Plant labels
Small chilli Offline
Super Pest Controller
#1
How do you store your plant labels? I’m just interested. I sorted mine yesterday and changed how I store them.
Before yesterday I kept them in an old whiskey bottle gift tin. They were then split into categories and bundled together with elastic bands. 
Now they’re still in the same tin. I’ve sectioned the tin now so no more snapping elastic bands. And I’ve added a couple more categories to reduce the search time.       
Flower labels have their own container and so do new and cleaned for reuse labels.

So what do you do with yours? And do you have a huge amount? 
I was very surprised how many I’d actually got. I cleaned 117 for reuse yesterday    Blush
Builder that would like to go play in the garden.
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Bren Offline
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#2
I write on mine with a soft pencil, they get cleaned overwinter then chucked in a 1kg yoghurt pot.
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toomanytommytoes Online
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#3
Dirty ones get stacked up on the staging in the corner of the greenhouse until I remember to clean them. Once semi-clean they just go into a plastic bag on a shelf in the kitchen. I use pencil on mine these days and clean them with a rubber.
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Veggie Offline
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#4
   
I wash them then sort them into one of these multiple drawer things. Each drawer for a different type of seeds - for example, tomato, courgette, beans. Flower seeds are in the blue drawers on the right, split by alphabet. A-E, F-M   etc 
When I'm bored, I find the appropriate box of seeds and try to pair the labels to the seed packet. Then, when I'm ready to sow, I have no excuse for not labelling them.
The Moneyless Chicken says:- 
Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.
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JJB Offline
Moonraker
#5
Some are written in soft pencil, some in permanent marker. All get dumped into various tub, pots, boxes during the season then scrubbed clean in winter/spring then sorted into length and colour and dumped back into various tubs etc. Not a lot of organisation, but what did you expect. Respect to you SC that's a lovely organised box of labels. I'd love one like that, but it's never going to happen.

PS V I like your multi drawer box idea, if I ever get organised, I might get one of those.
Gardening is an excuse not to do housework
Greetings from Salisbury
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Small chilli Offline
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#6
(21-01-2025, 05:20 PM)Veggie Wrote: I wash them then sort them into one of these multiple drawer things. Each drawer for a different type of seeds - for example, tomato, courgette, beans. Flower seeds are in the blue drawers on the right, split by alphabet. A-E, F-M   etc 
When I'm bored, I find the appropriate box of seeds and try to pair the labels to the seed packet. Then, when I'm ready to sow, I have no excuse for not labelling them.
Love the multi mini draw system. That’s brilliant. 
I sorted out my flower labels today. At no point did I think about doing them alphabetically! That would have made a lot of sense. Now you come to mention it! I sorted into 4 categories annual, perennial, edible & tunnel  and favourites- sunflower, sweet peas & poppy .
Builder that would like to go play in the garden.
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SarrissUK Offline
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#7
I have hundreds of large, white plastic labels that I've used my black marker pen on. That's difficult to clean off, so I have ended up with loads of markers with types of flowers and veg that I might never grow again. So, I needed a new method.

I've decided to go for a 1,2,3 kind of system where I put a number on a label, and then note down what that stands for, and keep that for reference.
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Small chilli Offline
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#8
(21-01-2025, 09:13 PM)SarrissUK Wrote: I have hundreds of large, white plastic labels that I've used my black marker pen on. That's difficult to clean off, so I have ended up with loads of markers with types of flowers and veg that I might never grow again. So, I needed a new method.

I've decided to go for a 1,2,3 kind of system where I put a number on a label, and then note down what that stands for, and keep that for reference.
I soak my labels for a few seconds in white spirits then rub the marker pen off. Then wash all the labels (swirl round) in hot soapy water. 1 or 2 don’t always clean off completely, but definitely enough to write on again.
Builder that would like to go play in the garden.
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JJB Offline
Moonraker
#9
I get the permanent marker off with cream cleanser and a green pan scrubber. I found white spirit melted the surface of the white bought labels sometimes, depending on what plastic they were made of. You are all making me fully aware that I should have a more organised system to at least store my clean labels even if they're not in categories (a bit pointless if they're all cleaned off). I do like 6" labels for outdoors, veg patch rows, I can see them better. I like coloured ones for baby tomatoes to just indicate which are giveaways, which are gh and which are outside. With my resolve not to grow so many this year, it might not be so critical. So I need to source a multi drawer that takes 6" stick labels. Respect to Sarriss and the record book idea but that wouldn't last 10 minutes for me, then I'd be left with lots of numbers with no record in the book Smile
Gardening is an excuse not to do housework
Greetings from Salisbury
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Veggie Offline
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#10
I only clean the mud off mine - not the writing if I know I'll be sowing the seeds again. I use pencil to write on the labels which is easy to clean off with a rubber.
I tried using ice lolly sticks for labelling but the pencil didn't show up well and Sharpies and their ilk bled into the wood when it got wet.
Cheap, thin, plastic labels become brittle after a year or two but I have a lot of them from Wilko's closing down sale.
I've tried cutting up yogurt pots but they become brittle too and its difficult to write on a curved surface.
The Moneyless Chicken says:- 
Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.
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