Colored Glass Garden Markers

Organize your plants and decorate your garden with these colored glass garden markers! Garden markers are a great help in identifying your plants, and these colored glass markers also catch the light, shimmer, and add interest to your vegetable garden.

• Colored glass scraps
• Copper wire
• Glass cutter
• Dremel
• Grinding bits (I used 84922 and 85602)
• Soldering Iron and solder
• Flux
• 1/4" copper tape
• Sharpie
• Pliers
• Popsicle stick
• Metal stakes (can be purchased at a garden center)

To cut the colored glass to your desired size, write the name of the plant on the glass, and then cut off the excess glass. By scoring the glass with the glass cutter, and then tapping the underside of the glass below the scored mark, I was able to get a nice clean break.

Now that you have your piece of glass with the name of the plant written on it, it is time to Dremel! Using the smaller grinding bit, carefully trace the letters. Go over each letter with a larger grinding bit to make them more visible. Make sure to wear safety glasses and a mask because of the glass dust. Clean the glass off after you are done engraving..

Make sure that the glass is fully dry before applying the tape. Wrap the perimeter of the glass with 1/4" copper tape, then fold the edges of the tape around the glass. Firmly press it down using a popsicle stick.

Apply flux to the tape so that the solder flows nicely. Now, encase the copper tape in solder. I found that putting solder onto the soldering iron first, and then sliding the iron along the tape gave me a nice even coat. Make sure to cover the front, back, and sides.

Twist about 2 inches of copper wire together to form a more durable cable. Add a loop in the middle of the cable as shown in the pictures. Add flux to the ends of the cable as well as to the solder at the top of the glass. Hold the loop to the top of the glass with pliers, and carefully solder them together. Wash off the excess flux from the glass after soldering.

Hook the markers onto the metal stakes. Make a marker for each vegetable in your garden and never pick parsley instead of beets again! ;)