[Farmboss64]

Any ideas?

[cans]

I use twigs or, if newly bark chipped the paths I use long this bits from there.

It doesn’t need to be fancy unless you want to label the rows.

I don’t bother with labels as we don’t grow much and although we have a yearly planting plan OH never puts anything where it is supposed to go!

[doganjo]

I don't plant in rows but it does make it more exciting hoeing 

[DippyEgg]

If you want something "special" wooden spoons with the veg type written on them looks fun!

[Q]

I recycle twigs from a buddleia bush because there are multiple forks (different sizes of marker) and easy to break off.

[Fleecewife]

I use various things.  Old canes with tennis balls on top to save the eyeballs and a name label tied on.   The small square section bits of wood used as spacers at the fencing suppliers for piles of stobs (they are just chucked out with the rubbish normally so no-one objects to me collecting them), name of crop painted on, reuseable year after year.   Hazel poles which are too short to use for beanpoles - shave a smooth flat bit on one side at the end and paint on name of crop.  If I had field length rows old fence stobs could be used.
For seedlings, I'm lucky enough to have a 'Brother' label printer, which I stick onto plastic labels (which I bought years ago before I cared about plastic use) - they can be peeled off each year so I don't buy new plastic, but you could use recycled plastic from spread tubs or milk cartons.  The labels last several years before the print fades, unlike pencils and marker pens which photodegrade before the season's up. I sometimes tie these labels onto sticks when the seedlings are planted out.
There are so many things you can use, depending on what you have lying around or growing. I no longer buy new canes from China as I grow coppiced hazel and willow which provide much more attractive poles and sticks.

[naturelovingfarmer]

I'm also in the no rows camp, but needing to label the plants, I use the wire markers with the copper plates on them from the local garden store. You impress the plates with an awl or empty ballpoint pen and then stick the wire into the ground. It helps the people I garden with. In years past, they've gone out to do weeding while I was away and pulled up vegetables because there were no markers. My planting is in loosely organized blocks.

[Ghdp]

bits of roofing slate with generalised crop identified in paint.Not a work of art. Bras (brassica  obs!!)  Main advantage is they survive the winter and remind me what on earth I grew there and I can move them to use again. Individual rows I mark with any old stick.

[Kiran]

Chopped up pallet sections usually or off cuts of roofing batten recently. Bot free, quick and visible

[Lesley Silvester]

A twig one end and a label the other.

[cloddopper]

some 11 years ago I cut up some surplus second hand UPVC square down pipes & Ogee guttering  into strips on my band saw.   They are over a foot long by an inch &  a bit  wide ..... took a couple of hours to make the 100 plus strips for I set up the band saw to give a 30degree point on one end .

I write on them with a permanent marker  fine point sharpie &  once the crops is harvested  make a note of how well it performed then clean them off with a bit of old towel ( 3x3 square ) soaked in acetone paint thinners ( from Lidl ) I keep the rag in a steel lidded screw top jar .
 They don't go brittle like most shop purchased labels do & they don't discolour . Being a foot long  means there's a fair bit sticking out the ground with the writing showing . 

 If you want long sticks use willow or poplar wands but make sure it's been cut & dry stored for three years so it doesn't start growing . Hazel rods are also good but again make sure they are well dried & dead before you use them.
 Dead crack willow branch ends about 1200 mm long  make good peas  trees .

So does pig wire  in a four foot circle with another  same sized ring being cable tied to the top of the first. .. You'll need to anchor it with three or more guy ropes as they tend to  act like sails  when it blows hard . then they easily tip over to one side frequently   breaking or seriously sharply bending numerous pea stems ..killing the damaged plants .