Monday, March 22, 2010

Making Plant Labels

I've only had a few other experience with making plant tags. I used popsicle sticks and sharpie marker, but the marker ran so quickly that the names soon became indistinguishable. The next thing I tried to do was write the names on the side of the containers, but that's now become a scribbled mess from year to year.

This year, I thought to try an idea posed by EG, I believe. He mentioned to fold tin foil and write the name in with a pen. That way, if the pen ink ran, the plant labels could still be read because of the indentation made when you wrote the name to begin with.
They were incredibly easy to make, and I bet if I grow the same variety next year I could use them again, and he's right. I ran one under water long enough to get the ink off and I could still see very clearly what tomato variety it was.

Very cool.

That being said, I transplanted three of the bigger tomatoes yesterday - it's all I had soil for; I need to buy some more today, but they've seemed to explode now that they're in larger pots and that's only after one day! It's fantastic.

Yesterday was beautiful here, today is rainy. I hope you got at least one good gardening day in yourselves.

9 comments:

  1. What a great idea with the tin foil on the plant labels! I might try that.

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  2. I got the info from the internet, so can't take credit for the idea. But, I would've came up with it eventually! Hehe...You've potted up - not transplanted into the garden, right?

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  3. I think I recall a post on GW about this, but couldn't visualize what EG was describing. Now I get it! I'm adding this idea to my journal for when I have a garden large enough that things need labeling lol.

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  4. You're right. Transplanted into larger pots.

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  5. I haven't had an issue yet if I use a sharpie on a popsicle stick, but when I used plastic labels they ran right away. What a great idea for the tinfoil, now I know what to do if I have that problem again!

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  6. That is a nice idea. I use old vinyl slat window shades, and have found that pencil is the most long-lasting writing material. Go figure.

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  7. I always use the popsicle stick and sharpie method. It is really hard to read by the end of the season, but by then I usually know what is there anyway. I like that they decay in the soil so I don't have to remove them. In fact the bottom half is always gone by fall.

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  8. Ok, you can expect to receive a little white box either on Thursday or Friday....

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