Trim your hedges. Compost garden scraps. Prune some shrubs. Gardening and grounds care go together, like green and thumb.
Garden
Jora’s JK400 Compost Tumbler is built for serious gardeners, with a lot of material to compost. The insulated, 106-gallon, two-compartment design makes for fast, efficient composting, allowing you to fill one compartment while the other matures. The insulation allows compost temperatures to rise higher, speeding up the process. Assembly was a little time-consuming—it took almost two hours—but the tumbler body is well-built and the frame is sturdy and stable. If you don’t need this much composting volume, Jora’s Compost Tumbler is also available in 33- and 70-gallon models.
Sunneday’s new Hose Reel Cart features a light aluminum frame, steel hose spool, and articulated hose guide to spool the hose up neatly and evenly across the spool. We found it well balanced, and easy to move around with the spool fully wound with 100-feet of hose. Winding and unwinding hose is a simple process that helped prevent hose kinks by eliminating the twisting introduced by hand coiling. If you’ve ever been frustrated by hose tangles and disorganization, you’ll appreciate the neatness and efficiency of Sunneday’s Hose Reel Cart.
Somewhere in China, a factory is busy cranking out folding wagons, as Amazon and other online retailers clearly demonstrate. This version by Black & Decker (B&D) rolls and handles easily and seems to be genuinely worth its salt. We put it to work in the course of our Yard and Garden Awards evaluations, piling it high with tools, testing equipment and supplies. We liked it so much, that when our testing was compete, we left it in the office to roll around all kinds of stuff that comes and goes through our test facilities. B&D rates it to haul 175 pounds. We believe it but suspect that kind of use would wear it out prematurely. Its collapsible steel frame seems rugged enough to haul half that weight consistently. Its sturdy fabric body measures 18 inches wide, 28 inches long and a bit more than 12 inches deep–plenty big enough to haul tools and gardening supplies.
The only one way for Fiskars to improve its formidable PowerGear lopper was to develop the PowerGear2, with even more leverage and cutting capability than the original. And that’s saying something. The tool measures 32 inches from the end of its handle to the tip of its non-stick blade. Opened fully, the blade to lower jaw measures 2 inches. And it will cut it, thanks to a re-engineered cutting mechanism. Fiskars added a trapezoid-shaped cam. When the jaws are fully open, the fulcrum-cam engages a pivot point on the lower handle, promoting tremendous cutting leverage. Picture bolt cutter meets lopper.
Hedge Trimmers
We see this 56-volt hedge trimmer as a logical addition for someone who is investing in Echo’s latest line of cordless equipment (every one of the tools we tested for this awards package performed flawlessly). But even if you’re not investing in the line, this machine will make sense for you if you need plenty of power, a clean cut, and hedge trimmers without the stink and noise of a two-stroke gas engine. It’s especially helpful if you need or want those and you need to do your cutting far from an exterior power outlet. In other words, this 9.2-pound hedge trimmer is a good fit for most people. Its cutting bar is rugged, with large well-ground teeth.The tool is well balanced, and we found it comfortable to use in all positions.
We test pro-duty tools because pros and amateurs alike read our reviews. A pro might want a powerful and quiet hedge trimmer to pull off the truck to quickly subdue a small hedge or a few shrubs, while a homeowner might need power and precision without a cord. This Husqvarna is a fit for pro and amateur; the company calls it the Hedge Master, an appropriate name we think. Its motor and drive train cycle at an extremely fast 3800 strokes per minute. Consider the Echo, a formidable and fast-cutting trimmer, operates at 3200 spm. We found that the Husqvarna’s speed and high-quality blade provide an extremely clean cut, while the 26-inch bar provides a long reach. A three-position handle (horizontal and two vertical positions) makes it easier to use than it might be otherwise, and that’s important because it is reasonably heavy. With a 7.5-Ah battery, it weighs 12.6 pounds. Husqvarna’s power equipment does well in our tests on the basis of speed, torque, and build quality. This machine scores on those points as well, plus the addition of performance-enhancing features like a high-low speed switch and a reverse button that you can press to untangle the trimmer if, in your hedge cutting enthusiasm, you’ve managed to get it stuck. We did, and we found the button supremely helpful.
If you have tough hedge trimming needs, the EGO would probably serve you. Powered by a 56-volt brushless motor and with a 26-inch bar, we found that it delivers impressive cut quality and power. We also liked the fact that its handle rotates through 180 degrees. Press the lime green lever below its trigger and rotate the handle to any of five positions to help you cope with shrub shape and reaching above, to the side, below, and behind the surface you need to trim. It’s a wonderful design.
Power Pruners
We worked the 20-volt Worx hard, as well as the Ridgid (see review below) and came away impressed at how much you can get done with this new breed of power tool. Note: watch your fingers; these tools will not distinguish between your pinky and a branch. We pruned apple trees in a small orchard. Then we cleaned up white pine trees out in the yard, filling a 42-gallon trash bag with neat pine clippings. The 2.6-lb Worx has enough power with both live wood and dead up to its full jaw width of about 1 inch, we found. And it will cut two parallel sticks just as easily. Its jaws can close sequentially or in one swoop, depending on how firmly you pull its trigger.
The Ridgid has a bit more jaw width (about 1-1/4 inch) and throat depth capacity compared to the Worx, and it is every bit as capable a pruning machine. A major difference between the two tools is that the Ridgid does not have a sequential jaw close. If you stop the blade in mid cut, it returns to the full open position. So in comparison, this tool is not one for nuanced pruning. Pull the trigger and chop through whatever you need to cut. If you plan to use it in tight spots, this tool has a very effective work light. Although its slightly heavier than the Worx (3.0 lb), we didn’t find it tiring to use. It’s a great pruning tool that will make short work of your next job.
Garden Sprayer
We’ve looked at various garden sprayers over the years, but Milwaukee’s is by far the most successful design we’ve seen. Powered by a tiny 12-volt battery, we were amazed at its reach. The company rates it for 17-ft of vertical distance, and we found that it easily went 12 to 15 feet horizontally. It has three pressure settings for flow rate ranging from .1 to .3 gpm, and its high-quality brass nozzle adjusts for fan or stream settings. Those are all good, but our favorite feature is that you can fill the 2-gallon tank and tighten on its cap before putting the power head in place (for that matter, you can fill the tank with the power head in place). The power head’s pickup tube inserts through a sealed fitting on the tank. The design is genius and, when combined with the stable shape of the tank, nearly eliminates any chance of accidentally spilling the tank’s contents.
→Full List of 2023 Yard & Garden Award Winners
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Roy Berendsohn has worked for more than 25 years at Popular Mechanics, where he has written on carpentry, masonry, painting, plumbing, electrical, woodworking, blacksmithing, welding, lawn care, chainsaw use, and outdoor power equipment. When he’s not working on his own house, he volunteers with Sovereign Grace Church doing home repair for families in rural, suburban and urban locations throughout central and southern New Jersey.
Brad Ford has spent most of his life using tools to fix, build, or make things. Growing up he worked on a farm, where he learned to weld, repair, and paint equipment. From the farm he went to work at a classic car dealer, repairing and servicing Rolls Royces, Bentleys, and Jaguars. Today, when he's not testing tools or writing for Popular Mechanics, he's busy keeping up with the projects at his old farmhouse in eastern Pennsylvania.
