Garden Name Sticks

Finished product

      After the doozy of last post, I wanted to keep it nice and brief. However, I'm still in the garden mood. I got an idea for this project when I couldn't find any metal dowels to use and after I tried banging on a metal spoon to make it flat (it worked much better in my head). When I failed at both of those options, I began rooting around in the wooden skewers and found some unused (and washed, but used) chopsticks. At first, I was just going to color coordinate them - because I'm organized like that- but I figured it would actually be better if you could see what the plant was.

      I need to make a ton more of these for all the various plants we are growing this year (onions, carrots, peas, blueberries, blackberries, squash, zucchini, lettuce, mustard greens, and tomatoes, plus a few others)! Especially since they are so easy. But to start, I focused on the herbs for my new garden center on wheels.

Materials:

• chopsticks, unfinished wood
• permanent markers        (I used sharpies)
• A fine tip black permanent marker

Chopsticks

Sharpies

Gardening...on Wheels?

Finished project!

    Well, spring is here and being able to go outside again is both good and bad for my creative side. It means I spend less time indoors with idle time on my hands, but it also means more time spent in outdoor spaces. And since the backyard becomes an extension of our home in spring, what better craft project to do than one involving plants and our patio.



   Last summer, I found a few old drawers at an estate sale. The lady sold them to me and asked what I planned on doing with them. I said I wanted to make a planter out of them - of course, right? Now that was all well and good to say it, but actually getting there was kind of a struggle. First, I had to clean them out (they had sat outside all fall and winter) and put holes in them for drainage. Then I painted the decorative details purple and water proofed them using spar varnish. Next came the question of how to actually arrange them. My dad and I went through quite a number of configurations before settling on the final design. And then I was so happy, thinking all we had to do was put it together and we'd be done. But then my mom got in on the design process, suggesting we add height and wheels.

     Wheels? What? Why? But still, I was intrigued by the idea of a cart peddling herbs. So, we added old chair pieces and AV cart wheels my dad had lying around. And Tada! We were done, right? No, now we must paint the chair legs white so that they match the drawers. This is an example of a little input from others being a good idea, but too much having the potential to derail a project. My garden clock is ticking away, letting me know that time is running out for my herbs to be able to grow and flourish as the heated onslaught of summer peaks it head over the horizon, laughing that we are at a standstill.