A garden rake has many uses and most are used for initial landscaping or as lawn rakes. Other uses include weed rakes preparing soil for a new lawn raking land like a cultivator might undertake and used in conjunction with a garden hoe. There are long rakes and hand rakes that gardeners can use especially for the autumn time when every leaf that falls are needed to be tidied up.
There are two types of
garden rakes that undertake two different tasks in the garden. A plastic based rake is used for
sweeping up leaves on lawns and because it's plastic and "bendable" in nature will not harm
the turf and simply collect leaves into a neat pile to gather up for compost or dispose of
in your green recycling wheelie bin to
be collected by your local council.
The second type is a metal gardening rake which by it's nature is fixed and mainly used for levelling patches of soil or new beds before planting bedding plants or a new lawn. Apart from levelling the area it will also collect larger items you don't want such as stones and old plants.
Like most types of gardening tools choosing a garden rake is almost down to personal perference in how it looks and how it feels in your hands. Most large manufacturers make rakes as part of their general range of equipment including Wolf, Spear and Jackson, Wilkinson Sword and draper. The cheapest rakes can be had for as little as £10 with the most expensive up to just £40 for a roller rake for moss removal.
Apart from the standard rakes we mentioned above in plastic or metal you can also purchase hand rakes which are smaller and electric garden rakes as well as roller rakes in the kit form that Wolf provide so you just attach the standard handle and you can roll the rake over your lawn to scrap away moss and other weeds in your lawn area.
Some have a fan like head which means you can get more coverage to get that last leaf that has fallen and some have entended poles for taller people to use without having to bend down and perhaps damage their backs. Electric garden rakes are also available from companies such as Flymo and Qualcast which are like mini electric lawn mowers but instead of cutting your grass will rake over it to remove leaves, moss and thatch and is sometimes called a scarifier- these are much more expensive costing around £100 but takes out the hard work of raking your lawn and puts all the debris into a box which you can empty once you have gone over your lawn.
A zen garden rake is mostly used for where you have miniture stones in a gravel pathway or as edging on a lawn to make it look its best and clear away anything that shouldn't be there. Zen is of course from the japanese as they have many ornamental gardens which need maintenance.