What are you cleaning up? Makes a significant difference in what tools you need. In some situation a string trimmer will take care of the dead flower stocks. For trimming up bushes you may need shears, loppers, a hedge trimmer, or a chain saw depending on the size of the bush.

Tools I use routinely in cleaning up my yard are my lawn tractor and trailer, and my chipper shredder. I also use the lawn tractor to mow the grass and chop up the leaves. I almost forgot my leaf blower which I use for racking leaves, distributing mulch and cleaning up the patio and porch.

So you need to give us some information on your yard to get valid recommendation for your yard.

Mostly herbaceous perennials, many on the larger side (e.g. Joe Pye weed, ironweed, milkweed, hibiscus, daisies, etc) and some smaller stuff like sedum, Stokes aster, gentian, stuff like that. Also have some big clumps of ornamental grasses. Not looking for stuff to prune shrubs right now, just the perennials.

If that case I would look for an inexpensive battery string trimmer. They can be had for less that $100. better units less that $200.

I would pick up the debris and compost it. If you have a power mower you may use it to chop up the debris. If you have a power mower you may be able to cut them down and chop them up at the same time. If you don't leave the material in the Flower bed I would compost it.

Update: I ended up getting this jobbie:

Makita USA - Product Details -XMU04ZX (makitatools.com)

It's not a big hedge shear, but it should suit my purpose for bed clean up/cutting down grasses, and I figured I could use the grass shears on smaller stuff. Hopefully it works well; still have to charge it up and give it a first go 'round...we shall see...

Keep us posted!

Three hours run time! wow. You will get your money's worth out of that tool. Looks well built. I have the cheaper Black and Decker.

ETA: I used the grass shears this morning to cut down the wild chicory that grows around the mailbox. Worked great. I'm going to use it to clean up the perennial beds.

Just got back from the hardware store about a half hour ago. Bought me that Dewalt telescoping cordless tree branch trimmer I wanted a couple months ago but thought was too expensive. Haven't taken it out of the box yet to see how heavy it is. Tomorrow I'll plan on doing that and trying it out on some branches.

Guy at the hardware said I can bring it back if it doesn't work out.

I got the idea of using grass shears from the board, and also the hedge trimmers. So this is a 2-in-1, which is why I bought it, it ain't cheap... (the tool itself isn't too bad, but I had to buy the battery pack -- ouch! but can use for other Makita tools, so an investment, I guess??)

Just got back from the hardware store about a half hour ago. Bought me that Dewalt telescoping cordless tree branch trimmer I wanted a couple months ago but thought was too expensive.

Ha ha. Well, I took the tree branch trimmer back about a half hour ago. I got it all together, but soon realized, "This is a little too dangerous for me, I could cut something off other than a tree branch with this".

It was heavy, had a chain saw head, telescopes to 15'. Had a reservoir that you needed to put special oil in, you had to make sure the chain was always taut, etc, etc......uh... not for me. But at least now I know. Safer to hire someone. : )

schoolhouse: Is it one that is a long-handled chainsaw? If so, DH has that. He uses it more than the regular chainsaw lately, even for stuff that's not high up, he likes it better. I can't use it -- it's too heavy for me.

Yeah, it was basically a long handled chain saw, battery operated.

I have one of those little folding saws and I love it. However, I am looking to get a battery-operated saw that can handle a bit bigger branch/sapling. I have some small sassafras trees I want to take down, probably about 4 inches in diameter. A bit too big for my little folding saw. Sounds like I want one of those telescoping saws without the telescoping lol. That feature just sounds like it makes it unwieldy, which means dangerous lol

:)

Dee

Chessie -- Can that hedge trimmer take down a stand of ornamental grass. If so, I think I'm in!

