Tips and Tricks – Muddy Boots Plant Tags

TIPS AND TRICKS

If you have a lot of plants, notes and pictures, it can be daunting to think about organizing and entering all that information into your Muddy Boots Plant Tags account. I am in the process of documenting my garden, Acorn Hill, and would like to offer some suggestions based on my experience.

1. HAVE YOUR DIGITAL PHOTOS IN FOLDERS BY YEAR.

This is pretty easy to do on the computer because most computers will sort things by file date. Then you can cut and paste blocks of pictures into a folder for each year. This makes it easier to sort through a lot of digital photos as you go along.

2. HAVE YOUR BAGS, BOXES, AND FOLDERS OF OLD PLANT TAGS AND RECEIPTS HANDY.

If you need a bit of help remembering all your plants, having those dirty old tags at hand helps if you want to put in both the Common and Botanical name, or if you need an assist in remembering where you bought things.

3. THINK ABOUT YOUR GARDEN IN TERMS OF AREAS.

You might have a Front Yard, Back Yard and Side Yard. Or, you might have specific garden rooms like I do. I have a Courtyard, Formal Garden, Moss Garden, and so on.

4. PICK A STARTING PLACE, AND DO A BIT AT A TIME.

I started by creating a Garden Record for all of my important plants in the Courtyard. I have several Japanese Maples, so I started there. Then I mentally walked around that space and added other trees and shrubs in the Courtyard. I took a final mental pass around and recorded the perennials. This way I could do a chunk in one sitting and feel a real sense of accomplishment.

Some suggestions for ways to organize are:

By area of the garden
By plant type such as trees, shrubs, perennials
By year planted

5. TO EASILY UPLOAD PHOTOS, TOGGLE BETWEEN THE PHOTO UPLOAD PAGE AND YOUR FOLDER OF PICTURES ON YOUR COMPUTER.

As I started uploading pictures, I found that it was easiest to look at pictures in a folder on my computer to decide which one to upload. I noted the file name or number, then switched to the UPLOAD page in Muddy Boots Plant Tags, chose that file and clicked upload. While that was uploading, I would go back to the image file in the folder to note the date it was taken. Switching back to the UPLOAD, the file would be just finishing and I’d be ready to add my Date, Title, and Caption if I wanted.

6. THE FASTEST WAY TO UPLOAD PHOTOS IS TO RESIZE THEM FIRST.
Depending on the size of your images and the speed of your internet connection, uploading pictures can be slow. I live in the country and have a slow connection, so the fastest way for me to upload pictures is to resize them before I upload them. My process is:

a. COPY (so you don’t lose your original file) the pictures that you want to upload to a temporary folder.
b. Do a mass resize to 50% using something like Microsoft Picture Manager or paint.net.
c. Upload your pictures to Muddy Boots Plant Tags.
d. Delete the temporary folder with the COPIES of your pictures.

7. RECORD A SPECIFIC PROJECT

Rather than creating a Garden Record for a plant, I created one for a project. This allowed me to organize pictures of our Pond Garden Project from start to finish and make journal notes about the process. Click here to see the Pond Garden Project.

8. RECORD YOUR GARDEN BY YEAR

I also created a Garden Record for our garden, Acorn Hill. For each of the fourteen years we’ve lived here I’ve uploaded pictures that highlight big changes in the garden or a particular view that is fun to see over time. I also wrote a short Journal note for each year describing some of the things that happened that year.

Although it took time to look through my photos for each year, I really enjoyed remembering those events and reflecting on how Acorn Hill has changed. I spent an hour or so at a time entering each year’s data so it didn’t seem overwhelming. Click here to see my record of Acorn Hill.

Finally, Muddy Boots Plant Tags is a platform for organizing and distilling your pictures and thoughts and plant details; it’s not a place for mass uploads. I think of it as telling the story of your garden. I’m enjoying the process and I hope you do to.

All About Garden Records
All About Garden Journal
All About Photo Gallery
Working with our Interactive Plant Tags
Access Your Garden Records from Anywhere

GARDEN RECORDS

Garden Records is essentially the home page for your garden records at Muddy Boots Plant Tags. This is the first page you’ll see when you log in and it is where you will add plants and other records to your Garden Records. The Menu in the top right corner takes you to various functions of Muddy Boots Plant Tags.

GARDEN RECORDS SCREEN

garden-records

On this page you’ll see the fields below. Except for one Name field, you do not have to fill in all of these, but they are available to you.

