We love our yard, but after years of neglect from the previous owner, it has become an overgrown jungle of vines, weeds, and dead trees. It’s been a priority to clear our yard, for both aesthetic and safety reasons—so with the help of Stihl outdoor power equipment we tamed our jungle.
By Los Angeles standards, we have a HUGE back yard. 1/3 of it is a pool and deck, and the remaining area is cut into two smaller lawns and one larger space that contains a couple orange trees and a small garden shed. We also have a front yard lawn and some basic landscaping—and fortunately that has always been maintained, but the back yard is another story.
Our jungle space is 1/2 lawn and trees and 1/2 dead trees and leaves. Our goal of taming our yard first starts with clearing as much of the dead debris as we can, which means removing a dead tree and cutting up the branches, as well as clearing a bunch of dead leaves and brush. That’s where Stihl comes in.
Last year we checked out the latest Stihl Lightning cordless tools from Stihl at their headquarters in Virginia Beach, and came away impressed by their power and performance. They matched or were nearly equivalent to their gas counterparts. We knew we didn’t want gas tools, so having equivalent gas power and runtime, with the convenience of cordless tools was a no-brainer. We identified five Stihl Lightning tools we needed to clear our yard as well as maintain it throughout the year. A lawn mower, leaf blower, hedge trimmer, chainsaw, and pole pruner. Stihl offers different models for each type of tool, that’s based on your yard size and landscaping needs. We went with the Stihl AP series of tools, which are designed for frequent to extensive use, which was perfect for our space.
For clearing our yard and trimming dead branches, the MSA 200 C-BQ chainsaw and HTA 85 pole pruner saw were the most useful and best tools for the job. The back of our yard slopes down which makes it difficult to reach and clear dead branches. The pole saw was really the only way to safely cut these branches.
Before using any chainsaw or pole saw, it’s vital to use the proper safety equipment. This includes work gloves, safety glasses, chaps, helmet, and hearing protection. You can purchase the Woodcutter kit from Stihl that has everything you need to safely use their gear, including a helmet and face shield.
We’ve got a great orange tree in our yard that was neglected and in dire need of pruning. Dead branches can lead to disease, so removing them from our tree was a top job. It was satisfying to improve the overall health of our tree, and also made it look much better. We used the AP 300 battery, which provided more than enough runtime and was interchangeable with all of our tools.
Clearing our yard has proven to be a huge job, but our suite of Stihl tools has made it much more manageable and even enjoyable to take on. Laura at 9 months pregnant didn’t want to be left out of the fun, and went to work with the pole saw last weekend. Battery power means fumes and chemicals are not a concern at all.
In the next post we’ll provide an update on our progress in taming our yard and how we used our other Stihl tools.
This post is sponsored by Stihl. All opinions are 100% our own. This post complies with the Word Of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) Ethics Code and applicable Federal Trade Commission guidelines.
