Winter doesn’t go quietly in Indiana. By the time the ground thaws, there’s a season’s worth of debris, overgrown edges, and scraggly grass waiting in every corner of the yard.
My Ryobi ONE+ 40V lineup handles all of it on a shared battery platform — no gas, no cords, and no hunting for a second charger. Ryobi’s reputation undersells what the platform actually delivers, especially once you’ve got a few tools pulling from the same batteries. These are the three I reach for first every spring.
Ryobi 40V leaf blower
Clearing winter’s mess before anything else can start
The Ryobi 40V leaf blower moves 550 CFM at 120 MPH. On paper, that’s a spec. In practice, it means wet, packed leaves from November move without much argument. That matters in spring because the debris left behind after a Midwest winter isn’t light and dry — it’s compacted, sometimes partially frozen to the ground in spots, and usually sitting in places I haven’t touched since October.
I use this blower before I do anything else in the yard. Clearing the perimeter of the three-season room, blowing out the window wells, getting debris off the driveway border before I edge — all of it happens with this tool first. Trying to edge or trim over a layer of wet leaves just makes the job harder and leaves a mess. The blower cleans the canvas first. After mowing, I use it to quickly clear grass clippings off my sidewalks and driveway.
The 40V battery gives it more runtime than I’ve ever needed for a single session, and since it shares a platform with the rest of my ONE+ tools, I’m not tracking a separate charger. How you store and cycle those batteries matters more than most people realize — charge habits that seem harmless can quietly shorten pack life over a few seasons. Keep them in good shape, and the blower will be ready every spring without drama.
Ryobi 40V HP brushless stick lawn edger
The difference between a clean edge and a yard that just got mowed
A mowed lawn looks better. An edged lawn looks intentional. That distinction matters most in spring, when the first cleanup after months of growth is always the heaviest. Grass that’s been creeping into driveway cracks and bed borders all winter doesn’t trim neatly — it needs a real edge cut, not a pass with a trimmer.
The Ryobi 40V HP brushless stick lawn edger handles that first pass better than anything else I’ve tried. The brushless motor maintains consistent torque even when the blade hits dense grass and packed soil — the kind of resistance that would bog down a brushed motor or force you to slow your walking pace to nothing. I can run the full driveway border and the front bed line in a single charge without the tool losing its confidence mid-run.
Ryobi tools are way better than people think
Ryobi power tools don’t deserve all the flak they get.
The other thing worth saying: a stick edger produces a cleaner line than any trimmer-on-its-side workaround I’ve seen. If you’ve been faking it with a string trimmer held vertically, the first time you use a dedicated edger makes the gap obvious. The blade tracks straight, the
trench is consistent, and the edges stay defined for longer because the cut is actually clean.
Ryobi 40V 15-in Expand-It string trimmer
Handling the spots the mower can’t reach
The mower handles open grass. Everything else — the fence line, the tight corner around the HVAC condenser, the narrow strip between the sidewalk and the house foundation — falls to the string trimmer. In spring, those spots are always worse than they look from a distance. Grass grows into fences over winter in a way that takes patience to clear out the first time.
The Ryobi 40V 15-in Expand-It string trimmer cuts a 15-inch swath, which is wide enough to make fence line work less tedious without being so wide that it becomes awkward in tight spots. The Expand-It attachment compatibility is worth having even if you don’t use it right away — the platform supports edger, cultivator, and pole saw attachments that share the same trimmer head, so it’s a tool that can grow with whatever the yard ends up needing.
A trimmer that sat in the garage from October through March is worth a quick inspection before the first run — you want to find a problem in the driveway, not mid-fence-line. Tools that get a little attention before and after each use stay reliable well past the point where neglected ones quit. Load fresh line, wipe the head, and it’s ready.
Get the yard under control before it controls you
Spring yardwork has a way of stacking up fast once the grass starts growing. Having these three tools ready — blower, edger, trimmer — means the first weekend push actually accomplishes something instead of turning into a half-finished mess. All three run on the same 40V battery platform, so one charged set of packs covers the whole job. Get them ready before the ground fully thaws, and the season starts on your terms.
