Those little plastic plant labels are the bane of my existence – I find them in the compost, I find them in the yard, I find fragments of them in the soil when it’s time to plant in the spring. They plague me, and yet, they’re never there when I need them – when I’m trying to figure out whether a pepper is supposed to be sweet or hot.
Having unfettered access to a greenhouse means I can start all of my seeds for years to come. Since I also want to save as many seeds as possible, keeping track of plant variety will be important. My goal is to have a zero waste garden, so using plastic labels is not an option – but wood-based alternatives struggle to hold up over the gardening season. I considered a digital or paper map, but maintaining that as the season continues on reduces the ability to garden on impulse and vibes – which is sort of my whole thing (although I prefer to refer to it as listening to my “gardener’s intuition”).
My goal was to come up with a solution that fit the following parameters:
- Can follow the plant easily from soil block to garden
- Can survive a full season (or multiple seasons) in the garden without deteriorating
- Relatively inexpensive
- Made of sustainable materials
Behold: DIY stamped metal tags – a necklace for your plants!
Making the Tags
Stamping the tags was a lot easier than I expected. I purchased a small hammer and metal “bench block” for $15.49, a set of steel letter punches for $12.49, and 100 blank aluminum tags for $13.49.
You simply line up the letter where you want it on the tag and hit it with the hammer a few times. The bench block is important because provides the backing for the tag to receive the punched letter. I love to spend money on a craft, but you could easily try this with a normal hammer using scrap wood as the bench block, and I’m sure the results would be more or less the same.
Each letter needs to be punched separately – so it’s a satisfying mindless activity that could easily become tedious if you needed to make hundreds of these things. Simplifying what goes on the tags can be helpful: I’m stamping “TOM” for tomato, followed by variety.
These tags will not degrade over time, so I intend to use them for years to come. As such, it feels worthwhile to complete the tags for the varieties I will grow year after year – “BW” for brandywine, “ROMA” for roma, “POL” for my precious undocumented polish variety passed down to me from the old country. However, since I’m always planting something new, I will also make some tags that are more cryptic, and keep a list to connect code to variety – TOM 5 could be Brad’s Atomic this year and Green Zebra next year. If something gets upgraded to permanent status, I can always make more tags – and similarly, since there is plenty of space on the tag, I can always stamp out one label and replace it with something else.
Attaching the Tags
In order for the tags to be functional, they need to be attached to the plant. Most farmers have more bailing twine than they know what to do with, but tying it on each plant would be a bit tedious. Instead, I’ve been saving twist-ties; they can be twisted loosely around the stem with enough room to allow the plant to grow, and easily moved if needed during pruning. I’ve always saved twist ties from grocery items and electronic purchases (even going so far as reclaiming them from the trash) because a great twist tie has a thousand uses, especially in the garden.
I could also see someone using embroidery floss or thread, although I would worry about cotton standing up to the elements over the gardening season.
Inexpensive, but not Cheap
There is no denying that plastic is an economical option: I’ve seen them as low as $0.02 per label. Wood plant labels are a close second at $0.04 each, although the cheapest option on the market is likely popsicle sticks at about $0.01. There are also free options, like using sticks.
At 100 for $13.49, the aluminum tags work out to $0.13 each, excluding the one-time cost for the tools needed to make them. This cost could be lowered by purchasing the blank tags in a larger quantity, but no matter what, it is undoubtedly more expensive than the plastic and wood options. At my current costs, it would take 4 to 5 years of use to bring the cost down to that of the pre-made varieties.
But that’s the beauty of this method – my intention is to use them for 4-5 years, or longer! Even if some get lost, they won’t be unusable after a winter in the dirt, and a metal detector could even be used to help locate them.
Ultimately, I don’t mind the increased effort and cost for two reasons:
- It reduces the microplastics my garden contributes to the environment.
- The tag will sustain through the season and will be harder to lose, unlike wood alternatives that stick into the dirt and can’t be wrapped around the plant.
Other Downsides: Stems Only
This method is only idea for plants with stems, so it’s not effective for leafy vegetables (lettuce, spinach, chard) and root vegetables (carrots, beets, radishes). It’s also probably not ideal for direct-sown vegetables, since you will need to wait until they germinate to attach your tag (and may forget what you planted in the meantime).
As a solution for this, I will continue to use wood stakes – although, to avoid the issue of permanent marker fading over the growing season, I might go so far as to attach a stamped metal tag to the wood stake.
We are just a few weeks away from transplanting our self-started tomato plants into the garden. I have stamped several dozen tomato tags and continue to chip away at my pile whenever I have a spare moment. I will update at the end of the gardening season with how this worked out!
Would you use a stamped metal tag for your garden plants? Do you have a plastic-free method for keeping track of what’s planted where?
Find me on socials – I’d love to hear what you do!
Talk soon,
KC
PS: I’m only about 7 weeks out from closing on my 10 acre farm!!! 🙂
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