Without battery, 45cm blade 3.0kg, 62cm blade 3.3kg. The moulded plastic scabbard fits snuggly over the blades (but not too snugly to make it a faff to remove or replace) and everything inspires confidence and thoughtful design, right down to the hole in the lower section of the handle which allows the tool to be safely hung up in the workshop or shed for storage. The onboard AP battery prevents it from sharing the sleek lines of the top of the range HSA 94R ( reviewed here), but it’s that very feature that’s got me excited about this machine. This is a very reassuring piece of kit – while not heavy, it feels solid and well made, each of the many sections sporting the Stihl livery colours of black, white or orange fitting together without a hint of the kind of gap or creak that betrays lesser marques. Today I’m putting two machines through their paces, the HSA 86 and the telescopic long-reach hedge trimmer HLA 85. I’ve used Stihl tools since my days volunteering with the National Trust, they were among my first investments when starting my own gardening business and now, opening up the shed, there is the same comfort and confidence in catching sight of their orange and white livery as there is in the bright red handles of my secateurs. They don’t have to be expensive or fancy, but they need to work well and be dependable. Like all gardeners and anyone who works with their hands, I am particular about my tools. But since mothballing the petrol machines, the experience of using powered hedge cutters has become easier on both ears and body, and the latest generation of battery tools allows me to cut with all the manoeuvrability of an electric hedge trimmer without the inconvenience of having to negotiate a mains cable. Not for me today the comforting clack clack of my favourite hand shears – there’s just too much hedge to cut in the time, and too far to reach over to the other side. I check, give myself the all clear, and choose my tools. In the UK, deliberate damage or destruction of a wild bird nest is an offence against the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 – with or without legislation, careless or wanton disturbance would be an offence against nature and decency, and it only takes a minute to check. Such sturdy scaffolding provides an ideal location for wild birds to nest, making a thorough appraisal of the hedge a very necessary precursor to any cutting activity, though by September it’s highly likely that infant birds will have fledged. In this scenario, the gardener removes the terminal bud from every shoot of each plant in the hedge, sending a hormonal signal coursing through branch and stem and triggering dormant side shoots to burst into life, which is why regularly trimming your hedges will encourage the kind of closely-packed, luxuriant growth we want at the borders of our gardens. We call on Mother Nature to referee, and she declares there is a workable compromise that should keep hedge and gardener happy, though both party will need to put in a little work. No one seems to have communicated this to the hedge, unless of course they have and the hedge, unmoved by our preferences, carries on growing out and up just as before. And who can blame them? Each hedge is essentially a line of small trees that wants to grow upwards and out, which is fine with us till the hedge reaches the height and breadth we wanted when we planted it, at which point we’d much rather it stopped or, better still, began to grow inwards, becoming ever more dense. The garden is looking decidedly Septemberish, especially around the margins, hedges reaching into the spaces all around. Summer rain ushered in that last big growth spurt of the year, and the soaking unleashed did its job. With many thanks to Stihl for supplying the equipment in this post in exchange for a fair and balanced review

Stihl long reach battery hedge trimmer