Best rake for cleaning up weeds after string trimming

April 26, 2024 7:11 PM

What's the best rake for cleaning up weeds after string trimming? The surface is dirt and/or bark chips I don't care about.

My current approach is to use a blower to get them roughly in the same area and then pick them up by hand, but I think a rake would be more effective for at least the second part.

posted by unus sum to Home & Garden (4 answers total)

A stiff push broom works well for me for cleaning up clippings from mowing and edge trimming.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 8:44 PM on April 26 [2 favorites]

My go rake is an adjustable metal fan rake. I vary width of the rake “fingers” based on the fineness of the material to be raked. Will still pick up some mulch. Depending on the weeds we also just blow back into bed or lawn and leave to breakdown. Some weeds are zombies and will seed even when trimmed/pulled (hello dandelions).
posted by countrymod at 10:46 AM on April 27 [1 favorite]

I have a plastic fan rake that works well for this sort of job, better than one with metal tines. The label is still on it after ten years of use: Ames poly shrub rake, pretty sure I got it at home depot.
posted by mareli at 4:56 PM on April 27 [1 favorite]

I have something similar to these and they are ideal for picking up leaves, weeds and debris once you've gotten it into a pile. Bonus: they're very silly and will probably make you laugh the first time you use them :) They are really effective and fast at getting most of it, but you will leave behind a small amount of dirt/smaller stuff that would need swept up (or just leaf blown into the grass to disappear).
posted by Eyelash at 3:02 AM on April 28 [1 favorite]