Friday, March 26, 2010

Making Plant Labels for Tiger Gardens

From In the Garden
I think it was last year or so that there was a meme about plant labels. Ever since then I've been wracking my brain on how I could make some really nice plant labels for my garden-on the cheap. The requirements for my labels were that they were easy to read, long lasting, inexpensive and functional. I think I've got it figured out.

Long lasting means no wood can be used so I reasoned metal would be best. I then had to think of how to mark the names on the metal. Writing with a permanent marker, paint pen, or etching was not going to work because in my experience the markings just don't last. I figured stamping the plant names into metal labels would be best. I found a perfect stamp kit at Harbor Freight Tools for under $10. This is a premium stamp kit, quite heavy and made to last. I chose 1/4" because I thought it would be the easiest to read while not taking up too much room with large letters.

The next step was to find the metal and make the metal plant tags-oops wait. That post will come another day because as of right now I have only made an alternative type plant label-those made from Sculpey clay. I learned of Sculpey from my sister. I purchased a good sized block of sculpey for about $6. I first cut the block into 15 equal pieces and kneaded each piece into a ball. I then used a full coke can to roll out the balls into oval shapes. I next took my stamp kit and imprinted the names of some of my choice trees and shrubs (more to go-this is only a start). I baked the clay for 15 minutes at 200 degrees then let them cool down. My last step was to stain my pieces. Staining brings out the imprinted plant names. I used Minwax (love this stuff!) but you can use watered down patio paints too. The main goal of staining and sealing the clay is to protect the label and to bring out the plant name. Adding some stainless steel wire to each label (be sure to punch a hole in them before you bake) finished off these plant labels. They have all been hung on the appropriate trees and are holding up quite well so far. It is a relief for me to know which tree is which at a glance.

These 15 labels costed me about $7 (clay $6, wire $1). I do not include the stamp set in the cost because that will be reused again and again. So for about .50 cents per label I have a long lasting plant label that is specially designed for my garden and my needs....
in the garden....




Today is Skeeter's Birthday so here is to a very
Happy Birthday Skeeter!



Words and Photos Property of In the Garden Blog Team,

In the Garden

40 comments:

  1. Tina girl is there some kind of Karma that the first tag I see is for a KOREAN MAPLE >> the very illusive tree that I have been trying to track down here in the Great White North ???
    Love the tags .. I just stooped to the plain white plastic ones so I can keep the hellebore, heuchera, heucherella straightened out ? haha
    HAPPY BIRTHDAY SKEETER GIRL !!!!
    ... and many more to come right ?
    Joy

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  2. Great post. I've never heard of sculpy clay, sounds like fun.

    I think DH might have some letter stamps. I'd love to do this for my rose bushes and anything else I have a hard time remembering the name of.

    Happy Birthday to Skeeter. Hope her day is full of love, peace and happiness.

    FlowerLady

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  3. Skeeter,
    Happy Birthday!

    Tina,
    Those labels are very nice!

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  4. Hey wanna sell some of these??? Love them!! Happy Birthday Skeeter!

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  5. Have a great day Skeeter!! Ciao!

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  6. Great ideas for the tags! And a very Happy Birthday to Skeeter!

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  7. I am sorry!!!! happened to be a misunderstanding....... I am really sorry.....

    Lovely stamps to label your pride...to let people know about them..... & Many happy returns of the day to SKEETER..... May all dreams come true...... Hugs))))

    Ash....
    (http://asha-oceanichope.blogspot.com/)

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  8. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO SKEETER!

    Tina - WOW! You are so clever and creative. I love this for "major plants" and trees.

    The "laundry proof" Sharpie markers' writing washed off of just about all of my white plastic tags where I marked my seed sowing. Seeds (direct sown) in the garden are tricky. I can't mark every seed, so I try to just mark sample areas so I can tell a seedling from a weedling.

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  9. When do you find the time to do all the fantastic things you do! Oh if I could have a smidgeon of your organizational skills and creativity! I love the name tags! Happy Birthday Skeeter...Have a wonderful weekend celebration. gail

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  10. Happy Birthday, Skeeter! Love the plant tag idea. Sculpey, hudda thunk?

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  11. Thanks for the birthday wishes. The Saint has taken the day off from work and we are going to drive over to Macon, GA to see the hundreds of Cherry Blossoms in thier full Glory! Hopefully anyway as the weather has been so strange this winter.....

    Tina, I love the markers and think I should have some for the trees in our woods... I may contract you out girl....

    Everyone have a great weekend...

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  12. Wow! I'll have to get the stamping kit. Happy birthday, Skeeter!

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  13. A very neat and creative idea Tina! How long did it take all together to do?

    Happy Birthday Skeeter!

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  14. Bravo, Tina! Very nice labels!
    Happy Birthday, Skeeter!

