Garden Rakes

Written by Daniel Woodley. Reviewed by Elizabeth Smith. Published to Products on 27th March 2023.

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Not all garden rakes are made equal, and some perform well at certain tasks that others fail miserably at.

I’ve been using garden rakes for over 20 years in a professional and domestic capacity, and here are my favourite three rakes and why I rate them so highly.

I start off with a good all-round leaf rake, a decent tool that picks up all sorts of different lightweight materials without wrecking the garden.

Then I’ll show you a heavy-duty soil rake that’s perfect for levelling soil and pulling out large stones.

Finally, I will show you a landscaping rake that I’ve used thousands of times, mostly to level soil and pull out stones on larger projects.

A Great All-Round Leaf Rake

This is the rake I use the most in my garden at home:

This rake is fully adjustable, so it meets my needs perfectly.

I have pine trees in my garden and the cones get everywhere, they embed in the lawn and ruin it, and they are uncomfortable to walk on.

In the summer, I rake the lawn once a week and yank them out, so I need a rake that won’t wreck the lawn but gets the job done.

With this rake, I can easily adjust the width of the tines, so they are just wide enough to pick up the cones:

If I need to rake up pine needles, it only takes me a few seconds to adjust the width and make it narrower, that’s handy for getting around my shrubs too:

I can widen it right out so it picks up larger items:

During my years of use and testing, I’ve found the narrow metal spikes are perfect for scratching the soil on the lawn and loosening it up so I can overseed.

This rake by Jardineer is my number leaf rake choice and if I had to choose just one rake to store in my shed, it would be this one.

Key Specs

Handle length: 160cm but a 180cm model is also available too.

Handle closed length: 160cm handle closes to 80cm. 

Handle width: 2.5cm

Head width: Adjustable from 19cm to 59cm.

Number of tines: 15

Construction: Steel head and aluminium handle.

Weight: 0.62kg.

What I Disliked

• This is not a heavy-duty rake for lifting heavy stones or working in topsoil. It’s a lightweight rake that I’ve found is best for leaves and general tidying up around the garden.
• It would be nice if the wire tines were a tiny bit thicker and sturdier.
• The plastic locking mechanism feels a little flimsy.

The Classic Rake

I define a classic rake as one that has:

• Wooden handle.
• Steel head.
• A head that will fit most wooden handles.
• Solid, thick tines.

I owned this rake by Draper for a number of years, and at my previous property, where I had larger flowerbeds, I used it several times each year:

This is a really good rake for working the soil and pulling out stones and other objects.

The head isn’t too wide and I found it perfect for general soil use around shrubs, in borders and also when preparing the soil for grass seed.

The tines are nice and thick and the head was heavy enough that it dug into the soil sufficiently.

In my opinion, it’s a good all-round soil rake.

Key Specs

Handle length: 155cm.

Head width: Adjustable from 28cm.

Number of tines: 12

Construction: Carbon steel head and wooden handle.

Weight: 1.06kg.

What I Disliked

• A longer handle would be nice as I’m quite tall and I found it a bit short.
• The handle was straight and not very ergonomic and I did get a few blisters when I first started using it.

Pro Rake

If you’re looking for the best rake to pull out stones from the soil over a wide area, I think your best bet is to go with a Carters rake.

I used to work for a landscape gardening firm and we always had several of these in the work van, the company owner would only ever buy Carters rakes as the quality was so good.

There are plenty to choose from but for finishing off the soil and yanking out stones when prepping the surface, we always used the 32 tine Carters:

I found that this professional-grade rake was light enough to be used all day and every day, but was sturdy enough to withstand the rigours of professional use.

Whenever we were prepping the soil for a new lawn or similar, this would be our go-to rake.

Key Specs

Handle length: 137cm.

Head width: 640mm.

Number of tines: 32

Construction: lightweight polypropylene and wooden handle.

Weight: 1.3kg.

What I Disliked

• It’s not a general garden rake, but rather a tool for a specific task.
• Not everyone will like the fact that the tines are made from plastic.

Carters doesn’t sell rakes to the general public directly, but you can contact them here and ask where their nearest retailer partner is.

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