How do you keep track of specific plants and names ?

I've recently added some new plants to my beds. In the process I realized that I normally put the tags in the ground with the plants. And then they disappear, or disentegrate and then I don't know which salvias or cannas I have.

Do people keep journals and list the full names of what they plant?
Or keep photo albums (paper or digital) with labelled photos of all their varieties?

Thanks in advance for your suggestions.

I keep track of my plants in my journal here on DG. At my old house where I planted things over a longer period of time I knew which plant was which from memory so I didn't label anything in the garden, but at my new house I was landscaping the entire yard all at once and wasn't sure I'd remember everything so I used tags. For starters I used the plastic tags, but I just ordered a bunch of EON markers and I'm planning to replace the plastic labels with those, they are metal so they don't get lost as easy.

I made a large photo album of all my garden beds, primarily because my family would need to know if something happened to me. Besides the picture, I included location and care of each plant or type of plant, such as when to fertilize and when to prune. All that general type of information. The problem with it is keeping it up to date. I have pictures of everything in my computer photo program with their names. There are good computer programs out there for keeping track, but I don't know anything about how well they work overall. Updates would be easier. The one I looked at was comprehensive but expensive. I also have tags on things in the gardens, but I get really frustrated trying to find a way to mark them that won't wash out/fade out.

You might like Picasa if you are having trouble organizing pictures. It's a free program from Google. http://picasa.google.com/ Download it, install it, and then tell it to find all of your pictures. It works great! :-)

The perfect plant tag has yet to be invented. Photos (both close-up and from a distance) are my greatest help.

I have used Picasa for quite a while. I liked all of the features except scrolling through the Picasa picture list. Now I open Picasa,go to my pictures,which are listed alphabetically,find the picture and then drag it into the Picasa window in the lower left corner. This seems a lot easier for me.

I love Picasa too. Isn't it amazing that it's free?

Some other ideas for plant labels are painting the names on smooth stones or wood and sealing them, you could also use kitchen or bath tile for this. You can often get broken tile pieces for free at your local home center, then glue them onto cut wire clothes hangers to push into the ground.

Many people opt for aluminum mini-blinds cut up into small pieces and they write the plant's name on with either a China marker (grease pen) or my favorite, a marker for pig's or cow's ears (found at a Tractor Supply Store). Sharpie markers don't last through one winter, so forget about them! One mini-blind goes a long, long way...and can be purchased at such places as Good Will to save even more money.

Another method that works well is a label maker. Folks here on DG rave about the Brother P-Touch. I recently bought one and got the laminated cartridges. They really aren't that expensive, in the long run. Very nice if you have messy writing like I do! I'd like to do the tiles w/ labels and have them all match. I think it would be a fun project and would look nice and clean once completed.

Hope that gives you some ideas of what you could use in the garden.
Heather

The photo program I use came with my HP printer and I love it. Simple, quick and easy to find the pictures in the individual folders you can set up for topics, seasons, whatever. I have simple demands.

Thanks for the tips!

ecrane3, I took a look at your garden journal. Wow. I will definitely spend more time going through that list of CA natives you have. Thanks.

I really like the idea of having it all online. Works much better than a pile of plastic markers on my desk.

I googled eon markers so I know what those are now. Clearly plant labels have become their own little industry. There is at least one place online that you can send your plant list to and they will print out the labels and affix them to markers for you!

Heathrjoy, thanks for the info. I'm going to have to think about the outside markers a little bit. Sad to say but plant markers sound like just the kind of thing that will walk off around here. I've had folks pull flowers out of the ground. Little kids stop to kill the bees on the flowers.

I bordered a flower bed with cut logs placed vertical and all the wood disappeared, I guess for firewood. The wood was my second go after the landspcaping rocks wandered off.

So a commercial product that I buy is out of the question at the moment. I like the idea of the tiles and will probably rig something like that I can put out selectively (in places that cannot be easily gotten to.)

Thanks again.


This message was edited Apr 24, 2007 10:58 PM

If you want to learn more about CA natives, I highly recommend www.laspilitas.com You can search using your zipcode to find out what type of plant community you live in and find exactly the plants that will do great near you

Wow, that's a whole different type of problem. Hmmm, I wonder if you used the cut coat hangers...since they are metal...if you could hook an electric fence type charger to them? Tee hee hee! I'm only kidding...well, kind of.

You are too funny.

This is probably a separate thread but I have been really torn about working in the yard because of it.

