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3 Green Garden Stake Tricks You Need to Know

Do you use green garden stakes in your vegetable or flower garden beds to stake plants?

I do and and it’s my MOST asked question here on the blog, on my YouTube Channel and my socials like TikTok and Instagram.

If you use green garden stakes as much as I do, they can look a little unsightly, am I right?

I’ve got a little trick that will help make them look so much cuter in the garden, keep you safer while working in the garden, AND keep pests away.

Wait until you see how those boring green garden stakes look now and how does more than just staking plants!

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Staking Garden Plants

For most of my gardening career, I’ve worked with low-maintenance plants and flowers that did not need much from me in terms of time and energy.

They’ve been relatively pest and disease-free.

And haven’t required a lot of staking.

Over the last few years, I’ve paid more attention to the garden and adding THESE as stake supports for my peonies, dahlias, delphiniums and bearded irises.

Close up of Dahlia 'Penhill Watermelon'
Dahlia ‘Penhill Watermelon’

If you followed along with my seed starting journey last year, most of the flowers I grew required some sort of staking.

The flowers grew very tall and the blooms were quite heavy, so they needed a little extra help to grow upright.

When my new cut flower garden by the shed grew and bloomed at a rapid rate, I started staking my seedlings with green garden stakes like THESE.

green garden stakes with terra cotta pots on top in cottage garden with wood picket fence in front of garden shed

Why I Started Using Green Garden Stakes in My Cottage Garden

Since I hadn’t worked with many of the flowers I started from seed before last year, I wasn’t sure how best to stake my plants.

Looking back, I probably should have used trellis netting like THIS in that garden but was way too late setting that up.

Which was a mistake on my part.

New cut flower garden in front of Garden Shed after the Makeover with stone pathway and wood picket fence before planting seedlings

When I layed out that new garden with stepping stone paths, I created small rectangular pockets for the seedlings to grow.

It would have been perfect with the trellis netting.

I didn’t think the grow-through hoops that I love would work well for this space, so I opted to use 4-foot green garden stakes that I loosely tied twine around in a grid to keep my plants upright.

This method has worked well with some plants, and not so well with others.

I decided not to do it this way in my new cottage garden this year and wound up going with my grow through plant supports.

my new cottage garden in front of wood picket fence that is painted green with a concrete planter. Garden is filled with flowers and green garden stakes with terra cotta clay pots on top

3 Green Garden Stake Tips You Need to Know!

That said, I still use green garden stakes with my tomatoes, sunflowers and other types of tall singular stalk-type plants, as well as to help with pest control.

Say what?

Yes!

Wait until you hear how useful green garden stakes are aside from staking plants!!!

Gorgeous cottage garden in the backyard in front of a garden shed with sedum autumn joy and wood picket fence with dahlias and zinniasin front of garden shed in backyard garden with green garden stakes topped with terra cotta clay pots - My cut flower garden in front of the shed in the backyard with a wood picket fence and sedum autumn joy - How to Save Money at the Garden Nursery
How My Cottage Garden Grew in 2021

Green Garden Stake Tip #1 – Safety First

When using 4 or even 5-foot green garden stakes in the beds, the supports are at eye level.

Which can be very dangerous when working in the beds.

Since the garden stakes are green, there is potential to poke your eye out while working.

To help the eye see the green garden stakes, add a topper that is more visible like these small terracotta pots.

Home and Garden Blogger Stacy Ling

They look totally adorable but more importantly, help the eye see the green garden stakes so you don’t poke an eye out!

It’s a great safety tip and should be used when working with THESE types of garden stakes that do not have any bright coloring or safety device attached.

I’ve found this method very useful.

It looks a little strange at first while the plants are still growing.

close up of backyard cottage garden in front of garden shed with wood picket fence and orange daylillies -Garden shed in my jersey garden

Green Garden Stake Tip #2 – Terra Cotta Pots Add Visual Interest

But once garden plants and flowers are fully grown, the green garden stakes with the clay pots look adorable!

They create more visual interest, adds a little dimension, and provokes conversation.

They add some cottage charm to the garden, don’t you agree?

Cottage garden planted in front of the garden shed with wood picket fence, green garden stakes with tiny terra cotta pots -green garden stake safety tip

Green Garden Safety Tip #3 – Pest Control Gardening Hack

I love a garden idea that does double duty, don’t you?

Here’s a great way to control pests in the garden.

Do you have earwig damage in your garden too?

They can wreak serious havoc on foliage.

close up of green garden stakes with terra cotta pots on top in the cottage garden in front of garden shed

Ugh and they were all over my zinnia plants last year.

Oh and I found a few on my lettuce too when we were harvesting.

Did you know that a simple modification of this clay pot trick can also work to collect earwigs for disposal?

Yes!

Wait until you see how easy it is to protect your plants without chemicals using those cute litte gray pots and green garden stakes!

Supplies Needed to Make an Earwig Hotel

green garden stakes trick - how to make an earwig hotel

How to Make an Earwig Hotel

  • Use 3 or 4″ terra cotta pot like THESE.
  • Turn the pot upside down and stuff it with straw or newspaper. (This mimics a plant environment for the earwig).
green garden stakes trick - crumble newspaper and put in bottom of clay pot
  • Hang the pot upside down on each stake.
  • Earwigs will find the pots and hide, so empty it every day or so.
green garden stakes trick - hang clay pot with newspaper ball upside down on green garden stake to catch earwigs

Isn’t that a neat tip?

It works so well too!

Collect the earwigs then get rid of them.

I’m totally doing this in my vegetable garden because they were all over my lettuce this year.

Have you ever tried this method of pest control before?

Let me know what you think in the comments below.

I’m so glad you dropped by today!

Happy Gardening!

Home and Garden Blogger Stacy Ling

Looking for Ways to Grow a Healthy Garden?

If you want to grow a garden that is beautiful, healthy and full of plants and flowers, it starts with good healthy soil.

It is so important to manage weeds and keep up on it throughout the growing season, because weeds zap nutrients away from garden plants and can quickly take over a bed before you know it.

But in addition to managing weeds, it is so important to improve the health of your garden soil both when you start a new garden, as well as over time.

One of the best ways to improve the soil, is to make your own compost.

It’s less expensive than purchasing from the garden nursery, is very easy to do, and I’ve got a great recipe for it.

In addition to making homemade compost, gather all those leaves in fall and early spring to make leaf mold to improve the health of your garden soil too.

close up of yarrow in the cottage garden

Looking for More Flower Garden Ideas?

Here are more cut flower gardening and cottage garden tips, tricks, and inspiration.

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Close up of Peonies - 3 gardening tricks you need to know with green garden stakes
close up of pink peonies with green garden stake tips
close up of green garden stakes

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14 Comments

    1. Thank you so much! I wish I could take credit for them but they are tips I learned along the gardening journey. Good ones to know!

    1. Right? They were really bad on my lettuce this spring. I’m going to do this with the fall crop.

    1. Hi Debbie! I am not sure which bush you mean – can you direct me a bit more do you mean the old or the new house? Thanks!