Five of the best... biodegradable plant labels

Plant labels, I’ve decided, are my nemesis. I’ve been able to replace almost every plastic item in my garden with something that’s either as good or better: plastic pots and seed trays, polythene cloches, nylon pea netting and even water butts, all now happily substituted for alternatives in wood, cardboard, paper, jute or (in the case of the water butts) secondhand galvanised metal cattle troughs.

But plant labels have – almost – defeated me.

Useful, convenient… but all destined for landfill, one way or another

Let’s face it, plastic plant labels are jolly useful: they’re cheap, easy to write on, and you can use them indoors or out. But though you can reuse them year after year, if you break them (as I invariably do eventually) they can’t be repaired, or even repurposed: and they are near impossible to recycle.

So I refuse to give in and use them. I have worked my way through many alternatives: I’ve even tried doing without them, writing on the sides of pots and trays instead (not something I’d advise, unless you’re keen on sanding down wooden seed trays at the end of the season to get the writing off again).

None has been a like-for-like replacement, but I’ve ended up with a two-stage workaround that’s good enough for me. Here are five biodegradable labels I’ve found worthwhile.