Weed Pro Weed Mats are the answer. Weeds are everywhere: on lawns, in flower gardens, among the tomato plants, wherever you don't want them to be. Left uncontrolled, weeds can starve out young seedlings. Weeds are more aggressive, more prolific and they grow faster.

Of the forces working against a successful tree planting, weed competition ranks near the top.

Weeds absorb water and nutrients, robbing your trees of crucial life-sustaining elements just when they need them most. Weeds can even outgrow your plants, thereby depriving them of much-needed sunlight.

If you fertilize without first removing weeds, you are fertilizing the weeds instead.

HERBICIDE NOT BEST CHOICE Spraying herbicide is risky business. You could damage, even destroy the trees, if your workers aren't careful. A simple shift in the wind could mean a bunch of dead trees. Besides, chemical solutions are rarely the best solution.

Weed mats are environmentally friendly. They don't leach into the soil and end up in the water table. They won't blow away in the wind and poison your neighbor's flowers.

THE WEED-CONTROL COST KING Best of all, Weed Pro weed mats normally last three to five years, making them the all-time weed-control cost king.

KEEPS MOISTURE IN THE SOIL Weed Pro weed mats are non-permeable. Therefore, moisture in the soil cannot evaporate through Weed Pro weed mats. That means the soil remains moist long after a rainfall.

Permeable fabric mats work well in allowing water to soak in, but after a couple days without rain, the soil beneath fabric mats tends to dry out.

As a result, the permeable type of weed mat deprives trees of moisture just when they need it most.

In the argument of permeable vs. non-permeable, the logic seems to be on the side of permeable. After all, permeable mats allow water to seep through to the roots. It's therefore somewhat surprising that use of permeable mats doesn't result in larger, healthier trees. That's because permeable mats also allow water to evaporate. Non-permeable mats don't. The water seeps through the soil under the non-permeable mat to the trees' roots where it remains until absorbed by the trees' roots.

The trees to the left were both planted at the same time and given the same treatment. A permeable mat was applied to the one in foreground. A non-permeable mat (Weed Pro) was applied to the one in the background. The Weed Pro tree is about 40 percent larger.

So, as you can see, the argument that permeable mats are better doesn't hold water. Weed Pro ends all that without dangerous chemicals.

It's a mat composed of recycled, photo-degradable plastic.

Better, less expensive, and less dangerous than herbicides and mowing, Weed Pro lasts for up to three years.

The 1" x 6" staples to attach your weed mat to the soil. Use (4) per mat. 100 staples are included for every 25 mats.