Craft Herb Signs – Make Your Signs For The Herb Garden
Homemade and labeled signs not only keep your herb garden tidy but also your cooking pot. You can name all the herbs accurately and are not limited to store-bought plant signs with common names. For example, if you have planted different varieties of mint, thyme, or sage, you can easily identify them using your accurately labeled herb signs.
Tip: It is best to place your labels in the herb bed immediately when planting or sowing. Later, the assignment is sometimes a bit difficult. This is especially true if you have different subspecies of an herb.
Plant signs made of cardboard and paper
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If you only need your plant signs for one season or if you grow your herbs in the kitchen on your windowsill, then a fairly simple sign made of cardboard, clay cardboard, or paper may be sufficient. However, they are not weather resistant. For that, you can make these cardboard signs yourself in just a few minutes. Write the herb names in a felt-tip pen on colored clay cardboard or (colored) paper and cut the signs into the desired shape.
Alternatively, design the paper signs on your computer and then print them out on colored paper. Attach the finished signs to shish kebab skewers with adhesive strips and insert them into your herb pots. Be careful not to get your paper signs wet when watering your herbs, though.
Pros:
- costs almost nothing
- little time required
- Environmentally friendly
Disadvantages:
- not long-lasting
Tip: Your paper signs will last a little longer if you use wide transparent parcel tape instead of narrow adhesive strips and stick it all around the sign each time.
Foil herb signs/laminated plant signs
Herb signs made of foil can be made very quickly and can last for several years. Either label cut polypropylene foil with a permanent marker or commercial paper with any pen. Of course, you can also design the paper with your PC and print it out. Then you cut it and laminate it with a special laminator. You can laminate several paper signs with a sufficiently large distance between them in a foil and then cut the foil. Wooden or shish kebab sticks are suitable for attachment.
Advantages:
- low cost
- hardly any time required
Disadvantages:
- You need a laminator and/or special film
- plastic is not very environmentally friendly
Herb signs made of wood
Very decorative and durable for several years are wooden signs with the burned herb name. Tinker them from wood scraps or discarded cooking spoons, then also keep the cost within limits. If these plant signs remain in the garden all year round, then they will of course weather more quickly than if they are kept protected over the winter. However, to write on the wood you will need a burning pencil or soldering iron. Writing mistakes cannot be fixed and are difficult to conceal. It’s best to practice writing quickly on wood scraps first, then you’ll know right away what size your wooden signs should be for legible lettering.
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Colorful wooden signs
Colorful wooden signs are best created with waterproof acrylic paint and a bright paint pen. Take apart an old fruit crate, for example. The flat boards are easy to paint and write on. Depending on your taste, you can see or break the boards into sections of different lengths. You can get around wooden sticks, to which you can attach the wooden signs, in different thicknesses as yard goods in any hardware store. If you prefer to use poster paint instead of acrylic paint, then paint the wooden signs with a commercially available clear varnish before labeling them with the paint pen.
Signage for eternity
Would you like to make your herb signs so that they can be used for many years, then there are several options for this. All variants are somewhat more expensive than paper, foil, or wooden signs, but very decorative and almost “made for eternity”.
Especially durable plant signs:
- pottery signs
- painted stones
- slate
- embossed metal foil
Painted stones
Quite simply, you craft your herb signage from collected stones. They should not be too small and as flat as possible, then they can be easily labeled. Use brushes and acrylic paint or a paint pen for this, depending on your taste. Whether you prime the stone beforehand in color, paint it artistically, or leave it natural is up to your taste and skill. If you paint an unpainted stone, its grain will stand out as clearly as with wet stones. Children will also enjoy painting the stones.
Advantages:
- very inexpensive
- little time required
- numerous design possibilities
Disadvantages:
- Stones must be collected and cleaned beforehand
- Stones do not always stay in place, can be easily shifted
Pottery plant signs
If you like pottery and have a kiln, then you can very well make the signage for your herb garden yourself out of clay. However, air-drying modeling clay is not suitable because it is usually not weather resistant. When making pottery, you have several options for labeling. Either paint and inscribe the fired clay sign or carve the inscription into the unfired clay. With or without glazing, such clay signs are decorative and environmentally friendly. Children can certainly help with the design.
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Advantages:
- no high material costs
- very individual design possibilities
- weather resistant
- high-quality appearance
- very decorative and durable
Disadvantages:
- Kiln required
- relatively time-consuming due to drying, firing, and cooling times
Slate
Plant signs made of slate you can get prefabricated in nurseries or craft stores. But you can also make them yourself. However, it requires some skill to break the slate into the desired shape. In return, these slate signs are unique and individual. As a starting material, slates and roof tiles made of slate are suitable. However, you may also be able to get cheap broken slate. If the pieces are large enough, then you can also craft your plant signs from them. For your indoor herb garden, you can simply write on the slabs with chalk. If your herb bed is in the garden, then you’d better use a light-colored paint pen, otherwise, the next rain will wash your lettering off again.
Metal foil
Plant signs made of shiny gold or copper-colored metal foil look classy, but they are not that difficult to make. However, you need a special embossing pen. With this, you press the inscription into the foil. It should not be too thin so that your signs do not bend at every touch. It is up to you whether you cut out the desired shapes before or after the lettering. Embossing pens and foils are available in different thicknesses in craft stores or on the Internet. Since the metal foil has quite sharp edges, it is not suitable for crafting with small children.
Advantages:
- look noble
- no special previous knowledge required
- little time required
- very individual design possibilities
- weather resistant without additional treatment
- disadvantages
- medium acquisition costs
- material not available everywhere
- foil is sharp-edged, not suitable for smaller children!
