About Us

I sell the Garden Step Stake at annual gardening festivals and events as well as online, all in memory of my dad who invented this product. Here is his story:

Longtime vision of late Hibbingite comes to fruition
Kitchen still making an impact after passing nearly a year ago

HIBBING — The late Robert “Bob” Kitchen is staring down from heaven with a smile on his face and a twinkle in his eye.  The garden invention he’d been working on for more than three decades has been patented and is now being mass produced and marketed.  Kitchen held the final prototype in his hands just days before he passed away on July 14, 2009.

“He’d be saying ‘I told ya so,’” said daughter Judy Shea. “He’d been working on this since the mid-1970s. He would have been thrilled to see this.” 
The tone of the comment would be one of encouragement, rather than sarcasm.

“When my dad believed in something, he didn’t want to stop until it was accomplished,” Shea said. “If there were snags along the way — and obviously with this there were plenty — then that would just make him work all the harder. He wanted to prove it.”

Kitchen is the mastermind behind the Best-O-Life Garden Step Stake, a plant support and watering system. The garden tool is being manufactured and distributed by Keewatin-based Tackle Tamer/Mesaba Plastics.

Scott Brazier, co-owner of Tackle Tamer/Mesaba Plastics, said they began working seriously with Kitchen about two years prior to his death. Kitchen had discussed his vision with Brazier’s father and company co-owner, David, as early as the mid-1980s.

“When he came to us this time, enough time had elapsed that it could be patented again with some redesign,” said Scott Brazier. “We thought it was a great idea and were willing to work with him to modify it.”

The concept of a “step stake” came into Kitchen’s mind as a young boy. As the oldest son, he was charged with tending the garden while his parents earned their livelihood by running popcorn machines across the Iron Range.

The idea for the stake literally struck Kitchen one day while planting tomatoes with construction laths and strips of old bedding sheets for tying purposes.

“I can vividly recall tackling the very first plant by kneeling on the ground to set the stake with the back of the shovel,” Kitchen wrote using his typewriter, a common practice of his, in 1985.

“At the moment of contact (shovel and stake), I immediately received slivers in my left hand, a broken piece of lath flying into my face and a glancing blow of the shovel to the right side of my head.”  He continued, “I honestly believe that this incident has stayed with me for all these years and was instrumental in the idea.”

According to an innovation disclosure submitted to the University of North Dakota in 1988, Kitchen described his Garden Step Stake as “a sturdy, long-lasting, color coordinated stake that not only holds plants upright, but enables the owner to apply nutrients and water directly underground (near) the root system.”

This process eliminates having to spread fertilizers on the top soil, where it can be blown or washed away prior to nourishment, he explained.

Over the years, Kitchen tweaked the design and enlisted the help of experts in innovation and business development at other universities and colleges to test the ever-evolving product. He also secured patents along the way, but never reached the point of mass production.

“He never gave up,” said Shea. “He received lots of support with it over the years, but it never took off. It wasn’t like this was his full-time work, so it took a long time to develop.”

Like most businesses, Tackle Tamer/Mesaba Plastics was feeling the effects of the recent recession.  “The economy was so bad that we had to do something,” said Brazier. “We started working with Bob and finally got the product we all wanted.”  The manufacturing company, which has been in business since 1983, had already begun to move away from developing new fishing gear to focusing on garden accessories.  Kitchen’s invention was a perfect fit.

“We began to realize there’s more money out there in the garden sector rather than fishing,” said Brazier. “More people across the nation garden than fish.”  The Braziers needed a way to reach the national market. They petitioned “As Seen on TV,” but the route did not prove fruitful, he said.

They then called a few area garden centers, and were turned on to the Gro Group, a North American network of distributors committed to the future of a growing industry. That affiliation put them in touch with 15 distributors that reach more than 12,000 retailers in the United States and Canada.

Although too late to reach the mass market for this season, the Braziers did convince a distributor to purchase and stock 200 cases of the Garden Step Stake. It is currently on the shelves in Virginia and Pennsylvania.

“Next year (2011) we expect to put out at least 10 times that amount,” said Brazier. “… We’re going to be extremely busy.”  The stake is expected to become the company’s No. 1 seller.

Kitchen saw the final product while he was in the hospital.  “When he finally did see the prototype, he was already thinking about plastic birds, fertilizers, ties and other things that could be sold as the next project to go with it,” said Shea. “Even in the condition he was in, he was still working on it.”

The step stake allows for water to be poured inside it and there are four drain holes on the bottom of the tube to filter directly to the roots. Using two cups of water every other day has been proven adequate, said Brazier.

The tubes are designed with four circles on each to prevent slippage when tying the plant to the stake.

“We really believe in this product, and are proud to be a part of it,” said Brazier. “ … This is the ultimate plant support and watering system, and the last one you will ever have to buy.”

“He’d be so proud, especially to see the Best-O-Life name and logo on there,” she said.  Underneath the name it reads Hibbing, Minn.

“When he worked on many of the city projects and entertainment brought to Hibbing, he worked in the same manner,” said Shea while recalling how he talked about the air show, the marching band competition or holding the longest parade in Minnesota.

“There were people that told him it couldn’t be done. But these things did happen. He found the right people and together they made it happen.”  Shea is also impressed with how her father took on an idea that he so truly believed in and just wouldn’t give up on it.  “He taught us kids the same thing in life,” she said. “He always encouraged us and told us we could accomplish whatever we wanted.”

Now she knows it’s true.

Source:  Kelly Grinsteinner, Assistant Editor, Hibbing Daily Tribune, Hibbing, Minnesota, June, 2010.