marking plastic labels

salthepal

What do you use with which to write the name of the plant on those long white plastic labels? I've used marker pens and pencils but they all seem to fade or wash off.
Thanks for any replies in advance.

annie123

A permanent marker should last. For things I grow every year I use the same labels. I coat the writing with clear nail varnish.

One of the nicest pressies I was given was home made labels by my son, many moons ago when he was a teenager.
He drew and coloured in pictures of different fruit and veg I grew, glued them onto his homemade labels from plastic tubs etc, cut into nice easy to see shapes complete with point to go into the ground and varnished with clear yacht varnish, borrowed from friends dad.
Over the last 15 odd years I've lost them/broken them, and can't get him to make me any more, says at 30 he's too old for cut and stick!

Kay_Peel

You can't beat a Sharpie.

Writes on anything and doesn't come off, for less than a pound.

Lotus-eater

I always use a pencil and have never had any problems, maybe you need a softer pencil.

Davesnave

Lotus-eater wrote: »

I always use a pencil and have never had any problems, maybe you need a softer pencil.

For the past year, I have been picking up labels that someone who lived here before me scattered around, willy nilly, along with much other junk, over a ten year period ending in 2007.

This person thought marker was more permanent than pencil, so all the perennials/shrubs/trees were named with a pen. The vegetables only warranted the use of a pencil, apparently.

I can usually read with ease all the veggie labels I dig up. I know very little about other plants, many of which 'disappeared' in a massive clearance that happened a few years ago. Sometimes their labels are found, but they are illegible.

I think this tells us something.

kerleytops

You can re use and re use your plastic plant labels by using tippex to cover the writing or even use a scourer to clean them .

TonyMMM

Pencil ...

Mayflower10cat

I still gather up last years plastic labels, stick them in a jamjar of bleachy water and leave them until the 'permanent' marker pen I always use, has been bleached off. Takes a few days. Pencil seems to last longer and needs to be rubbered/scrubbed off.

At the allotment, this year I used slate labels from Wilko. I dremel'd on one side what the veg was, then on the back used permanent marker to add variety/date of planting. The permanent marker does scrub off. You can also used those felt-pen blackboard 'chalk' pens as they don't wash off with rain but need to be scrubbed clean.

Painkiller

Kay_Peel wrote: »

You can't beat a Sharpie.

Writes on anything and doesn't come off, for less than a pound.

+1

I also use a Sharpie. I've tried using the pens made for writing on CDs but they discolour & fade too quickly.

Davesnave

kerleytops wrote: »

You can re use and re use your plastic plant labels by using tippex to cover the writing or even use a scourer to clean them .

I use a Stanley knife blade; it leaves a useful matt surface. Modern cheapo labels discolour and snap long before they wear through.

Painkiller wrote: »

+1

I also use a Sharpie. I've tried using the pens made for writing on CDs but they discolour & fade too quickly.

I have found Sharpies will fade, though not fast. They generally don't pass the five year test on the nursery. Only pencil does that.

button_box

A friend, who opens her garden to the public, has very stylish plant markers cut out of black meat trays from the supermarket which she writes on with a silver permanent marker. She also cut up some old plastic venetian blinds and painted them matt black, again writing the plant names on with a silver permanent marker. They seem to last okay and look so much better in the garden than my cut up Flora tubs and "Sharpie"