I asked lawn care professionals to share the 20 best landscaping tools they can’t work without

Our featured picks

Saker Mini Chainsaw

Chapin Granular Hand Spreader

Fiskars Steel D-Handle Garden Spade

Ego Power+ 21-Inch Select Cut LM2135SP Battery Mower

Read our review

Taking care of a lawn is no easy feat. In fact, a yard almost requires as much upkeep as a garden. The grass grows back way too fast, the hedges always seem to need trimming and you end up playing a never-ending game of whack-a-mole with the weeds. No matter how much work you did last weekend, there’s always more to do. This makes owning good home maintenance tools that much more important.

Tedious tasks have a way of exposing bad tools. A lawn mower that chokes on thick grass, a trimmer that refuses to start and a shovel that stops dead the moment it hits a root are minor inconveniences that add up and make the work feel impossible. That’s why the landscapers, lawn care experts and arborists I spoke to weren’t particularly interested in the latest gadgets or miracle solutions. Instead, they shared their favorite landscaping tools that start reliably, hold up to heavy use year after year and make recurring jobs feel a little less frustrating.

The recommendations below might not be the most exciting — and that’s largely the point. What matters is that they’ve endured long enough to be trustworthy. And, they’ll turn your backyard into a space where you can’t wait to entertain all summer.

Shovels

A.M. Leonard Round-Point Shovel

A finished garden bed might look beautiful, but digging 14 holes for the plants that go inside it is another story. That's why Chris Lambton of HGTV's “Going Yard” and “Yard Crashers” recommends A.M. Leonard's forged round-point shovel. "It's sturdy and effective for trenching or planting," he said. The forged-steel construction is designed for exactly the sort of repetitive digging that accompanies new trees, shrubs and landscape renovations. Not glamorous work, perhaps, but work that gets a lot easier when you're not fighting the shovel.

Root Slayer Perennial Garden Shovel

A digging project can look deceptively easy. The hole looks manageable, the soil seems cooperative — but then the shovel hits a root, and progress slows to a crawl. John Fech, a horticulturist with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and a certified arborist, recommends this perennial garden shovel because its serrated blade is designed to cut through roots as you dig, reducing the number of times you have to stop, reassess and go searching for another tool. "The Root Slayer shovel is one of the best digging tools I've used," he said.

Fiskars Steel D-Handle Garden Spade

You might not initially think it, but a spade, or square shovel, is one of the most versatile landscaping tools you can own. Chelsea Morris, the owner of High Class Grass, a full-service landscaping company in Virginia Beach, Virginia, likes the Fiskars Steel D-Handle Garden Spade because it's "simple, sturdy and durable." It's also effective at moving a variety of things. Mulch, gravel, soil, compost, debris — if it needs to be moved from one place to another, there's a good chance this shovel is the tool for the job. Not every tool earns a permanent spot in the shed, but there’s a good chance this one will.

Root Slayer Serrated Edger

Landscape beds have a habit of shrinking. Not physically, of course; they just slowly surrender territory to the lawn until the clean edge you once had becomes shrouded in weeds. "The Root Slayer edger is a great digging tool when you need clean lines and want to cut through roots at the same time," Fech said. The satisfying part isn't the digging. It's stepping back afterward and seeing a border again — the kind with an actual edge instead of a vague boundary between the lawn and the flower bed.

Hand tools

Fiskars Hori Hori Garden Knife

Forget a tool that does just one thing well; a good hori hori tool does multiple things well. Matthew Wessol, the director of outdoor services at John Mini Distinctive Landscapes, likes this one by Fiskars. "The soil knife is the ultimate multitasker, combining the functions of a trowel, knife and weeder into one tool," he said. "If gardeners had a Swiss Army knife, this would be it." Although Wessol's preferred model is made by Niwaki, Fiskars' Hori Hori Garden Knife delivers the same versatility from a brand many gardeners already know and trust. The stainless steel blade is marked for planting depth and features both a sharpened edge and a serrated edge, making it equally useful for digging, dividing perennials, cutting roots and prying out stubborn weeds.

Felco F2 Pruning Shears

A good pair of pruners earns its keep quickly. Deadheading flowers, shaping shrubs, removing damaged growth — the jobs are small, but they never really stop. The Felco F2's glowing reputation comes from their ability to do those jobs well year after year. In fact, Wessol has been carrying the same pair for more than a decade. "The Felco F2 Pruner has been the professional standard for decades,” he said, thanks to the tool’s “exceptional durability, comfort and ability to make clean, precise cuts season after season."

