Labels / Markers

[Geoff]

Having seen the walled veg garden at Tatton Park on TV we went for a look. That had big posh painted labels on all the crops but there was no doubt where they were in the use or ornament debate - they said useful things like Tomato, Spinach, Runner Bean, etc.!

[guest]

We cut up white 2 litre plastic ice cream containers and use a fine permanant laundry marker and they don't seem to fade in our sunlight.
Regards to all for the New Year from Down Under.
Ian Perth Western Australia.

[sue-the-recycler]

about 10 years ago I chopped up the slats of an old venitian blind - it made thousands of labels. I write on them with a soft pencil or chinagraph and some markings even last long enough to be re-used the following year. I also push them into the ground with the writing facing 'North' so they get less of a UV baking.

[A. guest]

poke him in the eyes.

[Allan]

Is it really worth going to extremes on this economy of labels. I repeat, my best plastic labels are a penny a time in the bulk I buy. My latest purchase has every chance of seeing my eventual demise and there is one time-wasting chore finished with.
Masochists, carry on as before!
Allan

[Deb P]

I tried some thin painted ? balsa wood wooden labels last year, written on with pencil; about half rotted in a season below soil level! I was given a Brother label maker as a Christmas prezzie, (took me half an hour to read the instruction book mind you), but have managed to make some fairly presentable labels that stick well to my old plastic labels, so hopefully I can reuse them for some time. I'll see how they fare over the growing year!

[pigletwillie]

All these differnt options reminded me about the Americans during the early part of the space race.

They spent millions of dollars designing a pen that would work in space. The Russians, not having millions to spend on a pen that would work in space, simply took a pencil with them.

A pencil to write labels it is then for me, cheap, reliable and "greener" to use than inks

[sue-the-recycler]

Hi Allan
I appreciate you point of view entirely, but cutting up the blind took several evenings in front of the fire while I had nothing else to do so it wasnt time I could have spend more usefully elsewhere and the end products will last me for years to come yet. The point is that its not always about the economy/cost of the option but the principle of re using something that would have otherwise ended up spending the next zillion years in a landfill site. Your plant lables have been made from yet more plastic (the fact you say they will outlast you is the point I'm making) rather than re-using an ice cream tub or such like. I also got several yards of strong twine, a couple of metal strips that have been fashioned into closh hoops and a handfull of re useable screws from the blinds. I know that if working on a commercial scale this kind of economy may be difficult but for a home kitchen gardener with a zero budget, its always worth the effort, even if there is no real finacial gain as such.

[spinningfishwife]

Pencil for me.

I do collect up the used ones and clean them, but that`s just me...I`m absent-minded and I quite often forget to buy more! An old Brillo pad is ideal to remove the writing and I keep one in the shed for these emergency days when I`ve run out of new labels.

Now I just have to remember to take a pencil....

[Allan]

Sue, fair enough to make labels, I used to do that, but it's what happens to them after usage. I find it soul-destroying to spend several minutes each to clean up labels by the hundred after use and if they have been out in the sun they generally gets brittle so that isn't going to last anyway. What do you do when your homemade labels are well used, eventually they have to be disposed of. If there were a recycler for that type of plastic I would send them there. There is very little of anything in our dustbin each week but a lot in the council recycling bag, beyond that a good collection of empty aluminium drinks cans being kept for our pet charity. We never buy a newspaper on principle that most of it wouldn't get read.We always have carrier bags to re-use when we go shopping, quite often take our goods out of the bag provided and repack in our shopping bag.
Any large coffee jars gratefully received here.
Allan

[cevenol jardin]

Its about label time again I get the basic white plastic labels and use PENCIL - to change the label i just rub it out and write again (always have a rubber in you pocket). The current ones I have are very tough plastic, tougher than the T&M ones that i once used and got bent & worn in one season. These last for years. I got them from organic cat
http://www.organiccatalog.com/catalog/p ... cts_id=632

[Beryl]

I find most marker-pen ink will remove easily by soaking the labels over night in bleach. Rinse and leave to dry on some old newspaper. No scrubbing required.
I do this at the end of each season.

Beryl.

[Mama Kali]

Cherry you can get small quantities of wooden lolly sticks at kitchen shops I have also seen them on the Lakeland website - each to their own! I intend to use wooden lolly sticks this year with graphite.

[Johnboy]

Hi Mamma Kali,
I see lolly sticks as not a very smart move. Better to have white plastic labels and a pencil or chinagraph. At any rate I would think that lolly sticks cost more than white plastic labels.
BTW Lolly sticks do not feature in the Lakeland new catalogue which I acquired last week.
JB.

[DahlisMarie]

Old (or new) cheap plastic cutlery also comes in handy for labels if you have some stashed away.

Big bags of lolly pop sticks are usually available in craft shops.

Have not found a fool-proof pen myself yet.
I now have no idea which of my tomato varieties are which so fool-proof is the operative word here.
I think I will try the graphite pencil this year.