I'm struggling with the Makita -- got it set up and the grass shears work great on grass, but it couldn't cut down a stand of Purple Dome aster, so that tells me it's not going to work well on perennials in general. I'm still fussing with changing the attachment to the hedge trimmer -- I can't figure it out, I had to ask DH to do it and he hasn't gotten to it yet. So I may end up returning the Makita depending on how well that attachment works -- I need it actually cut stuff down, including the grasses (the worst of the lot in terms of labor).

diggerdee zone 6 CT - for a 4" tree, I would use a reciprocating saw. I recently used mine to cut down a weed tree out under a hedge, and the tree was easily 4 inches wide.

mxk3 z5b_MI, the trimmer would easily take down ornamental grass

My Black and Decker grass shears worked pretty good cutting down my phlox. Had to urge it along sometimes, but not terribly after I learned how to use it on the stems. Will be trying it on the peonies next. Haven't started on most of the other perennials yet but I don't expect much problems.

Ok, well I finally figured out how to switch out the Makita attachments (good to fiddle with while on a snoozeworthy Zoom call...). The hedge trimmer attachment handled the ornamental grass with no problem but can't cut through perennials with tougher, woodier stems. But, since it's a 2-in-1 tool, I'll probably keep it, it seems like it will suffice -- but I'll play around with it when I have more time.

I am going to order some cordless electric pruners; am debating between models, there's a long-handled one by Scott's that looks promising, but have to read through some of teh reviews and reviews of other models.

Battery powered hedge clippers and a weed wacker. No fall cleanup for me though. What isn't knocked down by the snow gets knocked down by me and left there in the spring.

Well, I ended up returning the Makita. It was not comfortable to operate, had to keep the locking mechanism engaged while using it (? was it defective; not sure), plus was just overall not the right tool for the money -- was not cheap by any means, the battery itself was about $150.

But, I did pick up that Ego cordless hedge trimmer Chessie linked to. Yea, baby! Well designed, is a snap to use and not too heavy (I wouldn't consider it light, but it's not too heavy for me). It easily cut down 3 gigantic clumps of Zebra grass. Struggled a little on fat native hibiscus stems, but they might have been larger than 1", which is the max cutting diameter, but this thing will easily take down other perennials that don't get super-thick stems. Definitely a keeper.

I don't know where Chessie's original post went, so here's the link:

EGO POWER+ 56-Volt 24-in Dual Cordless Electric Hedge Trimmer 2.5 Ah (Battery & Charger Included) in the Cordless Electric Hedge Trimmers department at Lowes.com

Next up is cordless electric hand pruners. There's a few models on Amazon I'm eyeing. I hate I'm getting to the point where even simple things like using hand pruners aggravates my hands, but it is what it is...

If you get the cordless hand pruners, let me know how they work out. I've been looking at those in a couple catalogs.

I like my cordless hedge trimmer. I even have a cordless hedge trimmer with telescoping handle. I can trim privet hedge way above my head, plus swipe down tall weeds at the edge of the field like using a scythe.

I was considering the hedge trimmer with the long handle, but I picked up one up in the store and it was bordering on being too heavy; I can't use the long-handled cordless chainsaw we have for that reason.

The cordless trimmer that I posted earlier is very light.

Because of the cord problem, I would get a battery hedge trimmer. I have had a corded chainsaw for nearly 40 years, and never cut its cord. I also used a corded string trimmer of years and never got it in the cord. I may consider another corded on for the string trimmer and chainsaw if I was buying a new one. But would definitely go with a battery hedge trimmer.for about an hour and thought I was finished. I found one more small branch I had missed so did not attach the cord to my belt as I had been doing all day, with in five swipes, I got the cord.

Because of the cord problem, I would get a battery hedge trimmer. I have had a corded chainsaw for nearly 40 years, and never cut its cord. I also used a corded string trimmer of years and never got it in the cord. I may consider another corded on for the string trimmer and chainsaw if I was buying a new one. But would definitely go with a battery hedge trmmer.

LOL. I have cut the cord on my old hedge trimmers, many times. I went with cordless, mainly because I was tired of dragging a long extension cord all over the yard (I have a good sized yard). I love mine.