Having tried many things (other than cut-up blinds and the printed labels some of you are using - and I have to say I have never seen those black markers before, and can almost agree with "sexy"
), I think there is no such thing as a perfect label.
For the shortest term (good for less than one year), I use 4" colored plastic labels marked with garden marking pen on one side for easy reading (but have grudgingly (because I hate pencil, and want to keep the label "clean" on that side
) learned to duplicate the info on the other side with pencil). These are short term only, because apart from fading writing, the plastic tends to get brittle and snap, and/or the critters carry them off.
I have tried paint markers (no good, I am hopeless at them) and engraving-my-own (also hopeless at that), and copper impressionable labels (not readable from a distance, and also tend to fall apart in the garden), so for the short term (plastic) labels and the intermediate term (Wren stainless steel labels
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0078IF6TW/ ) I use a garden marker. It's quick and easy, it doesn't leak paint all over me, it dries quickly, and it is legible. http://www.charleysgreenhouse.com/images/products_m/8725.jpg
For long term labels, I use rounded corner black AAA engraved labels on "Simply Elegant" stakes (
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0078IF6TW/ ) , but those have problems too. People and critters can snap the labels off the stakes, sometimes breaking them at the connecting part where they snap onto the stake. (I considered using superglue to try to prevent that, but the reality is that sometimes plants die, or you decide to get rid of them. In that case you can toss the engraved label, but the stake is always useful.)
So right now (and probably always) my garden is a hodgepodge.... plastic, Wren steel, and AAA.
It is always interesting to see how other people do it, though. Maybe I should consider trying out those printed labels on the Wren markers.
