Best Garden Rakes For Every Job

A garden rake is an essential piece of kit, but choosing the right one requires looking past the handle and understanding the head. These tools are highly varied in form and you need one suited to the specific job you want to do.

Some rakes are designed to cultivate soil, while others are made to rake grass, leaves, or gravel. There are also mini versions ideal for clearing debris under shrubs or in tight spaces. A soil or cultivator rake features a rigid head with fixed tines set at 90 degrees to the shaft, usually wooden. This design breaks up clods of soil and levels the ground smoothly. For leaves, a fan-shaped head with wide, flexible tines works best. These wide tines collect debris without stabbing it, which helps keep a lawn tidy and is effective on gravel without disturbing the stones. If you need to clear wet leaves off decking or patios, a rubber rake is often the safer option. These won’t damage the surface of grass, wood, or paving, making them a good choice for manicured lawns and bowling greens.

Selection Factors

When considering a rake, durability and storage matter. A stainless steel rake head is likely to last longer than a plastic one. Adjustable lawn rakes fold up small for easy storage, but the mechanism can be vulnerable to damage and rust if left out in the rain. For any flexible-tined rake, hanging them off the ground is the best way to avoid bending the tines out of shape. If buying a soil rake, ensure the head width and weight suit your space. It needs to be heavy enough to break up clods of soil effectively, yet easy enough to use that you don’t strain your back. A 1.2m shaft is considered a good standard length for average users.

We put ten garden rakes through their paces, clearing up lawn mowings, leaves, and preparing soil for sowing. The Burgon & Ball steel lawn hand rake features a long wooden handle made of FSC-certified hardwood and a fan-shaped head of wide, bendy stainless steel tines. It is light and easy to use, covering a lot of ground quickly without damaging bound gravel paths or decking. The Bulldog 9150N premier rubber merlin rake is a British-made option that works quietly on crunchy gravel. The small rubber tines grab onto wet leaves on wood effectively and sweep up surface debris on lawns or gravel without leaving a mark.