>> Such joy was never known as those springtime surprises!
I planted one bulb of a fancy Japanese Iris wo years ago. I thought it died. Just this summer, a big green-and-white-striped leaf or stem appeared right where I planted that bulb ... I hope I get a Spring Surprise next spring!
I keep very detailed "maps" of what is in each row of the insert trays and propagation trays when I start seed. Those rows also get tiny white plastic stakes with the name written in pencil. Those are 1/2 wide or 1/3rd wide mini-blind slats. They hold the 18" wide Saran Wrap up off the soil surface when I run out of humidity domes.
Those "tray maps" are easy to print - I use Word or Open Office Office to make "tables" with rows and columns to correspond to rows in plug trays or six-packs in insert trays.
The nice thing about having that as a computer file is that I don't lose it, and I always know which is the latest, most up-to-date version.
If I pot up from the plug trays into 4" pots, each pot gets a white plastic stake (half-wide or whole mini-blind slat).
Usually when I do each wave of seeding, I assign varieties within a species a sequence number, or sometimes make a system like "the tens digit is the species and the ones digit is the variety" Or "Green stem Bok Choys are 10 through 19 and white stems Bok Choys are 20 through 29". Then the small stake can be just "B21".
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Potting out is when my organization breaks down. If I made enough large stakes to label each batch, that's fine until they get overgrown. But I have to walk outside and stoop and burrow through branchs and squint at the label to see what's where.
When a bed is very simple to draw (like long, narrow and straight), I usually remember to make a hand-sketched map, and only lose it 2/3rds of the time.
Once I made a drawing in Visio because I had a long, narrow bed with natural landmarks (Lavatera bushes). I was trying to plant a dozen different salvia varieties in recognizable places. I gave each salvia variety its own number, like "S31".
I've been trying to make a recognizable hand-sketch OR computer map of my whole yard, but my drawing skills are negligible and I haven't put enough time into it to get one large, usable map. Small sections and individual beds are somewhat recognizable.
Unfortunately, Google Maps doesn't give me QUITE enough resolution that I can print one of those and trace it or scan it for an outline. I can't download Google earth at work, and my home PC hard disk is full enough that I'm wary about loading big apps. Some day ...
