DIY Wooden Spoon Garden Markers

Have you seen that Lowe’s commercial lately about gardening skipping a generation?  Yeah, I’m that generation.

My dad is the gardening pro, and I kill every single green thing that ever dares to enter our yard.

But he has faith in me and still tries to teach me everything he knows, which is a whoooole lot.  When we moved into the new house last month, he and my mom gave Robert and me a stacked herb garden for our backyard as a housewarming gift.  It was so darling that it made me really determined to figure out this green thumb thing.  (You think he did that on purpose? I think so.)

And then I had the idea to make some cute herb garden markers to go with it.  Cute upon cute upon cute!  Enter wooden spoons…

They have that vintage-y vibe but still only cost around $1 each at the dollar store.  Yay!

Olivia was even able to get in on this one, so on one of our rainy days this week, we made it our mommy/daughter crafting project.

Supplies Used: (Affiliate links are provided below for convenience.)

• Pack of wooden spoons
• White outdoor acrylic paint of your choice (I used some leftover Fusion Mineral Paint in Raw Silk that I had since it can be used outdoors.)
• Stamp set and ink pad (Or ya know… steal your 4 year-old’s stamp set. Shhh.)
• Large artist brush
• Small artist brush
• Pencil
• Straight edge (a flexible ruler or a piece of cardstock will work)
• Spray spar urethane

Olivia and I just brushed on a coat of the white paint on both sides of the spoons and let dry.

Once they dried after about an hour, I used a pencil and a straight edge to draw a straight line on the spoons as a guide for my stamps.

And then stamped away.  They don’t have to be perfect at all.  Imperfections are part of the charm, right?

Since the stamps left a little outline of the squares, I used a small artist brush to put more white paint on top of the marks and pencil line to cover them.

To keep the ink weatherproof, I gave the spoons three light coats of the spray spar urethane and ta da! Easy and pretty herb garden markers.

How sweet would these be as table numbers for an outdoor wedding or little favors for a bridal shower?

Oh, and here’s the gardening pro of the family.  He found this stacked herb garden at Costco.  Guy’s got good taste, don’t ya think?

Last summer, he built a raised bed vegetable garden in our backyard, which did great until a really bad drought hit, and then it didn’t stand much of a chance.  I hope I do him proud with this one this time around at least.

This is how much growing it’s done in a matter of a few weeks.  Looks like maybe I learned a little bit.  The constant rain has kinda sorta helped.  Ha!

Robert and I have been trying to kick our healthy Paleo eating back into high gear now that we’re getting back to normal life from the moving transition.  Trekking out to our backyard with Olivia every evening to snip a few herbs for tossing into our dinner has become our new little adventure.  She loves walking around smelling all of them.

So far, we have basil, oregano, rosemary, sage, thyme, parsley, mint, and spicy oregano (which I’m not brave enough to try yet since I’m a total wimp with the spicy stuff).  My dad planted lime basil and chocolate mint too that I can’t wait to try out in a few cocktail recipes this summer.  Lime basil mojitos and chocolate mint martinis?  Sign me up.

Lola is obviously thrilled. “Where’s the beef jerky plant, Mom?”

Do you have any big plans to grow a garden this summer? Or have any gardening tips for total beginners?  Do you have any favorite herbs that you love to plant? Or favorite recipes you love tossing herbs into?  We have space for a vegetable garden too, but I don’t know if I’m brave enough for that again just yet.  Baby steps.

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