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Plant Stakes, Labels and Supports

It's aggravating to spend hundreds of dollars on plants, only to forget their names later on in the year. It's also embarrassing as friends come over and walk the gardens and ask, "What's the name of this plant?" and I've forgotten.

The solution I've found is to use plants labels most of the time. These can be the cheap plastic types you can find at most garden stores or the more expensive metal labels.

One of the problems with the labels is that if you write on a label with a standard marker or even one of the so-called "permanent" types, the printing doesn't last. Here are a couple of solutions.

For the cheap plastic or metal labels buy what is called a "Nursery Pen." It's a basic black marker with special inks to help it resist fading. The Park Seed Company has one for sale. The website is
http://www.parkseed.com
then ‘Search' for ‘Marker.' It does a pretty good job, especially on the white plastic stakes. If you ‘Search' for ‘Stakes' on the same site you'll also find many different types of plant stakes and labels.

A more expensive, but more permanent option is to buy the large metal stakes and labels. The best source I've found is Eon Industries. They have many types of metal stakes and labels. I use the "E" type, 15". They also sell various pens for marking the labels. Their website is http://www.eonindustries.com/products.html

One low cost and low-tech method of marking the labels is the common #2 pencil. It seems to work as well as just about any method and has the added benefit of being low cost. I actually prefer a dull pencil to put more lead on the label. One "test" label using just a #2 pencil still looks fine after two full years, while the "Nursery" pen has faded.


Supports
The problem with most taller plants is that they have a tendency to fall over and cover up the lower growing plants. Garden supply stores have many metal and plastic poles and supports to hold these tall plants. One of the cheapest solutions I've found is ordinary ½ inch copper tubing. Cut it to the length you need, pound it into the ground and tie your plants with twine. [Green twine is much less noticeable.]

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