In article , al wrote:

One of my gardening books suggests using old aluminium cans to make permanent
plant labels. I assume you scratch the plant name onto the shiny metal
side of the aluminium foil. Excuse my ignorance, but does this work... erm
how long do they last ? (Does the metal colourize over time ?)

The Rhododendron Species Foundation has sometimes used aluminum tags for
field-grown species shrubs -- as these labels have to last several years
before the shrubs are old enough to put on sale. The tags must be removed
from plants before the shrubs are sold, as one rarely sees any of them,
but I obtained one rhody from them that I later found had an aluminum tag
that had the attached end deeply imbedded in the bark. The aluminum had
been EMBOSSED with species name, date it was planted (or a least tagged, a
decade earlier), & initials RSF. There must be some equivalent of those
plastic label strips to emboss aluminum strips instead of plastic.

The surface of aluminum turns black over time & rubs off, though I
wouldn't call that "colourize" which is what I thought crazy rich *******s
did to classic black & white films.

Man-made aluminum & aluminates MIGHT have some involvement in the
development of alzheimers disease, though years back when Science Digest
did a whole issue about it, looked like only about one out of ten
researchers thought it much likely. A few researchers think the link is
plausible; others think the aluminum deposits are an incidental
side-effect of other causes. From a lay perspective though it seems that
the only other possible explanation for these deposits, other than from
our continuous exposure to man-made aluminum, is that the human body can
go wacky & begin to manufacture aluminum from boxite, which is all around
us in the natural environment whereas aluminum is not. For there's no
question but that the majority of alzheimer patients have amazingly high
levels of aluminum deposits in the brain tissue. So while the science
proving or disproving a source of explanation for these deposits has
failed to clarify the issue, in the meantime anyone with aluminum kitchen
pots & utensils should toss them immediately; & check medications &
deodorants for aluminates with which we may be dosing ourselves orally or
through the skin every day. As for aluminum beverage cans, they are coated
inside & out -- everwhere except where the key-hole opening bares the raw
aluminum in the one place we'd put our mouths. So I avoid those too.

I wouldn't want aluminum in the garden, first because it would be, like
plastic, an eyesoar, for I like things to look as woodsy-natural as
possible. Plus, even if a few aluminum tags here & there would likely be
harmless whether or not aluminum's connection to severe loss of mental
faculty can be shown to be factual, it'd still be like hanging symbols of
humanity's self-invented doom all around the place, & I prefer the
symbolism of my gardens to refer more to Eden rather than some futuristic
city designed by Albert Speer.

-paghat the ratgirl
preferring to die from UNrefined sugar

--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
See the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com/