Best garden tools: great garden gadgets

A great alternative to chemical weed killer, the electric Draper Weed Burner tool provides a more eco-friendly and pet-safe way to tackle unforgiving weeds on your lawn, patio or front drive. It works by transmitting bursts of thermal heat that zap the unwanted plant cells from root to tip, and its directive cone ensures the treatment is precise so you don’t risk damaging surrounding plants and foliage.

The STIHL GTA 26 cordless garden pruner is great for trimming hedges, trees and shrubs. You can use it to cut unruly branches and twigs that are making your garden look shabby, or chop perfectly sliced wood cookies for the fire, for example. It features a saw chain for a high-performance cut with minimum effort needed on your part. The well-balanced design gives a low vibration and low noise level while in operation too. At 1.4kg you’ll be surprised at how lightweight it to hold, and with a rechargeable battery that can handle up 80 4cm logs in one go, it will give you a good innings too.

A great value model, the Flymo Mighti-Mo 300 Li cordless lawnmower did well in the Shortlist best cordless lawnmower test. Reasonably priced for a cordless lawnmower, it comes with five grass cutting settings - between 25mm and 65mm. At 9.9kg, it is also one of the most lightweight cordless lawnmowers we’ve tested. Its handle is easy to assemble and body flexible enough to push around the lawn. A good option for small to medium sized lawns, use it to cut up to 250m2 on a full 120-minute charge, which is surely more than enough mowing for one day.

If your patio is looking a little drab, a blast from a jet wash will instantly give it a lift and remove any dirt build up. The Spear & Jackson S2011PW Pressure Washer is a good call as it has an impressive rated bar of 110 for effective and powerful cleaning. It comes with a good selection of on-board tools to suit your task too, all neatly housed on its compact body. These include a specific patio cleaner, a variable lance and turbo lance, a rotary brush and a fixed brush, which will give you a good range to use on hardwearing surfaces such as stone and patios, as well as car wheels and conservatories. It comes with a long 7-metre cord and its body has been designed so it can be conveniently and comfortably pulled along behind you, much like you would use a vacuum cleaner.

For those who want to enjoy the benefits of a freshly cut lawn, without having to lift a finger, then a robotic lawnmower is the answer. Look online and you’ll be spoilt for choice on robotic lawnmowers, but the Husqvarna Automower 305 robotic mower stands out for its compact body and clever tech. The Husqvarna Automower 305 robotic mower can handle slopes with an incline of up to 40% and cover lawns up to 600 sq m, for example. You can also connect it to your smartphone using Bluetooth to start, pause and stop it and adjust the cutting height. While it doesn’t come cheap, look at it as an investment buy as these useful features will stand you in good stead throughout the seasons.

There’s no need to waste time standing around with a hose to water your plants and lawn after a hot day – opt for a decent sprinkler to do the time-consuming watering for you and you’ll reap the benefits with a lush looking lawn. Unlike standard sprinklers, the Aquazoom Sprinkler covers a wide area from 28 to 350 sq m and is great for use on lawns, beds and borders. The sprinkler is very precise – you can adjust the range from 7-21 metres, and its width from 4-17 metres - so you only water exactly where you need.

No garden tool kit is complete without a decent set of hand secateurs for quickly snipping through small branches on shrubs and young trees. These Burgon & Ball National Trust secateurs are particularly stylish and are a design you’ll want to treasure and pass down through the generations. The perfectly aligned blades are designed to create an edge that will retain sharpness and give you a clean cut every time, while the steel blade runs the length of the FSC hardwood handles to create a robust design. The handles are finished with beautiful brass rivets too.

Use the Karcher LTR cordless battery powered grass strimmer to keep your lawn looking pristine from fence to fence. To help you tackle every corner and delve in between and under garden furniture, the grass strimmer comes with a pivoting head, twisted cutting line and fold-out plant guard. Its specific edge-cutting function will give you a crisp finish, while the device will adjust to the ideal cutting length to achieve the best results. The telescopic handle can also be adjusted to suit your ideal height to make it easy to use.

For tidying up and trimming the tops off tall bushes, you can’t go wrong with a hedge trimmer. There are a number of designs with small and compact handles, but the Bosch version has a height-adjustable telescopic pole with a pivoting head, so you can reach up to 2.6metres without having to stand on a ladder. At 3.6kg it’s relatively light to hold and comes with an 18V Lithium-ion battery included in the price, which is compatible with other tools in the Bosch range. The battery will give you up to two and a half hours of continuous power so you can put your master trimming skills to good use. Edward Scissorhands would be proud.

Once all the hard graft is out of the way, ensure your garden looks fabulous come dusk with a little carefully positioned lighting. Use the Philips Hue LED lights to highlight pathways, trees and the dining space with ease. IP65 rated, the lights are protected against low-pressure jets of water, which makes them safe to use outdoors. Each stake light features an integrated LED that has 16 million colours and shade of white inside so you can create ambient lighting to suit your mood. You can also use the Philips Hue app on your smartphone or tablet to control the lights remotely.