I have been always struggling with labeling things in my garden until my recent invention. After so many attempts to label things with big font letters, writing numbers on labels and keeping the database of numbered tabs, it would really not work out for me very well.
I did some homework and purchased few things to make some durable and weather resistant labels for my garden. It is a business card brail slate and regular plastic plant labels.
With business card brail slate, I cannot wright that much of information on a single plant tab, just one line; but, in most of the cases, it is enough to fit the variety name. I would not wright neither date or plant type, I can make a note of it in my journal if needed.
With one of gardening seasons over, I have to say I am pretty happy with my labels. Now I can definitely know what varieties of tomatoes and other vegetables to grow next year.
I make my labels with grade 1 brail because that’s all I remember from my high school years, but who is familiar with grade 2 brail, it will make things even more easier because much more can be fit into one line of plant label with contractions. The plastic brail labels can be also reused for the next year if there are varieties to regrow.
If you really need to have more then one line of information on the label, it is possible to find some other material like very thing plastic or thing aluminum sheet to cut out bigger label, but you would need to think of a way to attach the label to the plant or pot when its home made. I have tried to use recycled metal pop can, cutting out an exact label size, it worked out quite well, but takes a lot more effort, considering you would need to manufacture the whole label from scratch.
Now into second season with my home made labels; I am pretty chuffed. Everything works out very well. I already kept some of the labels from previous year, and lots of new once made. For all my trees and shrubs, I have found copper tags on amazon that do the job excellent.