GardenMats - Ease the pain of weeding!

                          

We love fresh vegetables, we love growing our own vegetables, but we hate weeding!!! Ugh! To help combat the weeds this year we purchased GardenMats.  GardenMats boast claims that they drastically reduce the amount of weeding necessary to maintain a healthy garden.  The mats come in various lengths, and with holes sized for the plants that you intend to grow, and are said to last at least ten years!  Most importantly, for us, GardenMats are proven to grow 100% organic vegetables with no fear of chemicals leeching from the mats into the soils where the plants are growing!

The initial calculations were a little daunting, merely because we had to decide what we were going to plant, how many of each plant we wanted, and which mats would then need to accomodate our plans.  We were forunate in the fact that GardenMats are produced locally, and we were able to go to their place of business and buy them directly from the source.  GardenMats can also be purchased via their website, with a nominal shipping charge. 

Set up was easy!  We simply rolled out the GardenMats over our tilled garden soil, and staked them into the ground.  We made sure that each mat abutted the next to inhibit weed growth between the mats and rows of plants.  We then planted the seeds in the holes, following seed depth recommendations on the packages, and planted our pre-established plants in their designated holes. 

The growing season here in Vermont is still in the early stages, since gardeners typically don't plant their garden crops until after Memorial Day to avoid the fear of frost.  In the picture above, our garden is about two weeks old.  As you can see, there are no weeds coming up through the GardenMats!!  The few weeds that we do have are in the exposed holes, and easily recognizable from the growing crops that we planted. 

It has only been a couple of weeks since installation, but so far we're very happy with the results.  GardenMats does offer a refund of your purchase if you aren't happy with the mats after two years of use.  Thus far, I highly doubt we'll be taking them up on their refund option, as it has already greatly reduced the amount of weeding that we would typically have done at this point. 

I'll continue to update on the progress of our garden, and our opinions of the GardenMats as the season progresses.

**I am in no way affiliated with GardenMats.  This is simple a review of our experiences with the product.**