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Forget about “spring cleaning”: If you’re a gardener, you know the real cleanup happens in the fall. That’s when you’re trimming the trees, chopping down annuals, pruning everything in sight and getting things tidy before the rain and snow set in. While there are tools I use on a day-to-day basis in the garden, fall is when I bring out some specific tools that help get the job done.
Electric pole saw
It turns out, I am a girl who loves an electric saw. I love my Ryobi chainsaw, but the electric pole saw is straight-up magic. It means that I, a five-foot tall human, can trim tree limbs that are 20 feet above me. You can extend the saw up and down so it’s only as tall as you need, and it’s a hefty piece of machinery. Most of the year, it lives in the shed, waiting for the weather to turn so that the trees are ready for their pruning. Being able to clean up the scruff on my lower branches and do some shaping on taller limbs has become so deeply satisfying with this tool.
Popup bins
Even though I like to “leave the leaves” because they make damn fine compost and mulch, there’s still so much to clean up in fall—between weeds, spent plants, dead canes, sunflowers, and other detritus. For this, popup bins are perfect. Use them when you need them, then compact them and stow them away. They’re super lightweight but surprisingly sturdy, so they’re easy to carry around, even when packed to the brim.
This giant yard dustpan
When people see this massive dustpan in my yard, they tend to laugh—until they see it in action. Forget trying to muscle leaves and weeds between your rake and gloved hand. Just rake them into the dustpan and dump them. This dustpan allows you to sweep up chips or other detritus in the walkway; last year we discovered it was so resilient you could scoop ice from the driveway into it. My dustpan is always floating around my yard because I use it almost every day during cleanup.
A damn good wheelbarrow
Moving mulch and compost requires more than buckets—you need a wheelbarrow to move a decent amount of material and be able to dump it. While there are newer models that move more like wagons and even electric models now, you simply can’t dispute the flexibility of a standard, one-wheel wheelbarrow, which can turn on a dime and get into narrow spaces.
Real loppers
In recent years, there’s been a proliferation of electric hand pruners, and while I’m a fan (mostly because of the hand cramps you can get from manipulating your pruners), none of these new electric tools replace your loppers. These long-handled pruners are perfect for getting branches, vines and plants that are too big for your hand pruners. The long handles don’t just allow you a little reach—they work as leverage for cutting through thick stems and branches. I particularly like this Fiskars model—the grips are comfortable and don’t disintegrate in the sun.
A lawn vacuum
As I said above, I’m in favor of holding onto your leaves. After all, why give away free mulch and compost? Not to mention that leaving them allows the critters that live in the leaves a safe place for winter. But if you insist on 86ing the leaves, the most effective way I’ve found is a vacuum. A number of blowers also now have vacuums that allow you to actually suck the leaves up, mulch them and then all you need to do is empty the sack you’ve been carrying on your shoulder. It’s very satisfying, and you do end up with legit mulch that you can then throw into the green bin, compost or put right back in your yard.
Power washer
Though this wasn’t a big part of my youth, I see everyone with power sprayers now- spraying their driveways, their house exteriors, their fences. The problem is, they do this in spring or summer, which is a bad move, in my humble opinion. At that point it’s warm and you’re spraying up microbes from the soil onto your plants. If you do it in fall, whatever you kick up from the soil is probably not going to survive the winter freeze. So spray yourself silly, including your trellises and other garden tools. I have been waiting for this retractable Giraffe Tools version (I’m a big fan of their retractable hoses).
Slugs be gone
We have slugs in summer, but fall and winter is where slugs are endlessly annoying and merciless. I have tried every solution out there to avoid using a treatment like Sluggo, but there is simply no option as effective. All my beds get a treatment, and I repeat it after every rainstorm.
