Thursday, September 11, 2014

2 Good Ideas For Plant Lovers/Collectors

       Last weekend I had several new daylily purchases to plant so I decided it was time to divide my old ones, replant some of them with the new ones, and transfer the others to pots to give away.  I have been intending to do this for the past 3 years so there were lots of divisions.  I ended up filling 85 old containers I had saved.  (Fortunately, I have a nice big pile of compost at the edge of the woods I can use for filling pots and replenishing holes I have dug.)
      I couldn't remember what color every one of the originals were, but since I knew the colors of several I wanted to keep them separate.  Unfortunately, I didn't have any plant markers to use to mark them.  I therefore decided to look online for ideas.  One that was particularly appealing since I had the materials already was to cut plastic milk or water jugs into strips which could be written on with permanent markers and then stuck into the pots.  I used this method to label all the pots.
      I was relating the idea at a garden meeting on Tuesday when someone gave me an even better one--especially for labeling plants in the ground.  They suggested writing with permanent markers on plastic knives.  Why didn't I think of that?!!  How about clear plastic knives?  (I guess forks would work, too, wouldn't they?)  The transparent color wouldn't be as obtrusive as white ones.  I'm excited about this idea and intend to use it to label my hostas before the leaves turn brown and fall off.  It seems every spring when I think of dividing them I can't remember which ones are planted where.  It would be extremely helpful to have them labeled!
      I thought these ideas might make gardening a little easier for some of you so I'm passing them on.
      If you have any other helpful ideas we would love to hear about them.

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