Thanks that was a great tip.....

This IS an excellent tip, and so much cheaper than the plant tags they sell at the store!

Ditto & AMEN!

I agree. Pencil-on-plastic lasts longer than anything else. And you can erase and re-use them! Free to start with, and re-usable! The Price Is Right!

My handwriting is so terrible that I appreciate the fine line of a pencil as opposed to the wide smear of a Sharpie. I can print several lines of text on a mini-blind, even if I cut it in half first.

Sometimes I even cut a mini-blind slat into thirds lengthwise, so I can label single cells in a 128-cell plug tray. Not often - thirds are very skinny.

In fact, even a wooden pencil has a wider line than I like, so I use a mechanical pencil - it's always sharp. I have some "HB" lead, which is very slightly softer and maybe slightly blacker. I usually use a 0.7 mm mechanical pencil, though the finer 0.5 mm works too.

When I remember, I even mark the date I sowed, or the date I transplanted something.

Next time I see a custom blind shop, I'm going to ask for a bucketfull of their cut ends.

One thing that I think is overkill, though I do it anyway: I clean the slats with abrasive cleanser like Comet or Bon-Ami. I imagine that it gives them a slightly rougher surface, to take the pencil lead better. Silly! But clean.

However, don't make this mistake: washing mini-blind slats in a dishwasher can make them curl or bend permanently if the water is too hot or you enable the "heated drying" feature. Maybe that was because I wound them through the prongs in the rack to get more in and keep them from being thrown around by the spray, but never again!

I love this idea!! I heard this awhile ago and had a bunch of mini blinds I was throwing out -- well instead of throwing I was cutting cutting cutting!!! I have a bazillion markers!!!

I've been using mini blinds for a while, great tip. I even found 2 mini blinds in the dumpster, nothing wrong with them, so I made a lot of markers for friends. Always on the lookout for more.

Great tip, I love these too.

P.S.

It goes without saying that the marker you used in a seedling tray can be re-used when you pot up, or transplant out.

But if you grow densely, lower branches may hide even a large marker in the ground. It will be more visible (some would say "ugly") if you punch a hole in that slat, thread some twine, and tie it around the stem or a branch of the mature plant.

If your soil is too stony or clay-ey to easily push mini-blind slats into it, hold the slat just 1/2" or 1" from the bottom and push slowly. Slide your grip up another tiny bit, and push that down.

When that isn't enough, grab 3-4 slats at once and push those in 1/2" to 1" at a time, maybe wiggling side to side, then pull out all but one. They keep each other from buckling.

When that isn't enough, get a long used knife from Goodwill, with a big fat handle. Shove that in the ground, wiggle slightly back and forth, and you've made a big opening for the plastic slat. Insert it, and press the soil back around it. The longer the knife, the less you have to bend over.

Corey

They are brilliant, but make sure you trim off the sharp corners 1st,.,.especially if you garden in a g-string, [as i somehow have been linked to] is'nt that right charlene,.,.,.,.No seriously, they can make a nasty wound,.,.anthony

I LOVE this tip

Sooooo, let's see, if you use a long machete then you won't hardly have to bend over at all. And you can trim up plants as you go!

Fabby tip

Well Anthony, it has been a while since I wore a "string" in the garden but You can punch a hole in the mini blind label and hang it to the plant with a string...

Hmmmm.... mini blind G-strings.....

Leave it to Anthony. That's why we love him.

I finally used this tip this year to mark some varieties of adeniums. It worked wonderfully! It's one of those tips that have been around for a while & when I finally get around to using it I wonder why it took me so long.

I actually had to buy a small mini-blind from the dollar store. The recycle store didn't have any, nor the 2 "goodwill" type stores I went to. But for about $5, I have enough plant markers to last for years!!

As we replace mini-blinds or I see them being trashed; I grab and cut them for plant markers. I bag them 250-300 and trade them for plants at the round-ups! Never seem to take enough.

In my yard I also can testify to the pencil being the last man standing too Horntoad!! One problem I have is one of my dogs made it her job to pull up all those little white things out of mama's flower beds Now I have to bury them, so the string idea will work great in the future Rick.

Ditto on the great idea! I've been doing this more years than I can count, mainly becus I'm such a miser. I get blinds from Wally-world for $3.95 each and can make quite a few hundred, usually cutting them up while watching a movie or something. Since I sell plants commercially you'll also find me sitting and hand-writing on them plant names/dates, etc.

One year I was lucky enough to get some blue colored ones in addition to the normal white ones. It was great because I could easily tell customers the ones with blue markers were $xx.00 and it kept me from having to price them all. Color coded! Yay!

And yep, pencil lasts much longer than most sharpie pens. If you use a sharpie (or even the "nursery markers" which also eventually fade) in your garden it helps to face the written side towards the plant so the sun won't hit it directly and fade the words.

Shoe (happily free of making markers and writing on them till next year!)

Same here Shoe...I go to Fred's (do you have those over your way?) and can get mini-blinds for a couple bucks, sometimes less.

Nope, no Fred's here. (Well, except for Bert's brother, Fred, and those two I keep catching coming over here after the bars close, bringing straws and sip all the beer out of my slug bait saucers!)

But we have dollar stores so I should check there sometime.

Shoe (off on the hunt for the illusive whistlepig, daily!)