Gardening

#34 · Label garden rows

Write the plant name on masking tape, wrap it around the end of a chopstick, and press it into the soil. Job done.

Plastic plant labels go brittle in UV, snap, and spend the next few centuries as small white shards in your soil. A chopstick with the crop name on it does the same job, costs nothing, and can go on the compost heap at the end of the season.

How to do it

1. Write on the flattest face of the chopstick - the blunt end usually has one.
2. Use a graphite pencil rather than marker. This is the one detail that matters, and it is the opposite of what most people assume.
3. Add the variety and the sowing date. In March you will be certain you'll remember; in June you will not.
4. Push it in at the start of the row, or against the rim of the pot.
5. Pull them up at the end of the season and compost them.

Why it works

Pencil is graphite - essentially carbon dust pressed into the wood fibres. It has no dye to fade and is not water soluble, so it survives a season outdoors comfortably. Permanent marker is dye-based, and the same UV that embrittles plastic labels bleaches the dye out, usually within about two months.

Tips & warnings

• Char the buried end briefly with a lighter if you want it to last longer. Charring is a genuine, very old wood preservation method.
• Colour-code with a wrap of tape at the top - one colour for herbs, one for salad, one for roots.
• Write on both faces. One will always end up pointing away from the path.

Common questions

How long will one actually last outdoors?

A full growing season, reliably. Two if the soil is well drained and you charred the end. They are not a permanent label for a perennial - use slate or metal for anything you need to read in three years.