Last summer, the kids and I made these adorable rocks to label the vegetables and herbs we grew in our garden. They were such a fun family project and they made our garden extra cute, colorful, and “us”! As soon as we planted our garden this weekend, we immediately got to painting more rocks to include the new additions to this year’s garden— such as artichokes and cauliflower! And when I noticed how well last year’s rocks held up, I wanted to share exactly what we did, so your family can have fun too!!

Painted Garden Rocks

You will need:

• smooth rocks of varying sizes
• outdoor craft paint in a variety of colors (this paint is exactly what we used: here is a 6 sample pack or here is a larger variety of 20 paint colors)
• paint markers (these markers are the exact ones we used)
• clear coat (this clear coat is exactly what we used— and other varieties that I tried were no good!)
• paintbrushes of varying sizes
• heavy paper bags or plastic “craft mats” (to preserve your table!)

Here’s what we did:

1. Once you decide how many rocks you will need, paint them in a variety of colors. We chose about 8-9 paint colors and so each color got used 3 or 4 times for our 30+ rocks. We did two coats of solid colored paint on each rock, allowing the paint to dry completely in-between coats and then overnight.

2. The following day:  With a paint marker, write the names of your vegetables and herbs on each rock, using smaller rocks for shorter names like “kale” and “mint” and larger rocks for plants such as “cauliflower” and ” green beans” 🙂 Once plants are labeled, decorate the rocks and get creative!

3. Allow the name labels and decoration to dry for several hours and then coat with clear-coat. Once it dries, it should appear very shiny and smooth to the touch. We personally then did a second coat of clear-coat and allowed the rocks to dry overnight again, before placing them in our garden. I think the two coats of clear-coat helped them to hold up so well. Our rocks from last year look just as good as the new ones we made this year. (See below: The broccoli rock was made last year and the cauliflower rock was painted yesterday!)