I don’t know about you, but I have amassed a pretty large terra cotta pot collection over the years. I love them. They naturally regulate water to the plant, and as long as you take care of them, they will last for years. The only downside is that they do occasionally break–after all, they are clay and exposed to the elements year after year. It kind of kills me to throw them away, so when I decided to make a few of them into plant markers.
You’ll Need:
Terra Cotta Pots
Black Sharpie
Hammer
Directions:
Break off portions of the mouth of the pot. You will want to use the top portion of the pot so that you have nice smooth edges, rather than jagged broken ones stick up waiting to attack you in your garden. I broke the pots into desired pieces with a hammer. I just lightly tapped where I wanted to break the pot to even it out a bit. Write the name of your plant with a sharpie and then bury the base of the broken portion of the pot in the dirt along side the plant.
Waaaay better than throwing out the broken pots, don’t you think? {If you totally love the idea, but don’t have any terra cotta pots, the little ones are cheap, so you can still make the markers.} 😉
~Mavis
Carol says
They really look cool, Mavis!
Simple, Easy, Frugal says
I’m totally going to do this! I have been pondering how to mark my garden this year and I have at least one pot that is already broken I can try this with. Love it! Thanks for the idea!
Cristie says
Do these hold up to the light exposure? I’m in central NC and it seems like no matter what I do the sun causes the sharpie ink to fade rapidly when I use plastic tags.
Linda says
Yes, in my experience, it did fade…but…you can always redo it if it does fade. It’s a cheap, quick, and cute way to label your plants….and super economical. I’ve been doing this for years!! My friends were so impressed – like I’d invented something neat when basically, I was just being frugal…and using what I had – broken pots.
Carrie says
I also live in central NC (Sanford). I was thinking if you had left over exterior paint it may fix the fading issue. You just need a steady hand to paint letters!
Cristie says
Thanks to both! At the moment I am redoing the labels every other week almost and that’s after I tried coating them with a UV resistant clear coat.