away from using any materials in my seed starting cells that would rot in the damp conditions that seeds need to germinate.  I came across the idea from an article I saw on making plant markers from empty yogurt containers.   I tried the yogurt thing and all of the markers were curved and weird and it just didn’t work for me.  So I thought of using the milk jugs instead because we go through a ton of milk around here with 4 kiddos and it worked perfectly.

First you want to cut out all of the areas on your milk jug that are mostly flat.  It will then look something like this.

Then simply cut each flat section into as many little plant markers as you can.  I cut mine into strips 3 and 1/2 inches long  and a little over 1 and 1/2 inch wide.  Then I tapered the end that would go into the planting pot.  This is what they looked like when finished.

I swished these babies around in a 1:10 part bleach and water solution, just like I do with my planters to make sure and kill any bacteria that may have been remaining on them.  Then I wrote on them with a black permanent marker to label my plants and they have been great.  Much better than the wooden popsicle sticks, as they can’t rot in the damp potting mix while I wait for the seeds to germinate.  Plus, you can’t beat free!

Here is a shot of my seed trays with the plastic markers, after I took out the rotting wooden ones.  Sorry the pic is a tad fuzzy, but you can still see that they are so much better!  This was actually done about a month ago and they still look just as good.  They moved right along with the plants when I transplanted them into bigger “homes” just recently and now are the labels in large solo cups.  I will post the pics of the plant craziness at my house very soon.

Happy planting!  Life is better when your garden supplies are free!  And a super happy St. Patrick’s Day!!!  Gotta love a green holiday, eh?

– Kate