I have come to love my 40 watt Ryobi lithium/ion battery string trimmer lately. Cut through the weeds in the paths between my framed beds with ease and then cut down 10 square yards of invasive vine like a hot knife through spaghetti!

But when all is said and done, my leverage fork is the best.

That leverage fork looks awesome. Where did you buy that? I am interested... can step on it to go through my clay soil.

Beautiful Terri! You have given me some ideas. Are your arbors set directly on the ground? How have you anchored them? TIA

If the raw wood color bothers you maybe some weed block cloth stapled over them would still let the posts breathe enough to dry out for the season. Also various baskets/planters can be mounted on posts while the trellised plants fill in....

The arbors that make up the gazebo thingy are set about 8" in the ground. If it doesn't hold during a big wind storm, we'll sink much longer rebar spikes into the ground and wire tie the arbor stakes to it. Did that with another trellis and it works great, but the stakes on that trellis were only about 3" deep to start with.

Thanks Terri.

Mine that I salvaged from trash pick up day has round metal feet on each leg . They have 4 holes for screws probably to mount the arbor on ??? a deck? a concrete pier?

Here is a pic

Great find.

DH crushing on newly bought lopper. Dendol something? Claims ratchet factor rocks.

Saw racheting pruner at Philly Flower Show -- same one? will have to look up name. Very cool, takes several squeezes of the handle to cut through larger branches with ease.

Here's the website for the folks who were at Philly. I note that their racheting pole pruner is currently on sale... I sure can't pull my regular one any more... tempted, but I'm also considering an electric version, sort of a small chain saw on a stick... anybody have/love/hate one or the other of these? While I'm not 1-handed, I do need to do most of the effort with one hand.

link would help... http://www.bettergardentools.c...

Yep, that's the ratchet pruner all right. We got the Professional Pruning Combination at Va Beach Show in March. Eric says it's the best pruning tool EVER. Only drawback is that to reach very high branches, he may need a ladder. Says he'd take this new gadget over chain-saw-on-a-stick any day.

OK. chain-saw-on-stick seems like it might be a bit unwieldy, hard to balance when the business end is that big and 6 feet away.

Here's the racheting pole pruner that I was trying to compare to chainsaw-on-stick. They got my attention with the discounted price (I'm on their email list). http://www.bettergardentools.c...

We have a chain-saw-on-a-astick, and it is VERY unwieldy when up in the air. At shoulder-level or lower, it's not too bad.

Hmm. That's definitely a consideration. I don't find my old-style pole pruner too unwieldy for high branches -- it just takes more of a yank than I can manage to cut through anything more than 1/2" diameter. Presumably the racheting one would handle similarly. Now I'm regretting trying out the racheting hand pruner but not the pole pruner at the Philly show.

Ryobi makes a small reciprocating attachment on about a 3' extension for their trimmers that's not too unwieldy like chainsaws. I just found out they also make a 15" hedge trimmer that's about the same size. That would probably serve my purpose, on my tall topiaries and the top of my yew hedge. There are a number out there for under $100.
http://www.target.com/p/black-...

Good to know! I've got bigger branches to trim, so something that can handle up to 2" would be nice. I was looking at this, or maybe the one with a couple extra amps: http://www.target.com/p/greenw...

tantefrancine said:That leverage fork looks awesome. Where did you buy that? I am interested... can step on it to go through my clay soil.

I've been looking for the source on and off for weeks. I can't find it. I have a solid steel spade from the same source and I love them both.

They were gifts from a friend, who bought them at a nursery local to him (but not to me). The labels show no manufacturer.

Hey all, does anyone know who makes this?

I just checked Lee Valley, because they carry some great steel tools, but no luck.

However, I did discover that they have the Sneebore line of tools, and I think @tantefrancine was looking at the long-handled cultivator on another site... Lee Valley has free shipping on orders over $40 every so often; just get on their email list.

http://www.leevalley.com/us/ga...

I built a large lever fork myself, unfortunately I made it much too large and much to heavy. I must have been thinking I was 35, not 65. I need to get in the shop and cut it down, a lot.

Wait, WHAT? You aren't 35? You just made that a couple years ago didn't you? At least that is what I remember.