Crow’s Nest: new garden labels

I don’t usually cut back perennials in the barnyard garden until the end of winter so they provide wildlife cover. This year the October snow flattened everything so we cut them back already. Plus I am making new labels for the plants and needed to be able to place them in the mulch.

We designed and installed barnyard garden almost ten years ago using a bequest from the extraordinary horticulturist Sally Reath. The barnyard garden at Crow’s Nest is mostly—but not exclusively—native plants. It also includes cultivated varieties of native plants as shown on the label above.

These labels are cheap and legible (the handwritten ones I made before were merely cheap). I got the idea of using a labelmaker from the native beds at the National Conservation Training Center in Shepherdstown, West Virginia. The labelmaker doesn’t do italics well so the Latin names are not italicized. Each label has the plant’s Latin scientific name followed by its common name.

Labeling in one bed is completed. I am trying to do one plant label each day this winter, or a few while waiting for appointments at the visitor center.