Some weed eaters have string cut off blade turn that cover 180 degrees when push that cover up to plant that stop string from cutting the plant always wear eye protection while weed eating use. Some turn 180 degrees few want.

"Wondering what I could do to make it easier to weed around plants"...Get your wife to do the weeding.

This tool got a lot of 1-star ratings (the worst possible rating) at Amazon, primarily because of short battery life. The idea of using it for weeding is a good one, though. Particularly, if you don't mind stooping or kneeling (both of which I prefer not to do).

The idea presented above, of using a shielded weed eater, seems worth trying.

Or I can just go on as now, sitting in my rolling tractor seat, and pulling the weeds by hand that I can't reach from a standing position using a "precision" long handled garden hoe.