Plant Labels, Markers and Tags – DIY

Do you ever think you have ‘dropped a brick’ when you can’t remember the name of one of your plants?
Do you yearn for something other than a small plastic tag with a pencil markings you need to be a contortionist to read?
Perhaps you reuse the colourful nursery plant labels that are bleached by the sun in one season?

Well pictured here are 3 home made methods of visually recording your prized plants.

This bed is edged with old slates and other slates for name tags are painted white. The size was 2.5″ by 6″ and the short edge was capable of being wedged into the soil. I would need to practice my script writing to get the feel of this old style naming but the effect was in-keeping with this bed of plants.

Do not be fooled by the shape of these labels. As they say ‘a good big one beats a good small one any-day’. And these name tags were big as the Jardiniere was over 2′ tall so the name sticks were 3 feet plus. Not so obtrusive when well sunk into the garden but still visible without a microscope.

My favourite was the white brick (with the flat side). Other alternatives include engraved stones as labels, wooden tags and labels or aluminium diy labels from suppliers like Alitags.
The RHS has a web page of children’s projects to make fun labels, you just need a plant called ‘Blue Peter’