We were recently asked for tips on using QR codes as gardeners.
- QR codes on plant tags are more durable than tags that are written on or etched by hand. They may be made of aluminum or plastic and the QR code can be scanned with a smart phone or tablet out in the garden to read the plant information on your phone.
- Paired with a garden record-keeping system QR-coded plant tags are helpful in identifying plants. With hundreds or thousands of plants in a garden, we gardeners just can’t remember all the names. Scan it with your phone and view all the information about your plant that you’ve put into your record-keeping system, including pictures and journal notes.
- Many gardeners have information about their garden in multiple places. Pictures on a computer or phone, journal notes in note books, plant receipts in baggies, file folders or envelopes. Having a QR coded tag linked with a garden record-keeping system, gardeners can have all their garden records, photos and journals in one place, accessible by phone, tablet or computer.
A live example: download a QR code reader on a smart phone (there are plenty free) and you can scan the tag below (or click on it, to get the idea) to see a plant record from Nancy Duffy’s garden.
One of the QR code readers we find to be very good is i-nigma:
Get the i-nigma for iPhone here.
Get the i-nigma for Android here.
Nancy Duffy is an avid gardener and professional garden designer in Asheville NC. The idea for using QR coded tags for plants, combined with a garden record-keeping came to her in a dream (really) and was developed into a product in 2016 and soft-launched in November. It’s called Muddy Boots Plant Tags.