Our Story

The Garden HotZot was invented because too many times I watched my wife (Master Gardener, Landscape Designer and Major Plant Nerd) put on her “weeding” face and head out to spend 2-3 hours weekly doing the gardener’s equivalent of cleaning the toilet.

I decided that there had to be another, easier method for killing weeds – so I started experimenting with different options . . .   It had to be organic, fast and easy to use and above all it had to be safe. 

After many bad ideas, I was making myself an espresso one morning when I hit the wrong switch and a jet of hot water shot out on the counter!  That’s what I wanted!  That afternoon I went out and bought a half dozen used espresso machines (thanks, Starbucks Barista), tore them apart and put together the first prototype.  It was literally a boiler bolted to the end of a one-by-four and it looked dangerous – but it worked!  Many versions later we have a hand held espresso machine that cooks weeds with jets of hot water.
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Easier than weeding by hand, safer than Roundup and torches, the HotZot makes it easy to walk through your yard or garden and kill weeds individually without harming the plants you want to keep and without leaving toxic herbicides in your yard or environment.  With a target retail price of $200, the HotZot is a revolutionary new tool in a very old market.

Meet the Founders

Michael Peterson
​Co-Founder
[email protected] 

Michael has had a lot of life experiences – including teaching 7th and 8th grades, home builder/contractor, IT consultant, and finally – inventor.  Tinkering has always been a part of his nature, from rebuilding lawnmowers as a kid to kitchen remodeling as an adult.  Put a skill-saw in his hand and he whistles while he works.

The HotZot is a natural extension of his need to fix problems.  Watching Bonnie’s face on her way out to weed the garden (3-4 hours weekly) was all the encouragement he needed to build a safe, fast, organic alternative to Roundup or weeding by hand.  His original prototype looked like the love child of Steampunk and Rube Goldberg, but it worked.  The original prototype of the Zot reduced weeding time from 3-4 hours/week to 1 hour/week of point-and-shoot ease.  Many experiments and prototypes later, we are ready for the next generation of the Zot to emerge.

Bonnie Bruce
​​Co-Founder,  Owner of Celilo Gardens  
[email protected] 

Bonnie is a landscape designer, a gardener, a professed plant nerd and the unsuspecting motivation behind the birth of the HotZot.  After years of weeding her own garden by hand and listening to the complaints of friends and clients, it was her grumbling that motivated Michael Peterson to take things into his own hands and invent the HotZot.   

Having been focused on environmental issues for decades, her emphasis has always been on organic gardening and sustainable design strategies. The HotZot was a natural next step. 
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Which proves that when one is listened to, really listened to…whining works. 


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