If you grow fall and winter crops the way I do, you already know how easy it is to forget exactly where you tucked in carrots, beets, turnips, and parsnips once the weather cools off and the garden starts looking a little bare.
This simple pre-frost root vegetable marker uses baked wooden clothespins and one other common yard item to create quick, low-cost row markers that are easy to spot and even easier to move around.
I love projects like this because they fit real life: fast, practical, and made from things you may already have on hand. The baking step helps dry and condition the wooden clothespins so they hold up better outdoors for the short term, and clipping them onto sturdy garden twigs gives you a marker that works beautifully before the ground freezes and everything starts blending together.
Wooden clothespins, trimmed garden twigs, foil-lined baking sheet, and marker laid out for the project
Wooden clothespins, trimmed garden twigs, foil-lined baking sheet, and marker laid out for the project
Materials
24 natural wooden clothespins, unfinished, standard 3 1/4-inch size
24 straight garden twigs or small branch cuttings, 10 to 12 inches long and about 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick
1 sheet aluminum foil, about 12 x 16 inches, for lining the baking sheet
1 black permanent marker, fine or ultra-fine tip
Instructions
1. Preheat your oven to 250°F and line a baking sheet with the aluminum foil.
2. Spread the wooden clothespins in a single layer on the foil-lined baking sheet so they are not stacked or touching too tightly.
3. Bake the clothespins for 20 to 30 minutes, just until they are dry and slightly deepened in color; do not let them scorch.
4. Remove the baking sheet from the oven and let the clothespins cool completely before handling them.
5. While they cool, cut or gather straight twigs from the yard and trim each one to 10 to 12 inches so they are easy to push into garden soil.
I like using pruned shrub stems for this because they are free and surprisingly sturdy.
6. Write the name of each root vegetable directly on the flat side of a cooled clothespin using the permanent marker.
7. Clip one labeled clothespin onto the top end of each twig, making sure the writing faces outward and is easy to read from the path.
8. Push the twig markers 2 to 3 inches into the soil at the start of each planted row or beside each root vegetable patch before the first hard frost arrives.