I'm trying to be positive: The front bed is established and all is blooming, and the shade bed against the front of the house has filled in and the roses are on fire.

I just want to dig out the grass between the sidewalk and curb and replace it with an attractive, drought tolerant groundcover. At that point the yard will look so good that people driving or walking by will be too busy admiring it to do any damage.

Keep your fingers crossed for me because if this doesn't work, I'm going to grow fences.

If you want to label some of them, you can try the metal label with printed info that is described in this thread on the daylily forum:

http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/585902/

BlackMax--I miss the days when people stopped to admire your garden, not steal it a bit at a time. How sad. I think I would go straight to fences and then cover the inside of the fences with thorny roses!! Good luck.

That really is such a shame. I've lived in the same small town my whole life and that kind of thing rarely happens here, thankfully. Last year we did have *one* landscape light stolen. Just one.

I remember when I was a kid one of our neighbors had such a beautiful garden. They had it decorated w/ garden art and little doo-dads. All the neighborhood kids would go and walk through their garden w/out disturbing anything...just enjoying all the flowers and art. They were an older couple and we never even saw them...but we knew enough not to destroy their beautiful work!

Could you do a low, pretty type of picket fence or something that would mesh well with your garden style?

Or low barberry bushes?

Or cactus? That ought to slow them down! I have no sympathy for people like that.

Such a shame that people have no shame. We had a few 'flower pickers' in our gardens. We knew that it was just the neighborhood kids; there wasn't any major damage or theft. As long as it was an occaisional bloom, we didn't say anything, but when my best tulips began to disappear, I asked around. There's a reason I buy stuff from every fundraising schoolchild that comes to my door! Yep, the kids were willing to rat out the offenders! I never did let them give me the names, but asked them to talk to the friends in question and explain about picking (or not picking) the flowers. Never a problem since.

tggfisk - I like your solution so much better than my husbands! We don't have any problem with theft, but we do have people taking shortcuts and kids running through because we are on a corner. He put all of our "prickly" plants; crown of thorns, yucca, euphorbia, pineapples, and bougainvilla on one side - "to keep the riff-raff out" he says. Funny though - it worked!

Blackmax,

Did your wood and stones really walk off, or were you just joking?

Hi,

I've been working a job with lots of hours recently, so I haven't gotten back to this thread.

tggfisk, sorry about the good tulips. Needless to say, I usually plant cheapy bulbs and seeds. And now I'm inspired to add flower beds in the backyard.

1gardengram, I have cactus on the property. Believe me it grows where I live. I don't want to plant anymore cactus, just not my favorite.

pennefeather, No I am not making this up. I also have not previously mentioned that the lawn guys blowing stuff from the houses where they get paid onto the yards where they don't get paid. That would be me.

The gardeners on one side kicked out the fence panel (from the post) and then just blew the leaves and stuff through the gap into my yard. Now, of course, I have that fence lined with cinder blocks and and extra wood screwed in on my side of the fence at strategic locations.

Before I lived at this address, I wouldn't have believed any of it myself. And I hope no one reading this thread has a similar experience. I did look it up on google though, and I am certainly not the first. I remember reading about one man who had a patch of rural land and his neighbor pushed mounds of fallen leaves onto his property (like a wall.) He ended up fencing the whole property line.

Thanks to everyone for their support and suggestions.

BlackMax
I have a pretty good size garden and people keep telling my they are going to come rob it when I am gone. I know they are kidding because all they have to do is ask for whatever it is they want. Anyway here is an idea. Put up a sign saying. There is nothing here worth dying for and then put up one a little further from that on saying Your almost in range. You could put up a sign saying Guarded by a Pit Bull with Aids. I used to read meters for a utility company here in Alabama and there was this retired Officer that had a sign in the window right above the meter that said. DANGER LAZER BEAM CAMERAS, BOOBY TRAPS,I ask him one day about it and he laughed and said no he did not have Laser beam cameras but if someone broke the window and raised it to step in side there was a stainless steel wire with a hundred treble hooks on it and they would still be there when he got back from vacation. Just a few ideas.

BlackMax, you've got some nervy neighbors! And lazy, too. I can't imagine using a leaf blower and blowing the leaves onto your property...AFTER taking the time and effort to kick the fence boards out!!!! Seems they could just blow the leaves into a bag, or something. Not the kind of knuckleheads you'd want to mess with though. Brains don't seem to be their strong point. Have you thought about some of those 'dummy' outdoor cameras-or real ones. After stealing and vandalism are still illegal, aren't they?