The Best Way to Label Garden Plants
Are you looking for the best way to label your garden plants? I tried different garden markers and plant labels when I first started gardening. Once I started using these metal plant labels, it quickly became my go-to method. My favorite way to label garden plants is easy to see, lasts all season (even in the Arizona summer sun), and can be reused season after season.
At a glance: metal plant labels with a paint pen, easy to read, hold up in Arizona heat, and can be repainted each season so you can reuse the same set.
Key Takeaways: Labeling Garden Plants
- The best way to label garden plants is with metal labels and Sharpie paint pens, as they endure heat and can be reused.
- Create labels beforehand to streamline the planting process and keep track of your plants easily.
- To maintain the labels, use rubbing alcohol to remove old writing or repaint them each season for a fresh look.
- Aluminum labels work well for long-lived plants, as they can be embossed and tied to branches without harming the tree.
- Reusable labels save money and effort as they adapt to different plants each season.
What We’ll Cover:
How I Label Before I Plant
When I’m getting a new round of transplants ready, I sit down at my outside table under the patio, line them up, and make labels for each before anything goes in the ground. That way, when I’m actually planting, the labels are ready to go, and I’m not stopping to write while my hands are covered in soil.
If I skip that step, I go around the garden with a bucket of labels instead and swap out the plastic nursery tags after I plant. I keep the plastic nursery or seed-starting tags and use them to compile a list of what I planted in my garden journal, which I send to members of Growing in the Garden Academy. It’s an easy way to keep track of what I’m planting outside.
Why These Labels Hold Up in the Heat
Wooden labels absorb moisture, and the writing bleeds, and they rot fast in a watered bed. Plastic tags get brittle, crack, and the ink fades by mid-summer if it hasn’t already gotten lost in the mulch. The black metal labels don’t have either of those problems. Sharpie paint pen holds up on them through a full Arizona summer without fading, whether the label is in a raised bed, an in-ground row, or a container.
Mine have lasted up to about four years in a shaded bed, which is longer than I expected anything metal to hold up out here. A spot in full sun will probably wear a little faster.
How I Repaint Them Each Season
This is a question I get all the time. To reuse the labels, you can strip the old writing off with rubbing alcohol. Or you can repaint over the writing. Over time, the original black paint fades, so even if you remove the writing, after a few seasons you may want to spray-paint the labels for a fresh start.
My youngest son paints the labels as one of his regular Saturday jobs. This is a simple job he’s done for years, which is the perfect way to involve your kids, the way I write about in gardening with kids. He lays the labels out on my big potting table, cleans them off with the garden hose, lets them dry, and sprays them with inexpensive black spray paint.
I don’t worry about overspray getting on the metal stakel. If that bothers you, you can pull the black metal top off the stake before spraying, then put it back on afterward. Either way, a fresh coat of paint means a clean surface for the next round of plant names, and I get another full season out of labels I’ve already had for years.
What I Use for Trees Instead
For trees and other long-lived plants, I switch to aluminum labels that you emboss with a ballpoint pen and tie onto a branch with wire. Metal stakes don’t make sense for something that’s going to stay put for a decade or more. I cover that whole process, including how to attach them so they don’t damage the bark as the tree grows, in my guide to labeling trees.
The best way to label garden plants should be reusable
The plants change each season. After removing the current plant, a different plant will be in that spot. Chances are, you will plant a different variety of tomatoes or peppers next time and will need a different label for the new plant.
Ideally, you should use your plant markers again next season. I love that I can paint the labels black and reuse them at the end of each season. Many of these tags have been used for several years. If you’re looking for an easy, reusable way to label your garden plants, you can’t go wrong with these labels.
FAQ about Labeling Your Garden
I buy these black metal labels on Amazon. They’re the same ones I’ve used for years.
Sharpie paint pens. Regular marker ink fades in the sun within a few weeks, but the paint pen holds up all season.
Mine have lasted about four years in a shaded bed before needing to be replaced outright, separate from the yearly repainting.
Not if you use them outside. They get brittle in the sun and crack within a season or two, so I use them for indoor seed starting. You can reuse them several times if they are only indoors.
Rubbing alcohol will take Sharpie paint pen off if you want to reuse a label as is. I skip that step and have my son spray paint the whole stack black again each year.
I’m unable to see the links to the labels. Can you share it in the comments please?
Looks like the black ones I link to aren’t available right now, here’s a link to some zinc ones: https://amzn.to/3eeMshu
I noticed the black paint you use on your black plant label markers is black chalkboard paint. It holds up well the next year as you go to write on the black label once again with your paint pen? I guess one could not remove the paint pen labeling with some kind of paint remover as it would damage the black paint coating. And while one could still write on the label, the label would be come shiny, reflecting sun, which would not be comfortable for eyes or neighboring plants
I use the chalkboard paint because I have it on hand. I’m sure you could use regular black acrylic paint. I repaint over the top each season.