Re: Yard Labels
- To: perennials@mallorn.com
- Subject: Re: Yard Labels
- From: M*@teamzeon.com
- Date: Mon, 15 May 2000 08:45:31 -0400
"Marge Talt"
<mtalt@clark.net> To: <perennials@mallorn.com>
Sent by: cc:
owner-perennials@m Subject: Re: Yard Labels
allorn.com
05/12/2000 09:07
PM
Please respond to
perennials
Val, I see your point and agree that a bed full of labels rather
resembles a graveyard. However, I also see Allan's point, which I
think very valid if it helps you remember and learn new plants. I've
been gardening a long time, but it still takes me a couple of years
or so to get to recognize and remember new plants, so I'm for
anything that helps this process along.
After all, a garden is personal and whatever works for you is what is
right. Will say, tho' Allan, that paper labels, even covered both
sides with clear packing tape, are gonna be short-lived (been there,
done that:-)) They tend to curl up and moisture still gets in and
degrades the tape. Work fine for short term. That's what I do for
labels for plants for plant exchange and staple them to old annual
labels - the kind with all the writing and pix on them that can't be
written over for re-use by me. It's faster and more legible than if
I wrote them by hand.
Someone on some list - maybe this one? - labels plants with rocks
upon which the name is written with waterproof marker. Think if the
name is on the bottom, it might last, tho' have also found that
waterproof marker doesn't last that many years on stone, when exposed
to the elements. At least rocks are a more natural part of the
landscape and I mean to try this sometime.
As for forgetting plants...Lordy, Val, can see you have to be younger
than I am:-) I can forget my own name instantly and do it a lot these
days. I may know a plant like the back of my hand, but remembering
its name when I want to is getting harder and harder as time passes.
I bury labels in front of the plants in the vague hope that I will be
able to find them when I need to. Labels that aren't sufficiently
buried get relocated by my wildlife population, for whom they have a
distinct, but unfathomable (to me) attraction.
On another list, someone posted about bluejays who were removing his
labels - and these were the kind that look like a little sign on a
stick - he imagined that their nests were lined with little stakes
that say things like 'dactylifera, 1/11/00.' Cracked me up when I
imagined just how uncomfortable these would be for tender baby bird
bottoms.
/ This reminds me of a wonderful Mark Twain short story. It's called "Jim
Baker's Blue Jay Yarn" It is about blue jays' tendency to collect odd
objects, one might say. Anyone among us who is literarily inclined, or at
least has a sense of humor, will enjoy this one.
Marge Talt, zone 7 Maryland
mtalt@clark.net
Editor: Gardening in Shade
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> From: Lowery@teamzeon.com
> Date: Friday, May 12, 2000 11:34 AM
>
>
> I find them to be distracting. You don't see things conveniently
labeled
> in the woods, do you? I prefer visitors to look at the plants
themselves
> and their impact in the yard. I just can't see people coming by
with a
> little notebook making furious scribbles after seeing what I have.
If I
> have a display for the public (like a park, botanical garden, etc)
then
> labels have their place and that's another thing entirely. If
someone asks
> me the name of something, why that just opens up conversation and I
can
> share much more than I could ever put on a label. Actually, I keep
the
> garden label that comes with the plant (or I make one) the first
year the
> plant is in my yard. Since they don't do much that first year, I'd
find
> myself wondering what the thing was and why I bought it in the
first place.
> After that first year, all labels are chucked. Then again I don't
have
> acres to tend. Perhaps that's what makes it so easy.
>
> And how could I forget what plants I have? That's like forgetting
the
> names of your children! I've raised a some of these plants from
seedlings.
> As I prune or tend to something, I find myself repeating the names
to
> myself ("I must divide that Echinacea". "The seedheads should be
snipped
> from the Malva"). If I forget a latin name, I just look it up.
Doesn't
> everyone have a reference book that's water-stained, dog-eared, and
the
> pages sticking together right out there with your tools? But then
again, I
> read gardening books like novels. Everything stays fresh in my
head this
> way.
>
> Val in KY
> zone 6a
>
>
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