Gardening in a region where wild animals have access to your sweet tender veggie shoots means one thing: you have to channel a little of your frontier self and make a few barriers.
{Click Image to Enlarge}
Normally this just involves chicken wire and some gates, but this year we decided to take it one step further and make our message very clear with Wild West Garden Markers.
Using a few scraps of wood and some nails (plus this nifty trick for weathering cedar and redwood), we made markers for keeping the wild things out...
... as well as special markers...
... to tell them where they are welcome feast.
Hopefully Wild Bill will protect the garden so we can reap a wonderful harvest later in the season.
Wild West Garden Markers:
Materials:
- Scrap wood ( old cedar shims or redwood scraps are great if you would like to age them)
- small nails
- house paint
- permanent markers (optional)
- wood burning kit (optional)
- baking soda
- paintbrush
First cut/break/carve your pieces of wood into rough pieces (adults only or for older children with adult supervision). Once you have all your sign pieces attach them to sticks/twigs with a nail. If the nail sticks out beyond the back you can snip the back off with a pair of pliers (wear safety glasses for this part).
If you would like to have weathered looking garden markers you can mix a bit of baking soda in water (1/4 lb of baking soda to a quart of water) and paint it on. Let the markers sit in the sun until they are dry.
Once they are dry you can paint, draw or burn your signs in with a wood burning kit (adults only or for older children with adult supervision--> the bird image above was made with a wood burning tool but could be painted or drawn on with a permanent marker).
Happy Gardening!
~ Sarah
*Last time in Crafts and Activities: English Garden Troughs
