It’s spring. The sun is shining, warm on your skin. You’re ready to get your hand dirty and soil shoved under your nails. It’s SEED SOWING TIME! Amid the excitement of sowing all the seeds, you write down the seed name on the edge of the seedling tray and keep sowing. On transplant day, you have an idea of what is going where but fail to label each plant. It becomes a “Wait and See” game as the season unfolds. NOT ANYMORE, friend! Today, we repurpose containers for seedling name tags and for FREE. Here’s how:
This post contains affiliate links, which means I make a small commission at no extra cost to you.
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
Perhaps you’ve already decided to reuse some saved seedling trays from last year and you’ve done the proper things to prepare them as listed HERE.
You’re already on the reduce, reuse, and recycle train!
Now we REALLY need to label each individual plant so we don’t forget the seed variety of tomato or if it’s a yellow squash, zucchini, or a winter squash.
Watermelon and cucumbers look a whole lot alike as baby seedlings! One needs a lot of space to crawl out as it grows. The other needs to climb as it grows. It matters to know which seedling is which on transplanting day!
SAVE THE SOUR CREAM, COTTAGE CHEESE, YOGURT CONTAINERS for seedling name tags!
Use what you have for free
We eat a lot of sour cream and cottage cheese around here so we began saving the containers and giving them a good wash by hand.
Simply use dish soap and warm water to wash container and allow the container to dry.
This keeps the plastic out of the landfill (even recycling plastic most of the time still ends up in the landfill… don’t ask me how but that’s what the data says).
These seedling name tags can be reused! Use an Expo Dry Erase Marker and write over the Sharpie, then use a paper towel or cloth to wipe it clean. Save plastic seedling name tags for next year.
Whether you’re a market gardener or just growing your own food for your family, cost-effective (read: FREE) tools to help better your garden are always welcome, right?
How to create FREE seedling tags from recycled plastic containers
First, as stated above, start by washing the saved plastic containers.
Next, use a good cutting pair of scissors to cut down the container vertically from top to bottom. Then cut around the circle bottom of the container to cut the bottom off.
Repeat that process for removing the top rim of the container.
Now cut the container vertically from top to bottom at an angle to create a wider at the top, narrower at the bottom seedling name tag.
Note: the cuts do not need to be perfect. The thin plastic of the seedling name tag will easily slip into the soil of your seedling tray and/or the ground at sowing or transplanting.
The wider top allows more space for writing seed variety info and sow date.
Other ways to label seedlings or plants
If you’re planning to sell seed starts or market your produce at a farmers market, you do need to know the variety of the vegetable or fruit. Your customer wants to know too (usually).
- popsicle sticks
- painted rocks
- cute little tags like these
- DIY toothpick tags
- the one little plastic flag that comes with a seed start tray
More Gardening in Zone 8a Ideas
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Building and Layering Raised Garden Beds
Follow Along for more on gardening
If you try making your own repurposed seedling name tags out, come back and leave a comment or share a picture on Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest so I can see it!
I’d love to hear your ideas for ways to repurpose things for your garden! Leave a comment to share below.
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