oooohhhhhh,

I did the same thing,all my markings are gone!
Like you carmen grower,i thought for sure the PERMENT marker would last a couple of months,now i don't know what is what,but i do know it's important,or i wouldn't have planted it. :0)

This will be a surprise garden this year for me also.

I am sure we are not alone.

Carol

For next year: try paint pens. Michael's Crafts sells Deco brand for under $4 and they last a long time. Some markers I made last winter for in the ground are still out there, legible as the day they were made.

Karen

LOL ya me too, i even knew about the permenant marker thing, LOL but unfortunantly i had half of them planted. LOL
but my stuff fell off, and my rubberband, GONE!!! LOL ohhhhh that sun!!! can't live with its effects and can't live w/o its effects!!! LOL ohhh boy!! but we have learned a valuable lesson for next year!! and so much more from so many people!! now if i can just remember it all!! LOL

I put little vertical blind pieces inside the containers using perm marker and they are all still legible. Also marked the outsides and many are indeed fading. But...still have the markers inside!

I am trying the "perm. marker pressed hard into foil tape" method and I have noticed that although some of the marker is gone, I can make out the printed info in the "engraving". Also - my "inside the jug, stuck in the soil" labels (on venitian blinds)written with perm. marker seem ok so far. I learned the hard way last year to always make an inside label as well as an outside label!

I followed Karen's advice and went to Michael's for Deco paint pens. The pens worked great and haven't faded one iota! Thanks Karen!

I used plastic spoons for my markers as they are cheap, cheap, cheap and easy to find at any grocery store.

You're welcome, Laura. I eat yogurt every day and I cut up the yogurt cups to make markers. Free, and works well.

Karen

I use cut-up vertical blinds and a No. 2 lead pencil which seems to stay fairly well. I also mark the outside of the containers with permanent markers, but of course, they fade pretty quick.

I wrote the container # on the outside with permanent marker, which does fade with time, but you can write over it again before it totally fades. I also put a plant tag on the inside of the container. Made these out of popsicle sticks covered with aluminum tape, and then used a fine ball-point pen to "emboss" the plant name into the tape. That aluminum tape is really sticky and I made sure to wrap it all around the popsicle stick, sealing the sides and ends. I'm hoping these markers will last at least a season or two, cuz for sure I would forget what some of the plants are otherwise.

The cut-up mini-blinds sound like a good idea and they'd be a lot easier to make, but I didn't happen to have any of those laying around. I already had the roll of the tape and lots of popsicle sticks.

They work pretty good for me for the most part, but I keep my labeling facing north because mine are all in S.W.exposure and fading can be pretty bad. Some markers are better than others and I have found the Burpee Marking Pen worked the best. It ran out on my last year (last 3 years!)and I started scratching in numbers as deep as possible on each container/jug and marking over it. Even if the ink fades the numbers will still be there. Besides the database, I keep a notepad and each container I sow gets recored in the notepad with it's number. I can always check back in this log when labels fail to hold up D:

Vera

I kept an eye on my containers. As soon as the lettering started to fade, I was out there remarking them.

Until yesterday that is.....I sowed 7 jugs and foolishly grabbed a dry eraser pen. Probably wouldn't have been such a big deal but I woke up to rain this morning.

Guess what? No markings! lol Talk about Duh! AAaaahhh well, surprises are nice right?

Michelle

Barbe the vertiucal blinds is what I use too. Much sturdier than the miniblind slats. Free at the Home Depot if they've cut any for people yet. Anything longer than 3 inches is sufficient for me.

If you get longer pieces cut them once lengthwise and you'll never lose those plant markers because they are sooo big!

This is a real problem that we all encounter. My solution is probably laughable but it works for me. I have lists of my different types of containers (earlier I posted how I use a variety of planting cell trays) which each get a unique number of toothpicks so container type cross referenced to toothpick number and cell tray map equals a plant type. It does get a bit silly and I am out there in late May with my dirty wet lists and maps blowing all over when planting but my toothpicks always come through. One thing I challenge myself with though is learning what the seedlings of various plants look like. Probably 50% of things I can ID this way now. This is probably the best defense but then if you wait that 4' tall helenium will eventually let you know what it is as it flowers up against and flops onto your walk.

Hmmmmm... I'm wondering if those of you that are having the permanent marker fading, are putting the label on the side of the container, or the bottom? I bought a 5 pack of colored electrical tape, write the name of the plant with a black or blue Sharpie permanent marker, and place it on the bottom of the container. When I finished planting out last summer, all of the labels were still very legible. One thing I discovered pretty quickly, is that this has to be done when the container is dry. If I forget, and try to put in on after the wet soil is in it, the tape won't stick to the wet container. The other thing is that I squeeze out any air bubbles under the tape, which helps prevent water from getting underneath later when I bottom water.

The cool think about wintersowing is that everyone will find solutions that work best for them, and there is no RIGHT way to do it (but it is nice to learn from OTHER people's mistakes, LOL).

Bonnie

I put duct tape on the bottom and used a permanent marker, I'll have to check mine.......I did write on the jug too, some are still there.

Foil tape and ball point pen. The ink fades, but the impressions do not. I bought a roll several years ago for about 6-7 bucks. Still have plenty.

Carmen,
I made the same rubberband and plastic wrap newbie mistake last year. Everyone here will help you with seedling ID. Some are very good at it. Get yourself a picasa album started. You're gonna need it. ;o)

I have not tried the pressed foil tape suggestion yet, but I've had great success with craft sticks and pencil. It was the only thing that held up for me last year, and the only thing I'm using this year. The craft sticks only last 6-9 months and then break. The writing is still there when the wood gives out. I just slide the broken sticks under the mulch to decay.

To mark the place of invisibly tiny seedlings that I have planted out, I use a toothpick. It helps prevent me from accidentally weeding a seedling.

Here is a link that might be useful: The seedling site with photo IDs

I also have a silly way of marking my jugs. I press realllly hard with my pen, the letter/number of the jug so that it permantly leaves the impression in the milk jug. So far, I can always make out that impression, and then I write in a notebook (as I sow) the letter/number of the jug and what is inside. I tried perm. marker on mini blinds inside the jug, and they still faded for me.

Know what I did?

I used stickers! :oP

No kiddin'. I was in the crafts store to get a good paint or permanant marker since I read that fading can be problematic.

Anyway, I noticed a display of stickers and said to myself, "Hmmm...maybe that'll work better?"

Bought a couple different types, came home, put some of them inside laminated paper, cut each individual one out and stuck it in the container. I had extras of each. So in my notebook you'll see, for example, a sticker of a duck. Next to it, it says "Lavender Munstead". Below that there's a sticker of a goose with "Foxglove" written.

So far, so good. And it makes me giggle. I'm a newbie so the hubbie thinks I'm nuts as it is working w/ seed and dirt in the middle of the winter...in the middle of our kitchen. Add the sticker collection and he REALLY thinks i've gone off the deep end.

But alittle crazy is good for the soul. Or at least that's my theory! :oP

Wubba, you might be on to something there. If you used a plain sticker, like the labels for manila folders, wrote the name of the plant or the jug #, and then lamenated over the front it would probably keep it from fading or peeling off.

Hmmmm... I may give that a try next year.

Bonnie