Beginner Gardening: Lost my Labels & Misplaced Seeds, 0 by Ignoramus

Ignoramus wrote:
Though I don't have answers for your identification problems; I do have sympathy for your plight and suggestions for the future.

I also have had problems identifying plants due to lost or damaged tags and my bad memory and complex layout and lack of expertise in identifying plants.

In the past I've used magic markers just to have the ink run in the rain or fade due to ultraviolet radiation,

This year I got the bright idea of using address labels and toothpicks; regretfully it failed miserably. Inside it worked fairly well, however I had to be careful not to get water on the tags as my printer ink is not waterproof. I put scotch tape over the tags to help keep the tags dry; regrettably the water still got to think anyway. Once I transplanted the plants outside and placed the plants outside the tags started blowing away. At first I used wood toothpicks; but the wood whicked up water from the soil to the labels and it made the ink run and weakened the adhesive so labels fell off. I then switched to plastic toothpicks which worked better.

Thankfully I anticipated that I might have these problems so I had a backup plan. I essentially made a schematic/technical drawing/map/blueprint of my seedling layout and of my garden layout on my computer and I update it every time I make changes.

Since then I met a gardener that uses tongue depressors marked with a number two pencil. I think I will try this next year though my writing is not very legible; at least the graphite should be fade and water resistant. At least it is a cheap and effective alternative that I can use.