A heavy duty garden rake only has heavy tines about 3" long. (You are
probably thinking of a leaf rake, which has light tines a foot or more
in length.) The heavy rake is used to move soil and mulch around,
dethatch, etc. There are probably a dozen tines on the thing, so it
is long and low. Dethatching is a fairly easy chore with a heavy
rake.

The fork, which can be used to aerate, would be used by just punching
holes about 1" into the ground. This job would be long and
exhausting. I have about 1/4 acre and will only aerate if I can rent
the machine - heavy clay soil is a pure *itch to aerate manually.

On Tue, 28 Sep 2010 11:40:55 -0500, Newbie wrote:

In article , Steven Wayne
wrote:

: Scarify with a spring tine rake, aerate with a garden fork.

Thanks! A little extra clarification -

1. I thought a rake is to *collect* things like leaves that are already
loose. Will a rake, even metal one, actually *cut* the thatch, which is
what I think will be needed?

2. In aerating with fork, do I just punch holes in the ground, or do I
have to actually turn the soil over?

Just trying to be careful and not do more harm than good.