Kitchen Garden Forum

I have just bought a load of those white seed labels and I cant get a single pencil to write on them, best I can do is kind of scratch it in. Have tried all sorts of pencils, Thought i was saving money not buying the ones with the pencil included 50p extra. Anyone else had these?

mandy

The plastic type?
Have you tried the felt tips?
I reuse mine each year

That drove me mad as well. I bought a new packet of white labels, went into the greenhouse armed with a pile of seed packets and nothing would write on the labels not even felt tip pen. I had to send my OH to the garden centre for a marker pen.

Where did you get them from? I buy mine from Wilkinsons (99p for 50 inc pencil) and have never had any bother.

mandy,indelible ink pen works ok.about a quid from wh smiths.once you are finished with them a sharp knife scrapes them clean.im still using some from over 3 years ago.peterf

I use Sanfords Sharpie, fine point from the local Stationery Box to write on labels to last the season before they fade. Anything to last longer than that I use the P-Touch printer which is really permanent. For many plants I have the printout on the front, put the date on the back and just change the date each year. As I buy labels 1000 at a time they are so cheap at about under 2p.each(even per 100 LBS garden direct charge under £2/100 for the 5" ones, see online catalogue for yourself) it just isn't worth my time to clean them up, any faded ones I can write over again or just use the other side with a line through the old data when I can spend that time sowing several modules to bring in money far faster.Recycling is all very well but I have to make my garden pay for itself.

I usually buy the wilcos ones and they are fine, these were 'guardsman' I think £3.95 for 100 from the garden centre, but they were 5" ones. Will try a chinagraph pencil if I can find one?

Mandy

I used chinagraph for many years. It does have advantage in that it is as permanent as you want it to be and then can be cleaned off. However it won't give fine writing if you need it, the point is easily broken and as the temperature rises it gets too soft to make a decent job of any lettering. Uniquely it will write on shiny surfaces e.g.glass
Allan

i cut up the lids of ice cream containers, but check they will take pencil first as some are too smooth. the bottoms get used as seed trays etc.