Create a Reusable Label System for Your Garden

If you love gardening,

you’re likely sitting by the fire this winter planning your spring plantings. With the Vernal Equinox more than a month away (the first day of spring is March 20 this year), there’s plenty of time indoors to pore over seed catalogs and log on to interactive garden design tools, dreaming up ways to attract more song birds, grow heirloom vegetables, add fresh herbs to borders or feature that Japanese Maple that’s attained specimen status.

One of the things gardeners are always thinking about is how to make the task easier, so time spent in the garden is more enjoyable. Like grouping plants, for instance. Garden wisdom tells us to place plants that need full sun in sunny spots and give ground covers room to roam. Why not group plants according to chores? Growing water guzzlers together makes sprinkling more efficient; growing flowers in need of deadheading or prolific producers like zucchini and other vegetables in the same area makes quicker work of harvesting. There’d still be room in the design to keep it interesting with form, texture, bloom times and a striking color palette; you’d simply spend less time on maintenance.

Plant Markers for All Seasons

Devising a labeling system for your garden has a plethora of practical applications. It can be a landscape design feature as well. Do you identify plants by the plastic tag from the garden center? Do you record plant information in a journal or on a printed map? Do you mark plants with an elegant sign? Chances are, avid gardeners use all these methods at one time or another, with equally variable results.

Exposed store labels or signs written in ink tend to fade quickly. Staked signs can get pushed in or raked out of the soil, if placed in walkways or outside of rows. Experimenting with different kinds of signs and placement tends to be one added chore on a gardener’s to-do list each season.

What if, rather than labeling plants by name, you create custom plant markers for “Sun Worshippers” and “Grotto Groupies”? “Water Guzzlers” and “Deadheads”? “Color Divas” and “Prolific Producers” and “Pretty Blooms”? Wouldn’t that be fun? And what if these plant markers are really good-looking and are reusable with every season?

Whether you think up creative names for all your garden beds, or stay traditional by using both common and botanical nomenclature to identify plants, educating garden visitors at the same time, you’ve found a way to label plants without it distracting from the look of the landscape. Professionally engraved, custom plant markers and garden signs like the ones at PlaqueMaker can also give your yard the look of a botanical garden, arboretum, park or private reserve. Available in a number of materials such as stainless steel, brass, bronze, copper, titanium, bamboo* and different colors of plastic, our garden signs can be ordered large enough to accommodate specific plant information or the perfect size for a single word. Add your garden’s name, photo or clip art to personalize. Garden signs come with a 10-inch stake and are re-usable, too. It’s a unique way to make your garden grow and look fabulous while doing it.