Introduction
I didn't realize there were so many types of garden rake.
What prompted the writing of this page was that years ago, I found some sort of rake in the shed. I had no idea what it was but clearing the shed out in the summer of 2026, I rediscovered the tool and looked up what it was. It turned out to be a thatch rake. It's something I've never had cause to use, and probably never will.
Garden Rake
These are general purpose heavier, steel rakes. They are used for grading soil, breaking up clumps, removing larger stones and preparing soil for planting. I find mine useful for levelling off my compost pile.
Garden rakes - Bow and Shrub rakes
There are two main types, a bow rake which is wider and has more tines than a shrub rake which as its name suggest is used to rake aroud plants.
Leaf Rake
Probably my most used type of rake. It is ideal for clearing leaves and twigs from lawns. They are usually made from plastic or a type of spring steel. I prefer the spring steel type as they cope better with wet leaves and light garden debris.
Steel and plastic leaf rakes
Scoop Rakes
Made of aluminium or plastic, they look flimsy but scoop rakes are tremendously useful. When I rake leaves out of the yard I put them into piles and simply shovel them into a wheelbarrow or bags. Scoop rakes are best when there isn't much left or if there a smaller piles that need to be moved. I also used mine for picking up garden debris and putting it into a chipper.
Scoop rakes
Thatch Rake
This is the thing that gave me the idea for this page. I found it years ago in the back of the shed and recently actually looked up what it is. The odd leaf and other debris on a lawn doesn't do any damage and helps replenish the nutirents in the soil. The debris can sometimes build up to quite a depth and a thatch rake is needed to clear it from the lawn. Our lawn is kept fairly tidy and I have never had cause to use it, so it's now at the back of the shed again.
Thatch rake
Other Rakes
There are apparently all sorts of other types of garden rake for specialized uses around but the above are the types I have and those do all the tasks I do around the yard.