Yesterday I met Carol Ann Moyer, a master gardener who's transformed the old iris garden at Delaware Valley College in Doylestown. (Story to come in the paper soon) She's invented a neat system for labeling her hundreds of irises and other plants.
Her inspiration came from Good Morning, America, where Diane Sawyer mentioned some startling statistics: Each person, in his or her lifetime, leaves behind 26,408 aluminum cans and 900 wire hangers, most of which end up in landfills. That's frightening and awful and Carol was shocked into action.
She makes plant labels out of soda cans and hangers, and though this isn't a great picture, you get the idea. Carol says, "Your plant collection is only as good as your I.D. system," so gardeners everywhere, listen up.
She takes an old (clean) soda can, cuts the top and bottom off with a box cutter or razor knife. She does this by holding the can sideways and rotating it. Once the top is off, she puts a water bottle into the open end to hold the can rigid - and then she cuts the bottom off.
She cuts along the bar code line with scissors - insisting that this is very easy and not dangerous. She cuts a piece big enough to fold over twice, inside out. If the edges aren't smooth, she uses a paper cutter to make clean lines.
She cuts a coat hanger in the middle (as you're looking at it), which produces two U-shaped stands. The bent hook part is cut off and not used. Then Carol attaches one of the stands to the newly fashioned label with a dab of hot glue. You can write your plant's I.D. with a Sharpie or make a plastic label.
Sounds more complicated than Carol swears it is. "This is my contribution toward making a greener planet," she says.
