There’s no need to spend lots of money on plant labels. Slats from discarded miniblinds make good markers in a garden.
Among gardeners are souls who have fashioned frugality into pathological perfection. We call ourselves "tightwads."
We re-use flower pots and garden tools, we save seeds and root cuttings and swap them with friends in the spirit of camaraderie and penny-pinching. We also aspire to have the most beautiful yards with the lowest water bills and overall costs.
Since few of us have Martha's millions, we must be ingenious in our quest for champion cheapness. So, in this and future columns it will be my pleasure to share a few things that I've learned during my 32 years of promoting organics and recycling.
First up, garden signs.
Penny-pincher or not, you may flinch at the price of those plastic or metal signs designed for labeling your veggie rows. Good grief, they'll eat up much of the money you save by growing your own food. Plus, they offer precious little room for you to write the name of the crop and planting date.
Here's my favorite alternative: discarded miniblinds. Yep, be they metal or plastic - white miniblinds are easy to turn into garden signs.
Snip the string along the sides until the slats slide out; cut the slats into the lengths you need; and, using a dull No. 2 pencil, write all relevant data (I prefer the inner curved side). Unlike those expensive wax pencils and indelible garden ink markers, No. 2 pencils are cheap, won't fade and are lead-free, despite the name.
As an amateur rose breeder who often sets out hybrid seedlings in the test gardens, I can record the name of both parents and the date of the cross: for example, (Duchesse de Brabant X Francis E. Lester) 3-12-01.
With your fingers, push one end of the slat deep into the soil so it won't flop over in windy weather. Plastic slats grow brittle after a year or so in our intense sunshine, but by then the crop will have been harvested.
The only drawback to these signs is my miserable handwriting, which over the years has devolved into a form of shorthand most folks find illegible. But if you have handsome handwriting, yours will add grace to the garden, as you laugh all the way to the bank.
- John A. Starnes Jr., born in Key West, is an avid organic gardener and rosarian who studies, collects, cultivates and hybridizes roses for the diverse regions of Florida. He can be reached at JohnAStarnes@aol.com
