I was literally on my hands and knees yesterday combing through a clump of something trying to decide what it was that was coming up. I'm pretty sure that I have carefully weeded and mulched around what is nothing more than a weed just to be on the safe side.

I do my weeding with a scuffle hoe type thing and crash bang through my beds like a mad-woman, only to remember later that evening "Oh, wow- didn't I have some _____ planted there?"

This time of year I must spend 30 minutes a day staring at patches of ground looking for emerging leaves that look like they might be something. Just show me a pip, a sprout, something! I still have two lost coreopsis I haven't found yet- of course the expensive ones.

And given the flash freeze we had last December there are a number of things I'm wondering if made it- I weeded right through a bed of Colocasia Pink China and never saw a thing but IIRC they are late coming up.

"Every year, I have label fails - missing, swapped, illegible."

I keep a plant list of everything I have- I enter the plant when I buy it. The last couple of years I have taken to adding notes next to plants (down by the bottle tree or next to the birdbath) and it has saved my memory more than once. I even keep the scraps of paper I doodle planting plans on so I can go back later if I need to to figure out what I put where.

I do have a baby shrub in a new bed that I have no idea what is- we moved so many things last fall I simply lost track. I think it is a crape myrtle, but they are so late to leaf out here I'll not know for another month.

I am pretty certain I have lists of seeds and when I do labels, I list numbers and dates, as well as species names...but I have a sheepdog who loves nothing more than to carefully remove every label if I turn my back for an instant....

I had to stop using a long-handled hoe because I was such a maniac - I have a little onion hoe and a ho-mi (which I don't love as much as I hoped because the blade is at a weird angle).

I did decide to plant a hardy geranium but managed to toss a trowel-full of soil on top of a pot of tomato seedlings, mangling half of them. Yeah, I am stiffening my sinews in preparation for a long season of planticide.

And I thought this was just me! I too do the lists with all the details and even bought a 5000 pack of labels. But I always take on way more than I can handle. Moving things around whether it be in containers or the ground and things get confusing because I can't always remember what I did. I started journaling my efforts several years ago. That helps some. Then I started taking pics of areas and seedling stages to help me remember. Not a perfect system, but does help quite a bit.

Ho yes - this idea we will somehow 'remember' what we have sowed 6 months ago when I have forgotten where I put my secateurs less than 10 minutes ago!

Last autumn, I was definitely going to make a much better, more coherent and harmonious garden - For sure, I was going on about it on here...well, all that is out of the window and I am once again, resigned to the fact of the usual mishmash of inappropriate plants, poked into any old space. However, there is a positive side of this - the possible pleasures of 'surprises'...like a spring birthday or something. Accepting a certain lack of control or planning does lead to chances of serendipity, little spots of loveliness which appear out of the blue.

Tucking away one of the remaining Rosemoor geraniums underneath the hesperis, I think it will be good enough to grow some new plants and have some interesting garden vignettes to enjoy (or not) but hey, it is all fleeting and ephemeral because gardens are always in the process of change.

Hi everyone,

In my zinnia breeding hobby, good labels in the garden are pretty much a prerequisite. I did my label shopping at Kincaid Plant Markers

(That is a clickable link.)

I wound up purchasing a bunch of stainless steel markers.

They are satisfying my garden label needs. Kincaid has a variety of different styles of garden markers and labels.

ZM (Not associated with any product or vendor mentioned or linked).