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  15. Good morning all! Thanks for your well wishes for Skeeter. I'm sure she is going to have an awesome birthday. As for me I'll be walking with one teenager and his friend and working in the garden...

    Everyone have a great day!

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  16. Tina, those look great! Something like that would cost quite a bit from a garden center.

    Happy Birthday Skeeter:)
    Marnie

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  17. Tina, you never cease to amaze me with your ingenuity! These plant labels look great and more attractive than anything I've seen in stores or catalogs. I bet you could market these, but then you'd probably be so busy there'd be little time left for gardening:)

    Happy Birthday to Skeeter!

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  18. Happy Birthday dear Skeeter! And many more. :-)

    Tina those tags are great, when you started talking about metal, I was puzzled because they looked like ceramic. I think you will get lots of use out of those letter stamps too, a million and one uses!

    Frances

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  19. Oh those look soooo good. Great job.

    Skeeter, I wish for you to have the best birthday ever and a great year ahead full of lots of gardening, love, friends and all that makes you happy.

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  20. I love this idea!! I think you could sell these too, seriously!
    I've had the same experience with Sharpies on metal tags, it just fades away. This idea I think I might try.

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  21. Great idea, Tina! You could probably even attach them to some sort of ground stake and use them to identify herbaceous plants too. Skeeter, I hope you have a wonderful birthday!

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  22. Those look great Tina and like they will last a lifetime. Great job! I saw a garden show where they marked rocks with a magic marker - sure they wouldn't last long so I painted some rocks and used paint pens. Some have lasted for years and some not. I need to figure out what I did different on the ones I can still read. Hmmmmm.
    Happy Birthday Skeeter!!!

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  23. Thanks for the tip about the stamp kit. We were at HB just yesterday, but we'll be back.

    I'm thinking thin sheet metal and tin snips, which we already have. Great project for a rainy day.

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  24. What a great idea this is for plant labels! I'm always in search of decent labels too. I just got some sample labels from Allsop Garden company, and I'll be curious to see how they stand up to winter. I'm thinking these would be sturdier and less expensive.
    Happy Birthday to Skeeter!

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  25. Great idea Tina. All I've tried have faded. These for sure won't fade.

    HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SKEETER.
    May you have many more.

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  26. How inventive. I have been checking my overwintered seedlings and many of the labels have faded so I am left hoping that I will be able to recognise the plants when they start growing

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  27. How wise! That was witty of you, Tina. Wish we get those here, coz I couldn't find any plant labels, so I'm stuck to drawing up a grid in a paper representing the cells and if a seed germinates, I'd have to look up at the paper! I used different colored straw on one end to mark from which side I wrote them up in the paper. It's a bit tedious, but it's better than having to guess what I sowed.

    HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SEEKTER! MAY YOUR WISHES COME TRUE!

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  28. Happy Birthday Skeeter! What a great idea Tina, they look fabulous and I'm sure they will last.

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  29. I really like those labels.

    Happy Birthday Skeeter!

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  30. Happy Birthday Skeeter!

    The tags are great. Totally doable. Thanks for sharing the instructions. I'll have to look for those stamps. I have no tags in my garden because nothing will last.

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  31. Pretty cool! Definitely like the stamp kit!!

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  32. Hi Tina.
    I did this last year (using the exact metal stamps) except, I used metal plant labels. The sculpey clay is a great idea tho. They are great looking labels.
    Thanks for the e-mail to the weather people ~ it didn't snow afterall ~ so we caught a break! Yay!

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  33. Wow, those labels are great, you could sell them in any store.

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  34. Hope I'm not too late to wish Skeeter a Happy Birthday - hope it was a great day!

    Tina, your labels are beautiful - sounds affordable and fairly easy, too.

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  35. Thank you all for the birthday wishes! I had a nice weekend full of fun things and flower purchases as well.... Perfect...

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  36. What a great idea Tina!! I like the permanent nature of the labels. Very cool.
    Happy Birthday to Skeeter...a few days late. I have been SSSOOOOOO behind in reading and writing blogs lately.

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  37. When we finally went to HF, he-who-mows told me he had the larger size, so I bought the 1/8" stamps. They were on sale and I had a coupon for 20% off, so how could I not?

    At home, I couldn't find the sheet metal that I was sure we had, so I emptied a diet Coke and cut up the can with kitchen shears. I used a paint stirrer as a base on which to pound the stamps with a ball peen hammer on the aluminum strip. Works great. I only made one, to see if I can.

    This will be a great wintertime project. Thank you for telling us about the stamps.

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  38. I never even thought of using a coke can Nell Jean. What an ingenious idea! I need to try it out soon. Thanks for the tip. I tell you the metal has been hard to choose. Maybe you'll post on it and show us all?

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