If you want to make sure your garden looks pristine and tidy, then trimming the edges of your lawn is an important job.

Every homeowner, no matter how small their garden, wants it to look its best. You want to sit on your patio, with a glass of your favourite drink in your hand and the sun warming your face and feel proud when you look out on your garden.

Mowing the lawn is obviously one thing you can do, but it’s not the only one. For a tidy lawn, you need to trim the edges of your grass. And edging shears are one of the main tools that will help you to achieve this.

To get the job done properly, you need the best edging shears you can get.

And to make sure you buy the right garden shears for you, our experts have put together a list of the best edging shears available at the moment.

The huge choices on offer, can make it difficult to pick the right one, so here are our 5 best edging shears for garden borders.

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Because these edging shears are electric, it will take no time at all to get your lawn looking nice and tidy. That’s why our experts have chosen it as the best edging shears currently available. 

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If you want reliable and easy to use edging shears that won’t hurt your back, then this is the right tool for you.

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Gardena is well-known German brand of garden tools, so you can be sure you are buying quality.

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With the carbon steel blades and steel handles, these edging shears have been made to last. 

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Make light work of trimming your borders with these lightweight garden shears with non-stick blades. So even wet grass won’t slow you down.

Yes, you can, but you have to make sure that you are using hedge shears. It’s always best to use a tool that was made for the job.

Hedge shears are basically huge scissors, with long blades.

They are one of the most useful tools gardeners can have. It is versatile, as it can trim hedges, prune bushes and shrubs, and you can also use them to cut back plants in autumn.

However, if you need to cut very thick branches, then hedge shears won’t be of much use. As they are designed to cut a large area of the plant in one go, they work well on soft stems.

If you need to cut thick branches, you are best off using lopping shears. They have longer handles as hedge shears, which will give you better leverage, which means you don’t need as much strength. 

When it comes to taking care of your garden, there are a lot of garden tools that can be used. So it can get a bit difficult to know which tool to use for which job.

So here are the different types of shears  and what they are used for.

These are tools to cut around the edges of a lawn, paving, decking or a border. In the list above, we have given you the best edging shears for garden borders.

You can get ones with long handles, so you don’t have to bend down, or you can get smaller ones which you can use with one hand.

Edging shears are made to cut grass and to trim around the border. They tend to be precision tools. 

These are hand-held shears, that are used to prune small bushes, flowers, vegetables, etc. They will cut through stems and twigs of less than an inch in diameter.

There are two types of pruning shears, the classic type, which has two sharp blades, like scissors. And then there are the bypass shears, which only have one sharp blade, the upper blade. The bottom blade is unsharpened. Through this mechanism, these shears create less damage when cutting.

Thinning shears are small with thin, short blades that are used for delicate plants, such as bonsai trees.

Anvil pruners work more like a knife on a chopping board. The sharp upper blade is pressed down on a flat metal base. Anvil pruners crush rather than cut the stems.

They are also called loppers and are ideal for any plant with a diameter under 2 inches. They are basically bigger pruning shears with longer handles.

Because they have longer handles, it’s easier to cut through branches. as they have more leverage. The longer handles also allow you to reach branches that are higher up.

Loppers are called in when pruning shears can’t do the job any more.

If you need loppers, we’ve published a guide to the best garden loppers here.

As the name says, these are made to trim hedges. The long blades are designed to cut off big parts of a bush or hedge. 

They will cut through thicker branches too, so if you have a small tree that you need to prune, you can use these as well, if you can reach the branches.

One thing to look out for when you look for good hedge shears is if they have bumpers. These are shock absorbers, that will protect your hands from the stress caused by cutting thicker branches.

You can also get hedge shears with telescopic handles, so you can reach the top of the hedge easier, without needing ladders.

There are also electrical hedge strimmers on the market, which will make getting your hedge look good much easier. Because they are electric, they are still lightweight and, on average, they have a run time of around 1 hour.

If you want to prune your trees, then a pole pruner is the best tool. The long handle allows you to reach branches from the ground, without needing to use ladders. 

If you have never used one before, make sure you read the user manual carefully and wear safety equipment. 

You can also get electric or petrol pole pruners. These will make your life much easier, because you don’t need to put in the hard work.

With such a wide range of different edging shears out there, it can be difficult to choose the best edging shears for you. Here are a few things to look out for.  

You are likely to be working with your edging shears for a while, so you want to make sure that you have a tool that is lightweight. We would recommend going for the lightest ones possible, to avoid straining your wrists or arms. 

You want a comfortable handle, that gives you a good grip. Handles come in different materials and all have their pros and cons.

A wooden handle is light and helps with absorbing shock. However, you will have to maintain it to keep it in good condition.

Rubber handles are durable and can give you good grip and can be non-stick. But they are not environmentally friendly.

Steel handles are durable, but they will also be heavier.

The blades are the most important part of your shears, because they will determine how easily they will cut through the grass. 

You want them to be durable, so carbon steel or stainless steel blades will work best. Carbon steel blades will rust more easily though. And most importantly, you want sharp blades.

A lot of the time you can get replacement blades if yours have gone rusty, so it’s worth considering to buy shears where the blades can be replaced.

When you have finished, give them a good clean. Remove any mud or soil and give them a good rinse under the tap. Then let them dry. Never put them away wet or damp, as this will make the wood rot and the metal parts rust.

If you have wooden handles, treat them with protective oil at the end of each gardening season. This will protect the wood and make garden shears last for a lifetime.

To keep your blades in perfect working order, you should maintain them regularly. Clean them and wipe them with an oily cloth, after every use, to protect them.  Sharpen them when they go blunt to make sure your work isn’t harder than it has to be. 

You can by sharpening tools that can be used for different garden tools with blades.

Edging shears are made to trim the edges of a lawn or border. Whereas lawn shears are flat on the ground to cut grass that is in an area you can’t reach with the lawn mower, for example, around a tree or in corners.

If you have just moved house or decided to get more into gardening and want to get kitted out with garden tools, here are the garden shears you should get.

Garden shears are tools that gardeners use a lot, but which do you need?

First, you will need hedge shears, because nothing says tidy garden more than neatly trimmed hedges and bushes. If you have a big garden with long hedges or many bushes, you might want to invest in an electric hedge trimmer, as this will make it much quicker and easier.

Edging shears are a must, because the lawn mower won’t get the edges of your lawn cut. And untidy edges don’t look good. They are also useful to keep borders in shape.

Pruning shears are useful to cut back your plants to keep them healthy and vigorous. You can use them to prune flowers, vegetables and small trees, depending on the size of the branches.

If you have a lot of trees in your garden, then it would also be wise to invest in a pole pruner. While trees don’t need to be pruned every year, having the right tool when do need it is a good idea. You can, of course get a professional in to do it for you, but that won’t come cheap, especially if you have a lot of trees.

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