Plant Tag	If you have assigned a Plant Tag to this record it will be displayed.
Common Name	If you have entered a Common Name it will display here. You do not have to fill this in, but you must enter either a Common Name or a Botanical Name.
Botanical Name	The Botanical Name you have entered for this plant. You do not have to fill this in, but you must enter either a Botanical Name or a Common Name.
Garden Location	This is the area of your garden that this plant is in. For example, you might have a garden location of “Front Yard” or “Perennial Border”.
Date Planted	The date you put it in the ground.
Edit	When you click the red pencil, you’ll see a page to edit the data you’ve entered.
Data Sheet	This is a place to copy a link to a plant data sheet from an external site. For example, you may frequently look at plant data at Missouri Botanical Garden or a specific plant producer. A data sheet typically gives information about plant size, growing conditions, and hardiness zones. To see an example datasheet for Dogwood, click here.

Once you’ve entered information about several plants you can SORT your Garden Records by all of these columns except Edit and Data Sheet. You may also SEARCH the text fields – either Name, Garden Location, Source – using one or more search words.

SEARCH RESULTS SCREEN

PLANT VIEW

In your Garden Records, both the Common and Botanical Names link to a Plant View page that displays all of the information you’ve input about that plant. This includes the basic Garden Record data, PLUS Journal Notes you’ve made about the plant and Photos that you’ve uploaded for this plant. This is a page that you can share on social media. See a live example of Plant View for Cornus controversa Variegata.

The top of the page displays the Garden Record data and the most recent picture that you’ve uploaded. It is here that you may ASSIGN a Plant Tag by clicking the Edit Pencil and scrolling to the bottom of the page.

PLANT VIEW SCREEN

On the Plant View page you may ADD a Journal Note for this plant, and any previous notes you’ve made will be displayed in date order from most recent to the oldest entry. You may wish to record notes about when you pruned or fertilized this plant or comment on its bloom. You may assign a Keyword to the note on which you may SORT Journal Notes, so for example you can easily find all of your notes on Pruning.

PLANT VIEW SCREEN – JOURNAL SECTION

Journal Notes Section of Plant View

You may also ADD a Photo for this plant, along with a Title, Caption and Date the Photo was taken. Photos – slightly reduced for Gallery View – are displayed in descending order by most recent data with the plant name. By clicking on the Photo, you see a larger image along with the plant Name, Title, Caption and Date and other details about this plant.

PLANT VIEW – PHOTO GALLERY SECTION

Plant View Photo Gallery Section

INDIVIDUAL PHOTO VIEW

Individual Photo View

The Photo upload may take a minute or two if your photos are 3 MB or larger. This also depends on the bandwidth of your internet connection. The size of the image file is reduced when uploaded to Muddy Boots Plant Tags so that they load relatively quickly when you view them. The size of the original image file on your phone or computer doesn’t change.

You may edit the data you’re looking at where ever you see the red pencil!

You may also record information about an area of your garden or a garden project. By adding a plant named Pond Project, I documented the development of our fish pond. To see a live example click here.

GARDEN JOURNAL

The Garden Journal (Journal in the menu top right corner) displays ALL of your Journal Notes about your plants and garden in one place, rather than showing them on an individual plant page. The notes are displayed in descending order by date with the most recent entry first. A portion of the text is displayed, but you will see a link to “more” which will display the entire Journal Note and all other data about the plant. This is a page that can be shared on social media.

You may SORT Journal Notes by the Keyword you assigned to the entry when you made it. You may SEARCH your Journal Notes for one or more search words. The search will scan Plant Names, the content of the entry, Garden Location, Source, and Keyword.

JOURNAL NOTES

Journal Notes

To record general notes about your garden, you simply ADD a Garden Record for your garden rather than a specific plant. We named our garden Acorn Hill, so that is our garden’s Plant Name. You may choose something like “Duffy Garden” or something more fanciful. Then you can make notes and add photos about your garden in general. Click here for a live link to our Acorn Hill Garden.

CLICK THE PICTURE BELOW TO SEE ACORN HILL LIVE

PHOTO GALLERY

The Photo Gallery (Photos in the menu top right corner) displays ALL of your pictures of your plants and garden in one place, rather than showing them on an individual plant page. The notes are displayed in descending order by most recent date. The Plant Name and Photo Date are displayed along with the picture, but you may click on the photo to see a larger image, the Title and Caption you have entered, and all other Garden Record data about the plant. This is a page that can be shared on social media.

