Looking for Cheap but Durable Plant Labels for your garden?
We've found that old blinds make GREAT labels, as they often have UV resistance so they can last multiple seasons (where many plastic or wood garden markers start to get brittle or disintegrate after a season).
Repurposing old blinds is an inexpensive way to label your native plant seedlings so you can share them and keep track of what's what!
Mini-blind slats are easy to cut with a Utility knife / box cutter, or you can also use scissors (but don't use your good ones as a lot of cutting can dull them!)
Use a simple graphite pencils to write on them, which will last all season long, unlike Sharpie's and other markers that are not UV resistant. I can't tell you how many times I've used a Sharpie and by the by the end of the season it has faded and is illegible! Classic pencils are the best! And you can erase them too, to reuse the labels next season. Graphite pencils are highly resistant to UV rays and moisture, with markings often lasting for years without fading because they are mineral-based.
Don't forget to label your seedlings this season, you won't regret it! Unless you're only growing one type of pepper seeds or other vegetable seeds, it's hard to tell many varieties apart – so keeping them labeled is helpful so you know what is going where and makes sharing the extras easier. (Not everyone likes growing a mystery pepper!) Unless your a chaos gardener, and hey, that's ok too. All gardening is good gardening. Labeled or not.
But if you're tired of paying money for plastic labels that just get brittle and break after a season or two, make sure to try mini-blinds – you'll often find them in the dumpster and what better way to repurpose them?
Grow peppers of the world in your garden, it's hard to just pick a few, and if you have room, why not grow lots of varieties instead of just one?
Some peppers thrive in different seasonal conditions or locations each year in the garden, so when you grow a wide variety of peppers you're much more likely to have success. For example, if your bell peppers aren't doing great, if you have some other sweet peppers like Shishitos or Cubanelles you'll ensure you'll get some savory sweet peppers to enjoy. Different varieties of Hatch Chiles can do better in some seasons than others, so it's great to grow a diverse range of peppers to ensure success.
By growing lots of pepper varieties, you can also figure out after a few seasons which types of peppers grow best in your yard, and which ones may not do well for you. For example, if you live in a short season growing zone, and struggle with growing super hot peppers it may simply be that they need a much longer growing season to produce! You can start them earlier indoors, and use other season extending techniques like hot houses/hoop houses or moving them inside, but if that's not something you want to do it's best to grow some varieties that are great for short seasons, like the extra-hot Orange Spice Jalapeño, which only needs about 65 days of growing to begin harvesting. Bell peppers are notoriously hard to grow in some climates without extra care, such as in our hot and dry West – they often get sunburned and don't always do great. Learn more about why bell peppers are so hard to grow and find some great bell pepper alternatives that are easier to grow for many gardeners.
Growing the fastest growing peppers will ensure a very productive pepper garden, and we have a lot of different varieties from sweet peppers to extra hot peppers that will grow quickly so you can enjoy pepper harvests earlier in the season.
Growing many different kinds of peppers also offers a diverse, year-round harvest tailored to different culinary uses and heat preferences. Fresh peppers an be enjoyed in the summer, and then you can enjoy and use dried peppers, hot sauce recipes, pickled peppers, frozen peppers, salsas, chile sauces, and tomato sauces all winter long.
Happy growing (and labeling!)