Felco 600 Folding Saw

There's a point in some pruning jobs when the hand pruners stop negotiating because the branch is simply too thick. That's when Wessol reaches for the Felco 600 Folding Saw. "The Felco F-600 Folding Saw is lightweight, incredibly sharp and makes you feel like a pruning superhero when tackling larger branches," he said. The folding design slips easily into a pocket, but don't mistake compact for underpowered. This is the sort of tool that turns an otherwise frustrating pruning job into a surprisingly satisfying one.

Saker Mini Chainsaw

A full-size chainsaw just isn’t necessary for some tasks, like handling the branch hanging over the walkway. "A mini chainsaw can cut 2- to 3-inch stems from a shrub or small tree quickly and safely," Fech said. I've used the Saker mini chainsaw myself and keep finding excuses to reach for it. It has enough power to chew through small limbs and overgrown shrubs, but it’s also precise enough so you don't feel like you're one wrong move away from removing the wrong branch — or finger. It's become my preferred tool for the sort of pruning jobs that are too much for hand pruners and nowhere near tough enough to require a traditional chainsaw.

Chapin Granular Hand Spreader

A fading lawn is a hangry lawn. For that, you need to fertilize regularly. "It’s essential for a dark green lawn," Josh Sather, a lawn expert and content creator known as the Dallas Lawn Guy, said. Sather relies on a Chapin hand spreader for proper lawn fertilization. Large spreaders are great until you find yourself launching fertilizer into a flower bed you spent all spring trying to keep alive. The Chapin's smaller size makes it easier to work around trees, landscape beds and other places where accuracy matters more than speed.

Adenna 9-Mil Nitrile Gloves, 100-Pack

Morris considers thick nitrile gloves a requirement for doing yard work. "They're essential for protection and dexterity," she said. That's a surprisingly difficult balance to achieve. Heavy work gloves often sacrifice feel for durability, while thinner gloves tend to tear easily. These 9-mil (with 1 mil referring to a thickness of one-thousandth of an inch) nitrile gloves occupy the useful middle ground, offering enough protection for demanding work without making every task feel like you're wearing oven mitts.

Fiskars 32-Inch PowerGear2 Loppers

Branches have an uncanny ability to look smaller than they actually are until you start cutting. For Lambton, the solution is Fiskars' PowerGear2 loppers. "I have a pair in all my trucks,” he said. “They're great for jobs big and small and super durable.” The geared mechanism multiplies leverage, which is a technical way of saying the tool does more of the work for you. That's particularly welcome around branch number 37.

Power tools and equipment

Chapin 4-Gallon Battery Backpack Sprayer

Every lawn care enthusiast eventually arrives at the same realization when spraying down their yard: Pumping isn’t easy. Sather recommends Chapin's battery-powered backpack sprayer because it removes the most annoying part of the job. "I use a 4-gallon battery-powered backpack sprayer from Chapin because it saves time and delivers more consistent results," he said. "Instead of constantly stopping to repressurize the tank, I can focus on applying products evenly." It's the sort of upgrade that sounds minor until you've spent an hour walking around a lawn with a manual sprayer.

Dramm 50-Foot ColorStorm Premium Rubber Hose

Some hoses spend their lives twisting into knots, snagging on corners and somehow finding ways to kink at the exact moment you need water. The Dramm hose has earned a loyal following from professionals — including Wessol — because it avoids many of those frustrations. Its durable rubber construction stays flexible and holds up to years of frequent use. After all, watering the garden is enough work already. The hose shouldn't be adding to it.

Toro Recycler 22-Inch Gas Lawn Mower

When Justin Stultz, the owner of Wildflower Lawn Care, talked about this Toro mower, he skipped over the horsepower and engine specs. What won him over: "It fits in every backyard and leaves great stripes." After all, most lawns aren't sprawling estates. They're fenced-in rectangles interrupted by trees, flower beds, swing sets and gates that seem designed specifically to be 6 inches narrower than your mower. The Toro Recycler's 22-inch deck threads that needle while still producing the sort of clean, even cut that makes a lawn look intentional. Stultz said his mower handles 30 to 35 lawns a week during the busy season, which is a harsher test than most residential mowers will ever face.

