6 Essential Garden Tools for Fall Lawn Care

As the grass goes dormant and the trees lose their leaves, it's time to prep your garden for autumn. To do so, you need the right garden tools and equipment. 

What should you keep on hand for fall gardening? Plenty of shiny toys claim to make yard work easy, but not all of them fulfill that promise. In fact, you can accomplish most tasks with simple gardening tools. So to ensure you're ready for autumn, we've put together a list of the six most useful lawn care items. 

1. Protective Gear 

First and foremost, you need the proper protective gear. Gardening is hard work, and you’ll likely spend hours outdoors, so you need to take care of yourself as you take care of your lawn. 

The first item on the list is garden gloves. Garden gloves should be tough enough to protect your hands from thorns while providing adequate grip. You should still be able to use your fingers well enough to handle tools, but the material should be thick enough to prevent blisters. 

Next, you need comfy but supportive footwear. You’ll probably spend a lot of time crouching, kneeling, and rising as you tend your flora, so you want shoes that can keep up with you. 

Finally, you should invest in a sun hat, preferably one made of UV-resistant material. While sunlight is great for vitamin D and getting a tan, its UV rays can cause lots of problems: 

• Skin cancer 
• Skin discoloration 
• Signs of aging 

A sunhat shields your face and neck from sunlight and can even keep you cool on warm days. 

2. Roof and Gutter Equipment

You may wonder what your roof has to do with your lawn, but the two are closely connected. During storms, your gutters fill with yard debris, which can cause them to overflow. So to prevent unwanted puddles near your house, you need to keep your roof clear and your gutters clean. 

Fortunately, there's plenty of equipment to help you out. For general cleaning, use a roof rake, which allows you to scoop leaves, branches, and other debris off your roof without leaving the ground. For the gutters, you can use a hose or power washer to flush the system. 

3. Shears and Loppers 

If you have any experience with shrubs, you know that you need to prune them to keep them healthy and blooming; this is where shears and loppers come in. 

While both tools cut away unwanted branches, a lopper is more extensive and typically requires both hands; they can be used to trim higher branches from trees, as they usually have reach and the power to sever thicker limbs. 

Pruning shears, on the other hand, only require one hand to use, like scissors. Therefore, they’re best for detailed work, as they can only handle smaller branches and stems. 

4. Rakes and Blowers 

One of the biggest lawn care jobs is collecting and disposing of fallen leaves. For this task, you need a garden rake, a leaf blower, or both. 

Rakes are the classic autumn garden tool, and they do a decent job gathering leaves into a compost pile. However, if you have a large property, you may prefer a leaf blower, which requires less elbow grease and time. Once you've got the leaves in one place, you can use a leaf rake or a leaf scoop to shovel them into a yard waste bag or the compost bin. 

5. Garden Tools 

To prep your flowers for the winter or plant spring bulbs, you'll need essential garden tools: 

• Cultivator 
• Trowel 
• Hand scoop 

Handheld cultivators are used to upturning the soil, which is essential when clearing out weeds or prepping the ground for planting. You can also use a hoe, though cultivators are best for weeding because the prongs can grasp and uproot stubborn plants. 

Trowels are one of the best tools for planting, as they allow you to dig precise holes. They can also be used in weeding or when uprooting plants for transplanting. If you have a vegetable garden, trowels are indispensable for digging up carrots, potatoes, and other root vegetables. 

Hand scoops make fertilization easy by allowing you to evenly and precisely distribute fertilizer. They can also be handy when putting down mulch or wood chips. 

6. Weeders 

Finally, to protect your plants from unwanted weeds, you need a reliable weeder. These long, narrow instruments are designed to tear weeds out by the root. Getting the roots is crucial, as the most stubborn weeds can grow back from roots alone. 

Due to the shape, weeders can uproot weeds with the precision of a surgeon, leaving the surrounding plants unharmed. They're also easy to use and require less effort than weeding with a trowel or garden hoe. 

Whether you need a leaf blower or a string trimmer, you can shop at Max Warehouse for all your garden tools for fall. To find out more, visit us online or give us a call at 1-800-210-0132.