Garden Wisdom & Mat News
A Perfect Time to Plant Some Herbs
![weed free herbs](https://gardenmats.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Post-2-160x100.jpg)
Every year about this same time I start to imagine the smell of fresh herbs, especially purple basil and lemon thyme. Right in the dead of winter. I have no idea why. I have…
keep reading »Enter Now to Win $150 Worth of Products
![vegetable garden without weeds](https://gardenmats.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Post-1-160x100.jpg)
We love it when customers tell it like it is. For all of our loyal customers, and the countless others that you have told, we want to celebrate and thank you for our fourteenth…
keep reading »Plant in Succession
![](https://gardenmats.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Planting-Plugs-in-Succession-3-160x100.jpg)
A number of customers who came for a garden tour this past weekend asked me how we are able to grow fresh baby lettuce all season. The answer is succession planting. If you love…
keep reading »Tomato Joke
![organic tomatoes](https://gardenmats.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/tomatoes-160x100.jpg)
An old man lived alone in the country. One spring, he wanted to dig his tomato garden but it was very hard work as the ground was hard. His only son, Max, who used…
keep reading »A Plug for the Plug Planter
![plug planter - easily plant plugs and starts](https://gardenmats.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/plug-planter-160x100.jpg)
A few years back one of my customers said to me: “You have a great product, but tell me something. When you plant starter plants how do you move the dirt to the side…
keep reading »More Than a Weed-Barrier, It’s a System
![Doty Elementary School class science trip](https://gardenmats.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/QkMwzYgX26m9WqR__SS05FadJXehXTmi8M7gn28HhLY-160x100.jpg)
Yup, we sell a weed barrier. But not just any weed barrier. We believe we have the best weed barrier on the market. Understandably, that’s our biggest selling point. We make no bones about…
keep reading »The Birth of the Potato Chip
![potato chips](https://gardenmats.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/potato-chips-160x100.jpg)
Up State New York is the original home of the potato chip. In 1853, railroad and steamship magnate Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt complained that his potatoes were cut too thick and sent them back to…
keep reading »Got Mulch? The Garden Mats Guide to Mulch and Mulch More
![wood chip mulch](https://gardenmats.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/mulch-160x100.jpg)
My dog-eared, thirty-five year-old Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary defines “mulch” as “a protective covering (as of sawdust, compost, or paper) spread or left on the ground to reduce evaporation, maintain even soil temperature, prevent erosion,…
keep reading »Remember Your Grandmother’s Victory Garden?
![harvest of garden vegetables](https://gardenmats.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/vegetable-harvest-160x100.jpg)
If your grandmother was anything like mine, she had quite a garden. Grandpa said, “She could make a broomstick bud and put out roots.” Like many working-class people of her time–for my Grandmother–gardening, canning,…
keep reading »Soil Type Basics
![soil types](https://gardenmats.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/soil-e1394300457306-160x100.jpg)
Gardening is all about soil– that loose top-layer of earth covering our planet. Soil results from the breakdown of rock over thousands of years through natural cycles of wind and water erosion, glacial activity,…
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