The 6 Best Garden Tillers and Cultivators (2026)
A tiller earns its keep breaking new ground or mixing a big load of amendment once. Here are the six...
Read the guide →Garden Guides
Practical digging, planting, and tool advice from the Spear Head Spade family. Real techniques, honest comparisons, no fluff.
The 5 Best Soil Test Kits (2026): Mail-In, Meter, and Chemical
Mail-in lab kits, capsule kits, and pH meters measure very different things. Here are the five worth buying, what each...
Read the guide →
The 5 Best Lawn Dethatchers (2026): Manual Rakes, Electric, and Tow-Behind
Most lawns do not need dethatching, and the plug test tells you in two minutes. For the ones that do,...
Read the guide →
How to Mulch Leaves: Leaf Mulch for Beds, Lawns, and Compost
Shredded leaves are the best free mulch a yard produces. How to chop them with a mower, how deep to...
Read the guide →
Cover Crops for Home Gardens: What to Plant in Fall and How
Winter rye, crimson clover, oats, peas and radish compared for home beds, with sowing dates by region, a six step...
Read the guide →
The 6 Best Lawn Edgers (2026): Manual, Cordless, and Gas
Bed edges and hard edges are two different jobs. A sharp spade cuts the line and lifts the wedge in...
Read the guide →
The 6 Best Hedge Trimmers (2026): Cordless, Corded, and Gas
Six hedge trimmers for six real hedges, chosen on blade length, cutting capacity, and weight, with only the specs each...
Read the guide →
The 6 Best Pole Saws (2026): Cordless, Manual, and Gas
Six pole saws for six real jobs, chosen by reach and branch size across cordless, manual, and gas, with only...
Read the guide →
How to Level a Yard by Hand: Low Spots, Bumps, Bare Dirt, and Slopes
Level a lawn by topdressing with sand and compost, no more than half an inch per pass, worked in with...
Read the guide →
The 5 Best Pruning Saws (2026): Folding, Fixed, and Root Saws
Folding, fixed, and root saws for what loppers cannot cut. Five picks by job, from a pocket folding saw to...
Read the guide →
The 6 Best Loppers (2026): Bypass, Anvil, and Ratchet
Bypass loppers for living wood, anvil for dead, ratchet for tired hands. Six picks by job, from a 32 inch...
Read the guide →
The 5 Best Cordless Electric Snow Shovels (2026)
Five battery powered snow shovels ranked on the four numbers that matter: clearing width, intake depth, throw distance, and runtime...
Read the guide →
The 6 Best Snow Shovels (2026)
Six snow shovels across the jobs winter actually throws at you: an 18 inch poly combination blade for mixed work,...
Read the guide →
The Best Leaf Vacuum Mulchers and Leaf Shredders (2026)
A leaf vacuum mulcher is a finishing tool, not a rake replacement. It wins in beds, on gravel, and in...
Read the guide →
The 8 Best Leaf Blowers of 2026: Cordless, Gas and Corded
Eight leaf blowers for eight real jobs, six cordless plus one gas and one corded, with a plain explanation of...
Read the guide →
The 6 Best Hose Reels (2026): Wall, Cart, and Retractable
The best hose reels for every yard layout: a steel wall mount for most homes, a retractable case if you...
Read the guide →
How to Clean, Sharpen, and Store Garden Tools for Winter
The full end-of-season tool routine: cleaning, rust removal with steel wool or a vinegar soak, sharpening with a mill file...
Read the guide →
How to Remove a Tree Stump by Hand (4 Methods)
Dig and cut is the right call for any stump under about eight inches, and it is one afternoon of...
Read the guide →
How to Remove Sod and Grass by Hand (and by Machine)
The four ways to take grass out of a new bed, with the timeline and the failure mode for each....
Read the guide →
How to Protect Plants From Frost (Plus the Best Frost Cloths)
Water in the afternoon, cover before dusk to the ground, keep the fabric off the leaves, uncover by mid morning....
Read the guide →
How to Winterize Your Garden: 10 Steps Before the Ground Freezes
Ten jobs in the right order, from pulling spent annuals to draining the rain barrel, with honest guidance on which...
Read the guide →
The 5 Best Fall Lawn Fertilizers (2026)
Fall is the lawn feeding that pays twice: deeper roots now and a faster green-up in spring. Here is what...
Read the guide →
How to Aerate Your Lawn by Hand (and the Best Aerators)
Core, not spike, and fall, not summer. How to tell whether your lawn needs aerating, the step-by-step for doing it...
Read the guide →
How to Plant Daffodil Bulbs: When, How Deep, How Far Apart
Daffodils are the most forgiving bulb you can plant, and the one deer and rodents leave alone. When to plant...
Read the guide →Put the advice to work
Every guide comes back to the same starting point: a sharp spearhead blade and a comfortable handle.
Shop the spades
