Herb Garden Markers

The last part of our house left untouched was our backyard. It was seriously rough. Like, we had a jungle threatening to swallow our house.

See?


We've been slowly slowly slowly ripping out all this stuff. I'm sure the same person who picked out the monkey wallpaper and painted the jungle mural on the wall designed this backyard landscaping. I eventually want to rip out everything and put in fruit trees and a cutting garden.

So far I've managed to rip out an enormous bush of spiky leaves that are ubiquitous around here. I don't know exactly what kind of plant it is, but I hated it. The spot it left behind is just outside my kitchen door and the exact right size and spot for a kitchen herb garden. I found almost all of my favorite herbs at a nearby garden center (I still haven't managed to find Bay) and set the whole thing up a few weeks ago. I've been thrilled with the results. I've been using the herbs in every meal I make, and everything is taking off like gangbusters. I had an early setback where I nearly killed my dill plant, but he started recovering once I figured out that I had planted him directly over the gas line and apparently plants don't like that so much.

All that was left for my dream come true was some spiffy little herb markers so I could tell the difference between the cilantro and the parsley. Since it had to be weatherproof, I pulled out the polymer clay.

I just rolled out some rectangles big enough for the name of each herb, and used my new Martha Stewart stamps to create the names. I knew I wanted to use armature wire to poke them into the ground, so I pressed the wire up against the edge of the clay to make a little trough. Because I wanted to make them extra fancy, I dusted them with some pearly powders and then tossed them in the oven.

When the clay was baked and cool I took some acrylic paint and rubbed it into the letters, rinsing off any excess.


My initial plan was to glue the wire into the trough I made, but I soon discovered that wasn't going to work. By the time I finished handling the clay my troughs were no longer perfect enough for the wire to fit snugly down inside it. Instead I used the troughs as a guide to bend the wire around and just let the tension hold it in place. That turned out to be all the adhesion it needed.



I didn't worry too much about centering the tiles inside the wire. I wanted them to be a little off center so it would look more graphically interesting, and the clay is so light weight that there was no problem supporting it that way. Then I just poked the wires in the ground next to the right plant, and now I have my perfect herb garden.



Now I just need to work on eeeehhhhverything else.