Put a Kinda-Cork in it

As an avid gardener, I keep coming back to the issue of plant markers. I have tried the purchased variety, with limited success. I love the look of the cast, etched "rocks," but I find that once the plant expands and grows, you can't see the marker anymore. That leads to the other problem, out of sight, out of mind. If you leave these markers out during our midwestern winters, they crack and crumble. I also like the printed/engraved/embossed metal stakes. But again, for taller plants they are soon hidden. Plus, I like to grow different varieties of the same plant. I have four different types of thyme - red, creeping, lime and lemon. I would eventually like to make flattened, embossed spoon markers. I have all of the supplies, but I find that this project works best with more than 2 hands and I haven't had any extras around lately.

So, I did a search for DIY plant markers. There were a lot of cool ideas out there, but the one I liked best for form, function, time and cost was found at mychiclife. I have a large jug where we throw our wine corks, I chose to use the now-prevalent rubber corks instead of actual cork. The wine we drink most is Barefoot Moscato, so the corks all had little bare feet on them, which I think is cute for the garden. I started out using an ultra-fine sharpie, but ended up switching to the fine tip, which I was much happier with.

I used a combination of bamboo skewers and tall, salvaged, wire stakes. I didn't drill them, just jammed them in to the corks. They've been outside for 2-3 weeks and the writing has faded a bit so I'll probably go over them again. I might try putting clear nail polish over the writing and see if that helps with the fading. All in all, I'm pretty happy with them.