PHOTO GALLERY SCREEN

Photo Gallery

INDIVIDUAL PHOTO VIEW

Photo View of Floating Cloud

You may SEARCH your Photo Gallery for one or more search words. The search will scan the Plant Names, Garden Location, Source, Title and Caption fields.

INTERACTIVE TAGS

Muddy Boots Plant Tags are interactive tags that, when scanned with a smart phone, display information that YOU have entered about YOUR plant. The tag itself is about 1” x 2” made of thick aluminum with a black UV-resistant coating. The tag is just large enough to be easy to find, but won’t interrupt up the look of your garden. A tag may be hung from a branch or pinned to the ground with a landscape pin.

The tag is etched with a QR Code that carries a tag number and web address to your page in your account at Muddy Boots Plant Tags. No two tags will ever have the same QR Code.

To SCAN a Muddy Boots Plant Tag you must have a QR Code Reader on your smart phone. Many are available FREE for both Android and iPhone. We recommend the i-nigma reader for speed and ease of use, and it is available for both Android and iPhone and you download it like any other app.

Get the i-nigma for iPhone/iPad here.
Get the i-nigma for Android here.

To see a live Plant View of Dwarf Fothergilla, use your phone to SCAN this tag:

Fothergilla Tag

Note: QR Codes are becoming increasingly prevalent in commerce. Once you know what one is, you’ll start seeing them everywhere.

Visitors to your garden may also SCAN your Muddy Boots Plant Tags. Because you must be logged in to your account to make any changes, your visitors will only view Plant View Pages, but will not be able to add or change anything. The Plant View Page displays the information you’ve entered about your plant.

To SCAN a tag, open your QR Code Reader on your phone – it uses your phone’s camera – and align the tag in the frame on your phone. You should be able to read it from about 18” or closer. Your Plant View Page for that tag will display on your phone and you’ll see all your information including Names, Garden Location, Source, Date Planted, a link to a Data Sheet PLUS your Journal Notes and your Photos.

ASSIGN A TAG

Not all of your Garden Records will have a Plant Tag. You may create Garden Records for all your plants, but only tag certain ones such as important specimen plants or new plants that you’re still becoming familiar with. Of course, you may tag all of your plants if you like.

When you buy Muddy Boots Plant Tags – available in bundles of 5 tags – your account will be assigned a unique block of tag numbers. As soon as you’ve bought them, you’ll see them in your account and you may begin assigning them – even before they’ve come in the mail.

To ASSIGN a tag to a plant, you will ADD A RECORD. At the bottom of this screen is a field called PLANT TAG. You will click inside this box, and the plant tags that you’ve purchased will display. You simply select one and that’s it! You may also ASSIGN a tag to a record you’ve already created using the EDIT function.

Edit Plant Fothergilla

Once you’ve assigned one of your tag numbers to a record, it will no longer show as available to assign. You may, however, re-assign one of your tag numbers, say for instance you’re plant died. You EDIT the original garden record and click in the Plant Tag box. It will let you REMOVE THIS TAG. Once done, that tag number is released back into your available tag numbers and you may ASSIGN it to another plant, perhaps its replacement.

TAG A PLANT

It is easiest to ADD your Garden Records and ASSIGN your tags at the computer or tablet, then take your physical tags to the garden. You do not need to keep track of which tag goes with which plant … simply take your smart phone to the garden with you, scan a tag you’ve assigned, and attach it to that plant with either a wire or landscape pin.

Nancy Tagging a Plant

TAG PRICING

Tags are sold in bundles of five. You may buy several bundles at once, or add more later on. The more bundles you buy at once, the lower the price per bundle. Once you’ve subscribed, you may order tags from your My Account Page.

1 – 5 bundles	$9.95 per bundle
6 – 10 bundles	$9.45 per bundle
11 – 15 bundles	$8.96 per bundle
16+ bundles	$8.46 per bundle

EASY ACCESS

Muddy Boots Plant Tags is online which means you can get to it anywhere you have an internet connection AND you can log in with your smart phone, tablet, or computer. Your phone is great for SCANNING the tags and VIEWING your Garden Records in the garden. Your tablet or computer is great for ADDING Garden Records, Journal Notes and Photos.

Remember, you can share on social media many pages from your Muddy Boots Plant Tags account, including Plant View Pages, My Garden Page, Journal Note Pages, and Photo Gallery Pages. You may also email a link to these pages to a friend. It’s simple and a fun way to share your garden!

To see a live Plant View page for our Pond Project, click here!

Category: Tips and Tricks

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Getting Started with Muddy Boots Plant Tags

Features of Muddy Boots Plant Tags