Home Buying Tips
Lessons From a First-Time Home Buyer: Why a Pole Pruner is Our New Favorite Outdoor Tool
A few months ago, we called a tree guy out to come take a look in our yard and let us know what work he’d recommend we do. As I recalled in a previous post, this interaction left me with some intriguing insight and didn’t cost me anything, as he didn’t see a need for us to hire him at the moment. But, among the free knowledge he provided me, he also recommended we try a pole pruner to take care of a couple of small things by ourselves.
If you’re unfamiliar (as I was), a pole pruner is essentially a saw on a stick that then uses a rope and pulley system to make cuts. This, as you can imagine, comes in handy for trimming hard-to-reach plants and trees. In fact, since buying one for ourselves a few weeks ago, it’s quickly become one of our favorite tools.
Pole Pruners: Why We’d Recommend Them to Homeowners
How We Purchased Our Pole Pruner
When I was first told about pole pruners in general, I did a quick search to find where they might be available. To no one’s surprise, one option was our local Lowe’s. So, one rainy Saturday near the end of June, we headed to the store to take a look at our options.
At Lowe’s, we found both a 14′ and 16′ model, priced at $59.98 and $89.98, respectively. Incidentally, the 16′ was a bit shorter thanks to a different telescoping layout. Since the 2′ difference wasn’t a big deal to us, we chose the one that was $30 cheaper.
However, we didn’t even end up paying $60 for our pruner. Thanks to my Mesa Homeowners Card, I received a $30 statement credit on our Lowe’s purchase (this is a quarterly credit, so we also managed to use it just before it reset). Plus, since the Mesa card previously had a more generic $25 quarterly Home Improvement Store credit, apparently I’m grandfathered into that as well and was able to double dip. So, after these adjustments, we spent just $9.84 out of pocket for our new tool.
By the way, while in the store, we did worry that the pruner wouldn’t fit in our car. In the end, we decided to take a chance. Thankfully, after putting down the backseat, we did have room to slide the pruner until it was nearly touching our radio interface — but it did indeed fit, and we were able to close the trunk without issue. Phew.
How We Use It
The main target of our pruner was some, for lack of a better term, weird vegetation in the back of our yard. This viney mix greenery is kind of a mess — yet, it’s intended to provide a bit of privacy from the parking lot found just on the other side of it. That’s all well and good, but when the vines reach up to our internet line and nearly to the power lines, that seems like a problem. Luckily, using this tool, my wife has been able to focus on certain parts of this vegetation and rein them in. In particular, we were able to rescue our fiber internet line from the wily vines, preventing them from eventually pulling it down.
Another super-effective use for the pole pruner involves a large plant in our front yard. These fast-growing stalks would quickly climb to be taller than our porch awning. In turn, when the wind would blow, you could hear them smacking the side. Well, thanks to the pruner, taking these down a few feet proved relatively easy and didn’t even require us to get a ladder.
While these have been the main uses, there’s no shortage of plants and trees in our yards that we’ve been able to use both the pruner and attached saw on. In other words, this purchase has been a wild success.
Minor Maintenance
The only issue we’ve had with our pole pruner so far proved to be a pretty simple one to fix. While trimming some of the vegetation in the backyard, the pruner managed to get itself jammed. But, after getting it unstuck, my wife realized that she wasn’t exactly sure how to put it back together.
After a few “freestyle” tries, we decided to look it up. We tried a few different search methods but, eventually, landed upon a YouTube video that showed us exactly how to restring it. So, if this same thing happens to you, I recommend searching for a pole pruner (or tree trimming pole saw) restringing tutorial to help you out!
Having spent the past few weeks tackling some landscaping projects with our pole pruner, we really couldn’t be much happier with our purchase. Plus, with a price tag of just $60 (which, again, was mostly covered by my credit card perks), this is an inexpensive tool compared to more hardcore options like a chainsaw. Granted, there may come a time when we need to expand our arsenal and purchase such tools — but, for now, a pole pruner has shown itself to be a great starting point for these new homeowners just trying to keep their yard in check.
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