Top 5 power garden tools to help you master your backyard

Power garden tools take the hard work out of most garden chores, making it faster to complete a task and easier on the body too.

If your garden is growing fast, or you’re taming a wild backyard, here are a few handy tools that will help.

What’s most important is ensuring you get the right tool for the job to get the result you’re happy with. Nearly every power garden tool is now available in a battery powered option, making them quieter, easier and more convenient to use. If you already have battery powered tools at home, consider whether the battery could also be used for your power garden tools.

Hedge trimmer

A well-sculpted hedge is a masterpiece, a showstopper on any street. However, this requires very regular hedge trimming for most hedge plants, ensuring the edges stay crisp and clean.

While a hedge trimmer is a must-have for anyone with a hedge, it can also be used to trim a variety of shrubs or plants around the garden. A heavy-duty blade will mean you can cut through larger branches, making your hedge trimmer even more useful.

A longer blade can help you do the job much faster but comes with the trade-off that these models can be heavier and harder to manoeuvre.

The hedge trimmer’s baby brother is the shrubber, ideal for finishing, detailed pruning and creating a manicured edge to shrubs and hedges.

Hedge trimmers come in both cable and battery powered options, with the battery option giving added convenience and ease of use.

Line trimmer (weed eater)

The nickname ‘weed eater’ gives it away – this power garden tool will eat up any long grass or weeds in your backyard. It’s perfect for those hard to reach places where your lawn mower can’t get to, or for trimming back seriously overgrown areas.

A line trimmer will also tidy up those edges along fence lines, around garden beds or trees and stumps. Look for a trimmer with a plant guard to protect flowers & plants when trimming close to garden beds. To enhance your curb-side appeal, choose a line trimmer with an edging function.

Some line trimmers, like the EGO Powerload range, come with a self-winding feature, saving you the time and effort (as well as frustration!) of winding on the replacement line yourself.

Line trimmers come in petrol, electric (corded) or battery powered options.

Blower / Blower Vac (leaf blower)

Toss your rake aside and give your body a break with an electric leaf blower. Tidying up your courtyard or lawn will be a breeze with this essential power garden tool. You’ll use it year-round to tidy dropped leaves, flowers, and seeds, as well as tidying up around your place after storms and windy weather.

While standard blowers simply help you move debris from one place to another, blower vacs pick up garden waste and turn it into mulch, helping you do two jobs at once.

There are petrol and battery powered options, and for serious jobs, there are back-pack options too.

Pole pruner

Perfect for those with tall trees or palms that need trimming, pole trimmers can safely cut small branches without the need for a ladder. They also make it easier to prune those hard to reach areas with poles that can extend up to 4.5 metres depending on the model you choose. Consider how the weight of the pruner and the length of the pole will match your needs.

Many brands sell pole pruners as an attachment for a Multi-Tool. These Multi-Tool units can be used with a range of interchangeable attachments including line trimmer, hedge trimmer, brush cutters and more. These are a great option for the gardener who wants the flexibility of owning the right tool for every job, at a fraction of the cost.

Pole pruners come in both electric and battery options.

Electric shredder

The younger sibling of the heavy-duty chippers, these electric shredders are perfect for backyard gardening.

Super quiet, easy to manoeuvre and capable of taking waste up to 40mm, these electric shredders are a great way to close the loop in your garden. Place the mulch in your compost bin or back on your garden beds to keep weeds down.