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If your outdoor spaces are anything like mine, they’re currently half-covered with ice and snow, and the spots that have thawed are muddy messes. You probably can’t do a whole lot about that until warmer weather comes, but if your house has a lawn, it’s already a good time start thinking about what you’ll need to do to whip it back into shape.
You probably already have the basic tools you need, though those will often require a lot of sweat equity and aching muscles to produce results. These days, you can get a lot of lawn work done easier and more quickly by picking up a few tools and gadgets designed to help make the process less painful (literally). Here are 10 to consider.
Use the Lawn Liberator to apply weed killer with precision
Weeding is one of the most tedious aspects of lawn care. Those little invaders can be quite insidious, and if there’s one weed in the middle of healthy plot of lawn it can be difficult to apply weed killer without destroying the grass itself. A Lawn Liberator will allows you to paint your weed killer onto the offending weeds only, without risking exposure to the rest of your lawn.
Use a stand-up weeder to save your back
If you’d rather pull weeds than unleash chemical warfare on them, then you’d better have a good supply of painkillers for the consequences of all that bending and kneeling. Or, you can invest in a stand-up weed puller, like this one. This tool allows you to yank invasive weeds out of your lawn, roots and all, from a comfortable standing position, saving your back and knees significant strain.
Manage your sprinkler system with a smart controller
If you’re still watering your lawn manually, or even using a sprinkler system you have to remember to turn on and off, it’s time to upgrade to a smart sprinkler system, like this one from Rachio. Not only does it give you multi-zone control over your lawn’s watering schedule from anywhere via a convenient app, it’s also smart enough to skip watering when it rains or freezes, protecting your lawn from overwatering or ice damage.
Handle all your trimming needs with a combination tool
Lawn care isn’t all about grass. There are trees to trim, shrubs to cut, and edges to sculpt, and you could buy separate tools for all those tasks—or you could buy a combination tool like the Makita LXT Brushless Couple Shaft Power Head Kit, which combines them all into one cordless tool. Attachments include a string trimmer, a pole saw, and a hedge trimmer, so you can burn through your lawn to-do list without pausing to switch out your tools.
This ProPlugger will make your spring planting easier
If part of your lawn plan involves planting some flowers or other decorative plants, you could whip out a trowel and get down in the dirt to do it, or you could pick up a ProPlugger. This five-in-one planting tool allows you to make perfect holes from a standing position, so you can drop your bulbs into place easily. The tool can also be used to remove weeds and move sod plugs from one spot to another; it stores the plugged dirt in its shaft until you dump it out, so cleanup is easier too.
This lawn sweeper can help you tidy up before and after yard work
A lawn sweeper is a tool often overlooked by DIY lawn care folks, but it shouldn’t be. A simple push sweeper like this one makes it simple to scoop up dead leaves and other loose debris that collects on your lawn, sparing you the sweaty work of raking.
This mulcher will transform dead leaves into something useful
Once you’ve swept or raked up all those dead leaves, what do you do with them? If you’re throwing them away, stop. Those leaves are valuable as mulch for your lawn and other plants, and you can make quick work of them with a cordless vacuum mulcher like this Ryobi model. Nothing you’ll do in your yard will be more satisfying than sucking up all those leaves and turning them into a bag full of useful mulch as a reward. (If you don’t want to go for the full Ghostbuster look, you consider a standing mulcher to get the job done instead.)
This lawn striper gives your grass a professional, finished look
Do you want your lawn to look like a professional sports field, but you can never get a good stripe when you mow? This striping attachment for your lawnmower will take care of it for you. Once attached to your mower, you can use it to stripe your lawn in a variety of patterns, making your yard the envy of your neighbors.
Employ a robot lawnmower to do the hard part for you
You might not be sold on self-driving robot cars, but a self-driving robot lawnmower? Yes, please. While it’s a big investment—the Eufy E15 is one of the cheaper models, but will still run you around $1,000—these little guys really will save you a lot of outdoor labor. Unlike some other models that have complex setups requiring beacons or satellite connections, the E15 is easy to set up because it relies on sensors to operate, like a robot vacuum does. Once it maps your yard, it will do the mowing for you.