Ego Power+ 21-Inch Select Cut LM2135SP Battery Mower

The Ego Power+ Select Cut won't make you love mowing, but it's one of the few mowers we've tested that made the job feel noticeably less annoying. We named it the best electric lawn mower thanks to its combination of cutting performance, battery life and ease of use. Small details helped too, from the intuitive self-propel controls to a battery hatch that stays open while you're swapping batteries. Performance never felt like a compromise, as the mower easily cut through extra-long grass without bogging down the motor, and at normal mowing heights, it was "like a hot knife through butter." It was also one of the few mowers we tested that includes multiple blade options for bagging, mulching and maximizing runtime.

Read our review

Ego Power+ Leaf Blower LB6504

Most of the work done by a leaf blower happens after something else: after mowing, after edging, after trimming shrubs, after dragging mulch across a driveway. The Ego Power+ LB6504 moves enough air to erase evidence of it all. That’s one reason it proved itself to be the best leaf blower. The surprise wasn't the power, though. It was how manageable the blower felt once the job stretched beyond a few minutes. CNN Underscored product testing editor Suzanne Kattau experienced no strain after using it for long periods of time and found that the blower's battery "lasted the longest, even at the highest speed level" of any model tested.

Read our review

Greenworks 60-Volt Cordless Leaf Blower

Lambton said Greenworks' 60V blower has become a constant companion because it considerably speeds up the process of moving materials. "Whether I am mowing a lawn or trimming hedges, this lightweight and easy-to-use machine is always with me, making cleanup simple and quiet," he said.

Echo SRM-225 Gas String Trimmer

The Echo SRM-225 is “lightweight, reliable and easy to maintain," Morris said. "You don't need a massive commercial trimmer for most properties, but you do need something that'll start every time and hold up season after season." That practicality is exactly what makes the Echo SRM-225 appealing. A string trimmer spends most of its life being carried, not cutting. The Echo is light enough that trimming around trees, fence lines and garden beds doesn't feel like punishment by the end of the afternoon.

Husqvarna Battery String Trimmer

Some landscape tool manufacturers like to launch a new battery system every few years. Then, when you need to replace the battery, it becomes harder to find, more expensive or disappears altogether. It's the landscaping version of having a drawer full of Lightning cables in a USB-C world. That's why Sather thinks choosing a brand’s ecosystem is more important than voltage and runtime. "When it comes to choosing a platform, [consider the] cost of batteries, number of tools in the system and likelihood the tool system will be around for five to 10-plus years," he said. That's part of what draws him to Husqvarna. The trimmer doesn't just deliver clean edges and trimming power. It belongs to one of the most established (read: consistent) outdoor power equipment manufacturers on the market, meaning when you need a new battery in a few years, there’s a good chance the same one will still be available.

Greenworks 80-Volt Hedge Trimmer

Hedges are like haircuts: Skip one appointment, and everything is fine. Skip three, and the situation becomes difficult to ignore. Lambton relies on Greenworks' 80-volt hedge trimmer to stay ahead of the problem. "You don't have to worry about fumes or noise, but still have the power of a gas-operated hedge trimmer," he said. That's a compelling tradeoff. The tool has enough cutting power to tackle serious seasonal pruning while avoiding the maintenance and startup rituals that have traditionally accompanied gas-powered hedge trimmers. This means you're more likely to use it before the hedge starts resembling a topiary experiment gone wrong.

What to look for in landscaping tools

Prioritize durability over novelty

Landscaping tools live a hard life. They get dropped in driveways, left in sheds, bounced around truck beds and asked to work in dirt, mud and rain. That’s why Morris said reliability is one of the first things she looks for in equipment. “What stands out most is reliability under daily use and how easy the equipment is to maintain,” she said. Many tools can perform well on day one. Fewer can survive years of weekend projects or daily professional use. When in doubt, choose the tool that feels like it was built to outlast the task.

Match the tool to the property

One of the most common mistakes professionals see isn’t buying bad equipment but rather buying the wrong equipment. “People overbuy commercial-grade equipment for small yards,” Morris said. “They also underbuy low-powered tools that wear out quickly.” A quarter-acre suburban lawn doesn’t require the same equipment as five acres of open land. Before spending extra money on larger or more powerful tools, consider how often you’ll actually use them and whether your property justifies the upgrade.

Opt for multipurpose tools

A shovel that only digs holes is fine, but a shovel that also cuts roots, edges beds and transplants shrubs tends to stay in the shed a lot longer. The best landscaping tools often earn their keep by solving more than one problem. That’s part of what makes them worth the space they occupy. A string trimmer might also edge; a backpack sprayer might handle fertilizer, herbicides and pest control; a mini chainsaw might eliminate the need to drag out a full-size saw for routine pruning.

