Hi! I actually bought the products I talk about in this post. If you want to try them, please use the link on this page to check them out. I’ll make a little money if you do. That would be awesome! You could even drop me a line via Twitter @decentmadam to let me know it was you! And then we can talk about whether you love them!

I’m starting a new Square Foot Gardening veggie plot, and planting several veggies from seed. I want to be able to see what I’ve seeded out while I’m waiting for the plants to sprout so I don’t accidently plant over anything. But with a 3 year old who has the run of the house (and garden), coming up with a safe option isn’t all that easy.

For my family, a safe garden marker would have to:

• have no sharp points
• not damage the bed when the toddler inevitably messes with them
• be easily replaceable.
• Bonus points awarded for keeping the toddler busy while I get things done

I have some steel and copper two prong markers that have lasted years, but those things are a weapon in the hands of a three year old. I also don’t have enough of these for square foot gardening. I have plastic tags that I’ve gotten with gardening supplies, but these quickly become litter in my back yard, and I hate finding them half buried, one or more seasons after the fact.

A little quality time and research brought my attention to painted stone garden markers. We had the paints and stones on hand from previous projects (sugar skull painting and an outdoor shower), so this was a low friction test for a toddler safe project. I should mention that my daughter isn’t in a throwing things phase right now. Things can always change, but for now, I had the materials on hand, and painting these is guaranteed to keep my kid busy for a few minutes, so yes, please!

Google them and you’ll see so many beautifully painted stones with little vegetables painted on and beautiful script with the name of the vegetable. But again, I have a toddler, so I’m invoking the family motto: the key to happiness is lower expectations. For us, stones painted more or less a solid color will be perfect.

I’m going to need several stones painted in the same color because in Square Foot Gardening you can plant the same plant several times, but not in adjoining squares. Like, today I have 9 squares planted to daikon radishes to help break up my clay soil (if they grow). Also, these makers will absolutely be played with. I have to be able to replace them easily. As a backup, I’m also keeping notes of what I plant where, but the stones are a handy visual for while I’m working outside. I’m using a pencil to write the plant variety directly on the stone.

Painting the stones was fun and entertaining, and laying them out is dead easy – not always the case when you have hard clay soil. My husband said “Good luck! They look like Easter eggs.” But my kid has a pretty short attention span for things like these. Yes she’ll play with them once, but she might mostly leave them alone after that. Fingers crossed.