Gardens without labels

[veggiechicken]

Curious questions!
How much information do you put on your seed/plant labels?
Do you label everything?

I'm considering stopping using labels completely since I always lose/misplace/mix them.
May make an exception for anything that I want to save seed from - but everything else doesn't seem very important. Maybe some basic & reusable labels - like "cabbage" or "sprouts" but otherwise, how necessary are they?

Can you convince me I should write labels for everything?

[Bren In Pots]

I start my plants of in modules/newspaper pots so it they weren't labelled they's all get mixed up, after planting any spare get given away.
I use cheap plastic labels written on using a pencil then scrubbed of at the end of the season this way works for me. I don't write much on them just name and date sown.

[Chestnut]

I use wooden lollipop sticks,recycled of course. Plant name on front (usually abbreviated), planting distance on reverse.
That way, I know what is in each seed tray/pot, and it doesn’t matter if I lose the seed packet before planting out.
The labels tend to disintegrate a couple of months after planting out, but by that stage I can usually recognise what’s what ;-)

[Greenleaves]

I label seeds but nothing on the plots, I record what, where and when in a journal.

I find the weather erases labels so don't bother

[Peteyd]

I always start with the best intentions and pop a label with the name & date on it... However at the end the labels always seem to have washed themselves clean and are totally blank... either that or someone comes round and changes them for blank ones..

I do however always write on a calender the date things are planted and on the date they are *DUE* to be harvested. just because my memory is terrible and i would definitely forget.

[Jungle Jane]

I only really concentrate on labelling my tomatoes & sweet peppers,most things grow & you can tell what it is by the leaf shape,but some tomato plants do better in the ground than a pot so I need to know what variety they are & for saving seeds. Ive planted some garlic in alphabetical order so I know which ones are where. I've put different coloured ribbons on my potato bags & then write a note on my calendar for what is what,difficult to label potatoes I used wooden labels once but lost them earthing up. When I sow seeds direct like a few lettuce & spring onions,I keep all those seed packets together on the side so I know what Ive sowed. I'm not too serious on labels.

[Small pumpkin]

Can you convince me I should write labels for everything?

No one is going to manage that, are they

Yes I label everything. Usually only with what it is and variety. When things go into the raised beds most things get a bigger label so you can still find it when the plants all grown up.
Next year I will be adding harvesting times to my Brussels sprouts labels. For some reason I'm growing quite a few varieties and I'll get confused as to who gets picked when.

[Penellype]

I doubt it is much of a surprise to anyone that I label everything including the variety. I also label any spare compost to tell me where it came from...

[veggiechicken]

No surprises with you Pene

[greenishfing]

I always (well nearly) label seed trays unless I've planted something obvious (!!!???!!) When things get planted out the labels somehow disappear but to be fair plants do eventually sort of let you know what they are.

I'm just disorganised/lazy I think but it works for me..............with a few surprises.

I just hate rules (and straight lines) much to my husband's despair.

When all's said and done you can't eat plant labels......... so not too important.

[Cadalot]

OK from the looks of it I'm OCD I use the Brother Label machine and keep them and re used them. they stay with the plant so I know what I'm harvesting especially as I have grown 5 different types of sprouts





They are all saved in large matchboxes by vegetable type and I will be creating the new ones I need over the next three months

[Jimny14]

I have meant to start labelling more stuff but have never got round to buying or making any labels. I don't have a big plot so I only grow a few of each thing generally. Most things I can I direct sow and generally have a scrap of paper with a rough guide to where things should go that year in the shed somewhere. Everything that I start in modules generally has the seed packet propped up somewhere near by when on the bench or in propagator. Once they're big enough to go out it's generally obvious what they are. As for harvesting times things get harvested when they look ready (I've found over the last couple of years harvest times on packets often don't mean much on my plot).

[Zelenina]

Nearly all my veggies start off with labels, because I'm usually trying to compare different varieties and then probably save seeds. But if I'm only growing one variety of something and it's obvious what it is I mightn't bother. And I don't usually label decorative plants. Indoor pots, containers and trays usually get sticky paper labels written on in pencil, because it doesn't run like ink when it gets wet. Outdoors in containers or the ground I use plastic labels with pencil like Bren does.

Sometimes I get too lazy to put plastic labels in pots that are going outside, and then slugs and snails eat off the sticky paper labels so I don't know what's in them. Also labels are good for preventing me treading where I've just sown seeds in the garden. All I write on my labels is the name of the variety. Usually they are still readable by the end of the season, though some get broken and some are hard to find. I usually take photos to remind me of the sowing date.

[Kirk]

Most as seeds get labeled with what they are as in Turnip, I usually try to add the variety. More for reference in the future so I can later see if they grew well or not. Usually not these days.

In the ground it is a label or three along the row with the same information. If you have 3 types of leek seeds it is useful to have an idea of what they were. But it tends to be the row.

Peppers and tomato's I tend to write Tomato and the variety of each. Gone off the idea of looking at one and wondering what it was I planted or thought I I planted. Finding I have a bright Yellow tomato that I thought was called Black Death makes me wonder what I got wrong.

A soft pencil on the "rough" side of a plastic label seems to work. Pens and "permanent" markers don't.

[lolie]

I label things which are in starter pots. Inevitably, a couple of things lose their labels along the way.

This year I have labelled stuff as I've transplanted it into the beds but only in a very basic way. I don't bother putting the date sown on stuff any more. It's going to be ready when it's ready. If I really need to know when I planted something, I can check my posts here.

I have plastic labels which can be scrubbed clean. I can either find 50 of them or none at any given time.