Are you looking for an easy way to remember plant names in your garden after the plants have been planted and months have passed? I was. We recently planted our new planter box and I was thinking about how my mom knew the names of every single plant she ever planted. Always. I am not so good even though I try to remember the plant names after I plant, but I only know the more “famous” ones – the dahlias, the daisies, the relentless matilija poppies. Then I thought, there must be an easy why to record the plant names while I was planting.

Sure, I could just leave the little identification marker in the box next to the plants, but 1. I think it is unreliable and not that cute and 2. Spencer pulled most of them out at the store. Luckily, the pots had labels, but that isn’t helpful for IN the planter box. Pencil and paper seems so 1996, so I went to the old standby – phone camera.

At first, I just took photos with the pot or label marker. Boring and decidedly not cute, but very functional.

Serviceable

Boring, hard to read

My dahlia wants to party all the time.

So. Fine. But not what I wanted. I thought I could write all the plant names on with picmonkey or photoshop, but I didn’t want to bring my laptop outside or the pots in the house. And then (FINALLY) I realized that I could just take the photos with my iPhone and write on them at the same time with an app. I use over, but any app with text would work.

Tada!

So simple.

Now I want an app that will let me take photos, store the name, date, location and then file them away sorted by location in my house. Does that exist? The ultimate garden app.

I plan on using the write-on the plant photos method in the vegetable garden when we put it in next week. I don’t have that much trouble remembering plant names with edibles, but I do have a horrible time remembering the date I planted them. I think that’s why my dad always planted tomatoes Mother’s Day weekend – made it easy to remember. You could also use the calendar app to record planting dates, but I think photos are more fun.

Hey, look this would be cute on pinterest. Hint. Hint.