How Do You Mark your Seed Rows?

[Gary350]

I have been wanting to do this for a long time. I use to put seed packages on the metal post but they blow away or fall apart in the rain. I only need markers for seed rows to keep track of what has been planted so I don't accidentally plant it again or forget to plant something. I am going to plant, Napa, Boc Choy, Red Chard, Rainbow Chard, Kale, Cabbage, Carrots, Celery, Peas.

[imafan26]

Great Idea. I don't usually plant in rows and unless I am planting something unfamiliar I use a plastic knife with the planting date and variety name as a marker.

You have a nice big garden. Mine is a lot smaller.

[jal_ut]

When planting I use a nylon string between two stakes to I can plant along the string, then move the string over 30 inches for the next row. So I know I have planted on the one side of the string. What I have planted will be evident once it comes up. I don't mark the rows.

[Farmerboy]

I don't put labels on the row unless it is something new that I will not recognize when it sprouts. When I do label a row, I use a piece of an old mini blind. Snip off about 8 inches of a slat and write the name of the plant on the piece of slat with a Sharpie, then stick it into soil at the end of the row. This also works well to mark pots if you start your seeds indoors.

I use a string and 2 stakes to create a straight row. Then I sprinkle in my seeds, then I sprinkle in a few Radish seeds in each row before I cover them. Radish seeds come up in 3 or 4 days, so you know where the rows are. The other seeds will germinate and grow with the Radishes. By the time you need to thin the other seeds, the radishes will be ready for Table Use.

[xtron]

in the past I used cheap red wool yarn as a row planting guide and a row marker. by mid summer the wool usually was rotted away.
this year I planted in 4X4 foot squares and crowded things as close as I could...basically square foot gardening..so marking rows was not needed.
next year I an going to drop the squares and go with 4 ft wide rows. again using square foot spacing. I have a bunch of 14 foot decking boards from an old deck I intend to use as side boards. they were treated lumber, but have been weathering for at least a dozen years, so most of the chemicals should have been leached out.
I plot out my intended layout on paper, usually starting about now,..the better the planning, the easier the job and the better the results. course, the layout usually changes half a dozen times or so, up to and after planting has begun.

[imafan26]

I usually don't mark everything, just if it is a new variety and I do have to mark pots that have bulbs in them, since the bulbs go down but are not dead. I usually over seed those pots with something short term and shallow like cilantro.

[Gary350]

I map my garden on paper. I don't want tall plants to shade short plants. Some plants need to be planted so they get morning sun then shade from 1 pm to dark. Some things get planted about April 15, others planted May 15, others planted in between. Row 19,20,21 get planted April 15. Row 1,2,3,4,5,6 get planted about May 15. Rows in between get plants at different times. If I plant row 9 with seeds it needs to be marked so I know something was planted there. If I don't mark rows then I might accidentally plant it again before plants have time to come up. I also need to know which row is which by number. Another thing to consider is, squash usually self destruct by July 20 where do I want an empty row and can something else be planted there? Corn and beans are planted in the same 35 ft long rows, 17 ft of corn to the north next year, 17 ft of beans to the south next year. A year later corn an beans swap places, beans to the north and corn to the south. Onions, potatoes, melons, will all be double rows. Onions planted between row 16 and 17 a 3ft wide row 35 ft long shade after 1 pm.. Potatoes between row 12,13. Melons between 10, 11. Peppers row 18 shade after 1 pm. A 3ft x 17ft row of garlic. 12 noon here is not high noon sun is not straight up in the sky until 1:10 pm. Plant your garden is such a way that each plant gets what it likes best. Tomatoes do not like hot weather plant them so they get full shade the hottest part of the day until dark, it gets 95 to 100 here July to August, my tomatoes need shade, your tomatoes may not need shade.

[gumbo2176]

I do woodworking and use a lot of cypress for my projects. I'll take some of my scrap 3/4 inch stock and cut it into slats about 1 ft. long and 1/4 inch thick and use a permanent marker to put the names of plants or type of seeds I planted in an area. By the time the writing fades a bit, I know what's growing and they are no longer needed.