2025 Little Easy Bean Network - Growers Of The Future Will Be Glad We Saved

[heirloomgal]

Are you planning to grow all of those this year!? If so you must have a huge and amazing garden!!!

Yes, these are the plan, but I'm not 100% sure in the end I'll be able to fit in all those bush beans. I have a new garden this year to use, so I'll have to see what fits. It looks like more than it is really, as I don't grow a whole lot of any one kind of bean. For a pole variety I usually only plant 4 seeds, 8 at the maximum. Trust me, @Blue-Jay 's garden is waaay bigger than mine!

 

[heirloomgal]

I had a lightbulb moment yesterday out of the blue. It occurred to me that I have so many seeds left from last year's marigold that I am going to put in a plant between each pole of beans. After growing beans on the same ground for years I do think that pest pressures build up, and these particular marigolds ('Gem') are a wilder species and WAY more smelly. If there are any critters who MIGHT want to show up and bother my plants, these will be a great deterrent. And they'll look pretty too! I just need start the transplants in time, and a lot of them. A fellow who requested seeds of these marigolds from me last year told me in the fall that growing the marigolds in his potato rows was the first time he didn't have to deal with potato beetles. So, something to it.

 

[ducks4you]

I swear every marigold flower produces about 50 seeds. WAY more productive than a burdock! It only makes 7.

 

[heirloomgal]

I'm getting tags ready for the bean plants right now, which requires me to wash them, remove the writing from last season and dry with a cloth so I won't wreck the marker I'm using with drops of water. Clearly I made a dreadful mistake last year and used a too high quality indelible marker. 1/2 the pile of tags (a crazy ton of them) have writing that won't come off. Acetone, WD 40, Goo Gone, Cream Cleanser, even sandpaper and I can't get the darn writing off. And I sunk a fair bit of dough to buy all these giant tags. I soaked them all in the sink this evening with a 1/2 cup of Vim & very hot water (stinks!) and went out and bought some new wire scrubbies. I think I'm finally going to make headway now. Oh my gosh what an awful job! Note to self: DO NOT use those heavy duty Sharpie markers from Home Depot!!!

I do always make a map of what's where, but I still like to have a big, easily readable tag right there up high so I can see who it is as I walk the rows. Apparently one must pay in scrubbing for that privilege.

 

[Branching Out]

I'm getting tags ready for the bean plants right now, which requires me to wash them, remove the writing from last season and dry with a cloth so I won't wreck the marker I'm using with drops of water. Clearly I made a dreadful mistake last year and used a too high quality indelible marker. 1/2 the pile of tags (a crazy ton of them) have writing that won't come off. Acetone, WD 40, Goo Gone, Cream Cleanser, even sandpaper and I can't get the darn writing off. And I sunk a fair bit of dough to buy all these giant tags. I soaked them all in the sink this evening with a 1/2 cup of Vim & very hot water (stinks!) and went out and bought some new wire scrubbies. I think I'm finally going to make headway now. Oh my gosh what an awful job! Note to self: DO NOT use those heavy duty Sharpie markers from Home Depot!!!

I do always make a map of what's where, but I still like to have a big, easily readable tag right there up high so I can see who it is as I walk the rows. Apparently one must pay in scrubbing for that privilege.

Not a fun task, Heirloomgal. Tags are an important piece of the gardening puzzle. I've tried multiple methods and found myself frustrated as well. So far my recycled slats of aluminum blinds, cut to size, are functioning well for at least a couple of seasons. After trying multiple pens including expensive 'garden markers' I have settled on labeling with graphite, aka pencil. At the end of the season the aluminum tags are washed, dried, and then the old writing is erased with a white eraser. So far so good-- and cost free.

 

[Decoy1]

I'm getting tags ready for the bean plants right now, which requires me to wash them, remove the writing from last season and dry with a cloth so I won't wreck the marker I'm using with drops of water. Clearly I made a dreadful mistake last year and used a too high quality indelible marker. 1/2 the pile of tags (a crazy ton of them) have writing that won't come off. Acetone, WD 40, Goo Gone, Cream Cleanser, even sandpaper and I can't get the darn writing off. And I sunk a fair bit of dough to buy all these giant tags. I soaked them all in the sink this evening with a 1/2 cup of Vim & very hot water (stinks!) and went out and bought some new wire scrubbies. I think I'm finally going to make headway now. Oh my gosh what an awful job! Note to self: DO NOT use those heavy duty Sharpie markers from Home Depot!!!

I do always make a map of what's where, but I still like to have a big, easily readable tag right there up high so I can see who it is as I walk the rows. Apparently one must pay in scrubbing for that privilege.

It’s a tricky one! I’ve had some marker pen fade away in sunlight too, so it’s easy to get caught between one that’s too indelible and one that’s not indelible enough.

Have you considered a labeller, the kind made by Brother? I’ve had one for donkeys years and it soldiers on. The label strips would stick to your tags, are beautifully clear and weatherproof, and then would peel off at the end of the season.

 

[ruralmamma]

I label the pots for my transplants with a Sharpie as well as labels. I used to use a cleaner called Mean Green and it took it off with just a little effort but caused major coughing fits even when using it outside. Last few years I've been using a generic Magic Eraser. I bought a gallon bag full of new and used plastic plant stakes for .25 at a yard sale and have slowly been removing the writing from the used ones. Somehow my hubby ended up bringing home 99% isopropyl alcohol our local pharmacy had on clearance after the pandemic and I quickly absconded it and put it out of reach. I'm finding it works the best of anything I've tried so far. I'm soaking the tags overnight in it and the writing is coming off with a little effort from the magic eraser. I'm just dipping a corner of the eraser in it and the writing on the pots is coming off with little to no effort.

Surprisingly the tags I labeled with a mechanical pencil last year are still legible even though some of them spent the entire winter outside.

 

[flowerbug]

sharpie ink? doesn't that come off with rubbing alcohol?

i don't like extra stuff in the gardens to have to work around so i do all my plantings in rows and then try to space them so i can tell by looking at them as to where i've planted what. the other thing is that any extra stuff runs the risk of being moved, lost, buried (i have gremlins here...).

so far i've not had to resort to measurements and triangulation but if needed i could also do that.

 

[ruralmamma]

sharpie ink? doesn't that come off with rubbing alcohol?

so far i've not had to resort to measurements and triangulation but if needed i could also do that.

Fresh Sharpie ink comes off well with rubbing alcohol. Once it sits for a few months or even a year, not so well.

I usually have a crude map and/or notes of my garden as stakes have a way of getting moved especially with a little helper in the garden. I can't tell you how many times I've bought plants at the garden center only to find out they weren't the variety I was expecting. That's why I started writing variety names on the pots themselves as I don't have to worry about stakes getting switched around.

 

[heirloomgal]

It’s a tricky one! I’ve had some marker pen fade away in sunlight too, so it’s easy to get caught between one that’s too indelible and one that’s not indelible enough.

Have you considered a labeller, the kind made by Brother? I’ve had one for donkeys years and it soldiers on. The label strips would stick to your tags, are beautifully clear and weatherproof, and then would peel off at the end of the season.

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This is actually a really great idea for doing a lot of tags. After years of doing it the way I am, I feel like there must be a better way. I'm going to look into this on Amazon, thank you for the great idea!

I'm caught in exactly the marker dilemma you mention, by mid summer I was losing the name on more than 1/2 the tags from sun and I had to go around rewriting them all in the garden one afternoon. Time consuming bother that was. The tags that weren't fading are now the ones that I'm struggling with to remove the writing. I had used a couple different markers on the tags over time because there was so many I made, and it really shows. I want the writing to last on the tags- but not forever!