Organizing Your Flower Garden

Labeling Flower & Vegetable Types

T-shaped labels by Woodstream 

will allow one to simplify the
 process of identifying plants.

Label your flowers: if you have a growing collection of the different flower colors, then the next thing you should be doing is to label the flowers in your collection-label each different color name and variety. Either your local nursery or even walmart will have little plastic tags that you can stick in the ground by what you've planted . These are seasonal items and they appear around March or April. Sometimes the name stakes go really quickly at places like Walmart, which disappear by late summer or early fall at most outlets.

For a very affordable price--next to nothing--you can  buy plastic, white name tags at Walmart that you can put in the ground around your plants. Sometimes it is a seasonal item--so look for them in the garden center in late Spring through mid-Summer. T-shaped labels by Woodstream will allow one to simplify the process of identifying plants, while allowing easy visibility of plant or flower names with white labels that are easily pushed into soil. The white plastic labels cost $3.38 at Wal-Mart, excluding sales tax.

Keeping Track

Invest in some sharpies to keep track of your garden. The particular brand I used a few years ago (not the one pictured) comes with a graphite pencil in the bag. The Sharpie will last longer than the "Dauntless" pencil. This works particularly well for Irises, Daylilies, and any other flowering plant you wish to categorize. So, the next time someone asks "What variety is that plant?," you can tell them. The Sharpies may wear off after  a year. Therefore, it will be important to have a paper copy as well to update the labels or replace weathered ones with.


Bad Flower Bed Experiences

Never assume the lawnmower man will
leave your Irises, Cannas, or Yuccas
still standing from their mowing spree.

Believe it or not, it's been eight years since I labeled my irises and some of the original labels in the shade are in still crisp black handwriting. Last year our lawn mower man mowed all of my irises down and all of the labels along with the plants; the irises were out of blooming season but the mowing damaged some of the rhizomes too, which did not come back this year. I attribute losing four varieties to that lawn mower man plus myself for not watching out for erosion.

Lawn fencing like this very inexpensive
stone edging is not only cheap, but
will let the lawn person know not to
mow over your flower bed.

Another painful lesson was earlier this year when the lawnmower man mowed over the sunflowers that were coming back from last year. The final lesson learned here is to not count on the lawn mower man to recognize what is and isn't a flower bed. This year I put up a faux stone border around the surviving iris plants to protect them. It's just in time too; since our old lawn mower man moved, a new lawn mower man starts tomorrow.