There was a really great discussion on this problem last year and I'll see if I can find it and post it for you. It has many great suggestions in it and the one I adopted and can attest to is using strips of aluminum pop cans (they cut with scissors) and write the name on with a ball point pen. Write hard enough to dent the aluminum and it is permanent - hust like engraved. The strips can then be attached to cages or stakes or used as in-ground ID tags.

Dave

PS: another idea in the thread that works well is using strips of styrafoam coffee cups and writing on them. The indentations also remain permanent.

There are 2 things I've tried to help. If using flags or stakes try laminating your writing by carrying a roll of clear box tape and sealing the label section under the tape.

A most reliable method is to purchase a roll of thin copper flashing (Lowes handles it). Cut into 3x5 sheets with a heavy scissors and punch a hole into one side to attach to ground wire support. Then you only need to press hard with a carpenters pensil when you ID your plants. The indented mark will last for years.

Mark in pencil if you can. Those cheap-o plastic markers with a good thick pencil marking can hold up to a season of watering, usually. Pen tends to wash/bleed.

Those cheap plastic markers can be too easily moved/misplaced/critter-buried/etc, though.

Just a thought, try a wax pencil.

nick

I just write down what was planted on a sheet of notebook paper with a diagram of the garden. You have to go in the house to look at it later, but it doesn't wash off or fade. Short wooden stakes are placed in the garden to mark the separation between the varieties and different veggies.

I use a china pen (from the office store) or crayon.

I agree with beeone, except for the stakes. I can tell the difference between different vegetables I plant as soon as they have 6-8 leaves. I figure out before I plant them where to place them. Especially with tomatoes and peppers. I prefer to separate my tomatoes and peppers of the same variety.

It does not take long for me to be able to remember what is planted where. Then you can impress the heck out of visitors when you can tell them when they ask, what kind of tomato plant they are looking at, even if there is no fruit yet. If you screw up, they won't remember anyway.

I use an ordinary graphite pencil on plastic or wood plant labels. It lasts for years. Plastic labels eventually become brittle in sunlight however.

Jim

I take old plastic mini blinds and cut them up and use a garden markers(because other markers fade)to write the names on. Also I make a map.

My solution is also beeone's. I keep a chart of my garden planting in Excel and indicate there what I've planted where. Eventually I have it memorized.

My problem is not so much not knowing what's what in the garden -- it's which are which once I bring them in, particularly tomatoes! They generally end up on the counter all together, and other than by their color and sometimes size, I don't know what's what. So it's hard to know if the tomato somebody said was "real good" was a Beefy Boy or that great big OP no-name I grow or some other variety.

But we survive.

Hi,

I generally have my tomatoes ready for transplanting in 16-18oz plastic cups with the variety name written on the outside with a Sharpie marker. I start my plants out in the garden in those conical wire tomato cages about 2-3' tall. (Once the plants reach the top of these, I start my Florida weave trellising with poles and twine). Before putting the tomato cage in place (after the tomato has been transplanted), I poke one of the legs of the tomato cage through one of the drain holes in the labeled cup. Then I set the cage in place with the cup attached. Guess it might look a bit tacky in the garden, but it works for me and lasts the whole season.

To label the fruits, I use those peel-off sticky dots about 1/4-1/2" in diameter, with the plant name (usually just intitials) written on them with a fine tip sharpie. The dots are available at places like Longs an Walgreens. I don't have to label every fruit I pick, but it's handy for similar appearing varieties. The labels peel off the tomato easily when you're ready to use them.

Anne

nothing is cheaper and better than buying a 36 inch wide white vinyl mini blind set from Wal-Mart for $3.47. Buy a #2 lead pencil. Mark names on the blinds. You can cut the blinds up and literally make HUNDREDS of strong 10-12" markers that will never fade. Best thing I ever learned.

Chris