When writing plant labels in the garden Don Burke always suggests a 6B pencil. The reason for using a 6B is because it is a soft pencil which will write on most bought labels (except ice-cream container labels) and is not affected by the weather. Permanent markers for the outdoors that will write on greasy surfaces are chinagraph pencils which are waxy pencils and write with ease on ice-cream container labels. Artline permanent markers that have paint and a ball bearing inside, 400XF and 440XF are also suitable for outdoor use and will write on almost any surface and won’t fade when exposed to UV light.
Cost and availability
The pencils and markers are available from good newsagents. A 6B pencil cost about 60 cents, a chinagraph pencil costs about $1.30 and the Artline permanent markers costs about $6.65.