Sweeping and raking are necessary tasks in all gardens and there are many different products to make the job easier. In this section we recommend lightweight, long reach and smaller brooms and dustpans, and lightweight, smaller and grabber style rakes.
We also recommend tools to help you pick up garden debris. Clearing up might be easier if you sweep or rake onto a large plastic sheet, which you then drag to your compost heap. Other ways to pick up debris include using debris collectors, grabbers or a garden vac, all of which save you having to bend down.
Raking and sweeping can be easier if you use an add-on fist grip style handle and an arm support cuff - particularly if you use one hand, have a weak grip or weak wrist. Made by Peta UK Ltd, the add-on handle is wide and comfortable and sits at right angles to the tool handle. The arm support cuff slots into the end of the handle and as well as giving support, it stops the tool falling to the ground if you loose your grip.
If you use two hands, you can fit a second add-on handle further down a longer handle, like those on a rake or hoe, and hold it with your other hand to help you steady, push and pull the tool.
Find out more about Peta add-on handle and arm support cuff
Sweeping
Sweeping garden paths and paved areas keeps them clear and safe. Sweep regularly, especially at leaf-fall, or when you’ve been weeding or doing other work. Although a broom is a low-tech piece of equipment, there are many variations on the market. The lightest garden garden brooms are from the multi-change ranges, where you can fit an aluminium handle with a brush head.
Raking
Raking break ups and levels the soil, helps to remove stones and prepares the soil surface for planting and seed sowing. A garden rake with short, strong prongs is used for this job.
You also need to rake the lawn using a spring-tined lawn rake to clear ‘thatch’ – the build-up of dead grass and moss, etc, that can stifle the lawn. This can be hard work as it requires alot of strength. Leaf rakes, also with springy tines, are used to gather grass cuttings and leaves from the lawn.
You can look at equipment and tools for sweeping and raking in two ways.
The full list of products is shown below, or you can use the Equipment and tool finder to look at products which might be useful if you: are gardening after a stroke or with heart disease; garden sitting down or from a wheelchair; have sight loss; have with a weak grip; use one hand; can't bend easily.