When I first saw the house I now live in, one of the selling points was the garden. I was seduced by the forest outlook and, at first sight, the lawn and shrubs looked relatively low maintenance. How naive I was.

As Autumn came I discovered that three mature oak trees shed, literally tonnes of leaves and I found out the hard way that actually to rake leaves you do need a proper leaf rake, a garden rake or hoping the problem will go away just won't do.

This wasn't actually my first leaf rake, I bought a cheaper rubbish one first that really didn't do the job and broke. As the leaves fell thick and fast a trip to Robert Dyas ensued where I parted, somewhat reluctantly with about £20 for this tool. When I got it home I found that it did do the job really well. The handle is long so you can get a good reach and stainless steel so it is quite light and won't rust. The prongs are springy and made of plastic so they don't break and do scoop up leaves into piles that my children then invariably re-distribute around the garden. The teeth of the rake don't damage further what I loosely call my "lawn", a rather pitiful affair of moss and some grass.

The grip of the rake makes it as comfortable as I guess a rake could be to use, and the plastic prongs do actually move the leaves well which a steel garden rake just doesn't. The rake has "Wilkinson Sword" emblazoned on it - I am not sure who make the rake now, until recently Fiskars actually owned the licence but they no longer do - in any case the Wilkinson Sword name is well known and the reason why I bought this in the first place. It apparently has a lifetime guarantee. (Random Wikipedia fact that I haven't been able to verify - Wilkinson Sword apparently started by making er swords in 1722).

In Autumn I probably spend about an hour every other day raking with this, which is probably great exercise if a bit repetitive. This slightly more expensive rake has held up well so far with a lot of use in Autumn, using it is still hard work and depressingly I probably rake up about 60 or more bags of leaves over the season, only for them to grow and fall all over again - well I guess that is gardening for you!

In conclusion I would say do buy this rake for your raking up leaf needs, it is much better than cheaper versions, just think long and hard if you are acquiring a garden with lots of trees in - I wish the leaves would pick themselves up or blow away or something but as they don't this does the job.

It is quite hard to find leaf rakes in my area - perhaps as there are lots of trees, but apart from Robert Dyas this was also available at the time of purchase from Argos.