Label your plants while enhancing your garden with beautiful mini garden signs with these easy to make and customize plant labels, using cedar strips and stencils!
It’s been awhile since I’ve planted a real vegetable garden!
In fact, a couple of years ago I had all the flowerbeds removed from my backyard because I was on a tangent to try and keep up the yard so I didn’t feel so guilty bike riding in the evenings with weed infested flower beds waiting at home.
Well… it worked. But what I did instead is give my time to the front yard where it mattered most anyway.
Last summer, I was even gifted with a small parsley plant! Which I promptly plunked in my front yard. In which I left alllll winter vs. pulling it out. What can I say here? I was curious…
The good news is, it made it! I have a full grown parsley plant I can pick from even if nothing else is growing! Who knew?
But I felt adding a garden label to my (one) parsley plant would be rather charming… so I did one better and whipped up a couple of new stencils so plant label making could be much easier for all offering a kit to customize more creative ideas!
Not only did it help to label the given herb, it also made my garden more beautiful, thanks to the customizing done!
And now I want to plant more! So there’s that…
So if you’ve ever dreamed of creating your own pretty DIY garden labels with your favorite herbs or vegetable names, here’s a couple of fun tutorials on how to do it!
Make easy to customize DIY plant labels with cedar strips and stencils!
View Garden Labels stencils HERE
About the plant stencils
Garden Labels are two separate stencil kits that make complete DIY plant markers that are easy to customize!
There’s a choice of common names of herbs, such as herbs or vegetables, and each sheet even has a row of borders and leaves so you can decorate your garden markers! Fun, right?!
Herb names include:
Herbs, Parsley, Basil, Chives, Thyme, Dill, Rosemary, Mint, Oregano, Cilantro, Sage.
Vegetable names include:
Vegetables, Tomatoes, Spinach, Potatoes, Corn, Peas, Carrots, Lettuce, Cucumbers, Beans, Radishes, Broccoli, Zucchini, Peppers, Squash, Onions, Garlic.
Here’s the coolest part… the .8″ high words are designed to fit on 1.5″ cedar strips, along with plenty of peek holes through the stencil so positioning the stencil perfectly is effortless.
Here’s how…
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Supplies I used:
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1.5″ cedar strips cut down to desired size
Fusion Mineral Paint’s Coal Black / Bayberry / Raw Silk
Find a local Fusion merchant HERE
Preparing the cedar strips
1. Cut 1.5″ cedar strips down to desired length.
I get my 1.5″ cedar strips from my local hardware store. They come bundled up in a pack and are really cheap! And they are a good choice since they are weather resistant. The depth makes for easy reading for the plant tags as well.
Each stencil letter actually measures .8″h, so you could use smaller strips if desired. They’ll just have a slightly different appearance than mine. Visit the stencil listing HERE for full details.
While these stencils were designed to fit on cedar strips, any flat surface is the key.
Check out some bamboo wood strip options on Amazon HERE
2. On one end, cut a picket tip with two joining 45 degree angles or sharper.
Adding optional borders
Adding a colourful border prior to stenciling the words will give your garden labels a little extra flair!
3. Position a plant name where you wish for it to go on the strip, then pencil off a generous border to work around it.
4. Wrap masking tape around the cedar strip at the mark.
Every border ended up different. One was angled, another was taped off along the top and bottom, etc. It’s fun to play! But it’ll get even more fun in a moment…
5. Paint the borders in the desired colours with a flat tipped artist’s brush.
I used a mix of ‘garden neutrals’ with Fusion Mineral Paint’s Raw Silk, Bayberry, and Coal Black paint. Fun!
Fusion also has wonderful outdoor durability so it’s a great choice for a project like this.
Stenciling the plant labels
The Garden Label stencils are designed with thick peek holes, so it’s easy to align each word along each strip! For example, here is Potatoes centered on the stake.
A perfect fit without any measuring needed!
6. Center a plant name on top of one of your painted labels, then stencil with the colour of choice.
If I had a dark label, I used a light plant name, and visa versa. Creating colour contrast between the 2 is the key.
Decorating the plant labels
7. Embellish each garden label with borders and/or leaves to make them your own!
Be sure to view the video at the end of this post to see this step.
Are you even ready to see how adorable these turned out?!
View Garden Labels stencils HERE
The finished plant labels!
Didn’t the cedar strip garden labels turned out adorable?!
I’m so smitten with how realistic that string border looks! I also wrapped each stenciled border right around each cedar strip so it covers all 4 sides.
My first thought was just to try a bunch of label styles, but I just LOVE how they look all together with each one different! Happy accident I say.
These herb labels not only help label your herbs, they will help beautify your herb gardens as well!
Staying with neutral paint colours along with that pretty Bayberry green definitely gives off a great garden-vibe!
Now let’s put these pretty garden labels to work in the real world…
Awww… don’t they look so adorable in the garden next to the lawn in front of my huge parsley plant?!
I was actually pleasantly surprised how much interest these garden labels added to the garden, kinda like garden art or mini garden signs! So much more than ‘just’ garden labels!
They could also be added to label and beautiful larger plant pots or raised flower beds of you are container growing.
So no more need to hang onto those seed packet labels. These plant labels are so easy to make, and can get new use each year!
Video tutorial – how to create your own plant labels
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Click above to watch a short video on how to create these charming garden labels!
View Garden Labels stencils HERE
Check out that parsley plant on the left though, huh? Full grown parsley before veggie gardens have even been planted in my area!
Guess it’s time to pick up some Basil and Oregano as well and give this year-around-herb-garden idea another go… cuz this is my kinda gardening!
Bring on the garden show visitors… because my own flower beds are officially ready!
Think you’ll decorate your garden with a few plant labels this year as well?
Other garden projects to make:
Create this Garden Cafe serving tray with garden label handles
Build your own garden-themed walkway using scrap wood
Learn how to edge flowerbeds like a pro with 1 simple tool!
Visit many other creative outdoor projects HERE
Is there a cheaper shipping than the $19 dollar one? Is there a US option?