Before buying a tool, consider how often you’ll use it and whether it can tackle multiple jobs around the property. The most useful tools aren’t always the most specialized. They’re the ones that keep finding reasons to come off the wall.

Consider comfort

A few extra pounds might not seem important standing in a store aisle. It feels much more important after an hour of landscaping. Weight, balance and ergonomics came up repeatedly during my conversations with the experts. A tool that’s slightly less powerful but significantly easier to use often ends up getting used more frequently and more effectively than its heavier counterpart. For homeowners especially, Stultz said weight and ease of maintenance were often more important than performance.

FAQs

Where is the best place to buy landscaping tools?

For most shoppers, the best place to buy landscaping tools is whichever retailer allows you to easily service, replace or return the tool if something goes wrong. Large retailers such as The Home Depot, Lowe’s and Tractor Supply Co. typically offer the widest selection of lawn-care equipment, while Amazon can be useful for hand tools and accessories. For premium outdoor power equipment, many professionals still prefer local dealers because they often provide maintenance, repairs and replacement parts.

Are expensive landscaping tools worth the money?

Expensive landscaping tools are sometimes worth the money. The experts I spoke with don’t necessarily advocate for the most expensive landscaping tools. Instead, they advocate for buying fewer, better tools.

A high-quality lawn mower, trimmer or shovel that lasts a decade is often cheaper than replacing a lower-quality alternative every few years. The key is identifying which tools you’ll use repeatedly and investing accordingly.

What are the most overrated landscaping tools?

When I asked the experts about overrated landscaping products, novelty tools received more criticism than any other category. “I always see more than one type of weed puller-outer,” Stultz said. “Lately, I’ve noticed a lot of handheld weed-extracting tools and these trendy [Grampa’s] Weeders. I think you can get equally good results with a small garden shovel.” Several experts echoed a similar sentiment: Tools that solve a single niche problem often end up collecting dust while simpler, more versatile tools continue getting used.

That said, a stand-up weeder can prove beneficial if you have limited mobility or just don’t want to bend down repeatedly, as CNN Underscored design director Mark Amadio found when he tested one.

Are gas or electric landscaping tools better?

The answer to whether gas or electric landscaping tools are better largely depends on the size of the property and how often the equipment is used. Many professionals still rely on gas-powered equipment for all-day use, but battery-powered tools have improved dramatically in recent years.

“I primarily use gas for daily work due to consistent power and all-day usability,” Morris said. “Electric works well for small properties, lower noise needs and light-duty use.” For many homeowners, battery-powered equipment now offers more than enough performance while eliminating much of the maintenance required for gas engines.

How should you store landscaping tools?

To store landscaping tools properly, clean them before putting them away. Dirt, moisture and fertilizer residue shorten the lifespan of both hand tools and power equipment. Remove debris after each use, store tools in a dry location and inspect moving parts periodically. A few minutes of maintenance at the end of a project is usually easier than replacing a neglected tool later.

Meet our experts

For this article, we consulted the following experts to gain their professional insights:

• Chris Lambton, professional landscaper, television host and former star of HGTV’s “Going Yard” and “Yard Crashers”
• John Fech, horticulturist at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and a certified arborist with the International Society of Arboriculture
• Chelsea Morris, owner of High Class Grass, a full-service landscaping company in Virginia Beach, Virginia
• Josh Sather, lawn-care educator, content creator and founder of The Bermuda Bible
• Justin Stultz, owner of Wildflower Lawn Care Co.
• Matthew Wessol, director of outdoor services at John Mini Distinctive Landscapes

Why trust CNN Underscored

CNN Underscored editors and writers ensure every product included in an article is thoroughly vetted and something we ourselves would feel comfortable buying and using. Our team has decades of collective experience researching, testing and recommending products across every category — from fashion and food to home goods, health and technology — and we’re committed to using that expertise to help you make the most of your money and live a better life.

For this article, CNN Underscored contributing writer Scott Simone spoke with landscapers, lawn care professionals, arborists and horticulture experts to identify the lawn care and landscaping tools they rely on most. Their recommendations were evaluated based on real-world performance, durability, ease of use, versatility and overall value. Simone also drew on his own experience maintaining container gardens, herbs and ornamental plantings.

Some information for this report was gathered via edition.cnn.com.