About us

Hello there! You’re probably thinking “Who is Heck is Cate?” Well, she’s my daughter, and she loves gardening. She’s only eight, but has already planted carrots, tomatoes, cucumbers, flowers, a dogwood bush and witnessed the rewards of helping in my butterfly garden. She also loves helping take kitchen scraps to our compost bin, and is amazed at how it magically transforms into dirt. (She probably won’t be as willing to help carry out kitchen scraps when she’s a teenager, but for now …)

When Cate was an infant, she would spend her days with her Italian grandparents, Nonno and Nonna. They had a garden about three times larger than our house, and every year it was filled to the brim with roma tomatoes, zucchini, beans, pumpkins and kale. Hundreds of jars of homemade tomato sauce would line their pantry.

As Cate learned how to walk, she would spend hours in the garden with Nonno, helping him trim, tend and stake their rows of tomatoes, which often grew twice as tall as herself! Whenever we would arrive after work to pick her up, Nonna would often say that little Catie was in the garden with Nonno, and we would often hear giggles when venturing to the backyard. Sometimes she would be carrying compost from his large bin in her toy wheelbarrow to help him in the garden. Other times she would watch as Nonno showed her how to tie a tomato stock to a stake, and learned what was a vegetable and what was a weed.

One autumn, when Cate started preschool, Nonno promised that the next spring he would have a little patch of garden just for her. She was excited and would exclaim to us that “Nonna make Catie’s garden!” Sadly, Nonno passed away that fall.

When we decided to launch Cate’s Garden, we made sure to only design and sell products that her Nonno would approve of and use. In his memory, we have a little patch for “Catie’s garden” which she still tends every spring.

Our products are personally tested and designed, and they take a lot of abuse before we are satisfied. Our compost thermometer has been stuck in our bin for four months with no issues, though we do recommend storing it in your garage or shed when not in use.

We designed and tested our knee pads for a season. They are so comfortable that Cate’s grandma on the other side of the family stole our prototype to replace her old garden kneeling pad (but we gave her a finished pair for Christmas).

Right now we’re busy pruning with our bypass pruners and ratchet shears, and use them to tend our tomatoes, as well as Cate’s mom’s flower beds and my own shrubs and perennials. We have been testing our new hand tools to dig, plant and weed our garden beds.

Who are we as a company? As you may have guessed, we’re a small, family-owned company passionate about gardening. Cate’s Dad, Chris, operated a local garden center, and has been involved in organic gardening for over 20 years. Cate’s Mom, Susie, makes sure all the dirt is cleaned off the rest of the family before they come in. She also makes a wicked salsa with ingredients from the garden.

Nonna still gardens that huge garden plot to this day, still making her delicious Italian tomato sauce. Grandma (my Mom) faithfully uses her knee pads and shears we have given her.

We are proudly part of Family Matters Products, Inc, which includes Mother Sheep Organics, a brand selling organic-made home products. Along with Chris, our office also includes Melanie, Anna and Kevin, all passionate gardeners.

Your satisfaction is our primary concern. Without you, we wouldn’t have a company. If you have any issues, concerns or feedback about any of our products, please don’t hesitate to Contact Us.

Yours, Chris Molnar and the Cate's Garden family