Lawn: essential tools for its upkeep

Lawn shears

Easy to handle, lightweight, grass shears are essential for cutting herb missed by mower. Manual solution allowing precise pruning, pampering your short grass meadow and lawned edges. Heads are fitted with sharp, well‑honed stainless‑steel blades, highly resistant to impact and corrosion, for a clean, neat cut in the tightest corners. Several types of hand shears are available. Blades can be operated single‑handed — in which case gardener must crouch to prune grass — or two‑handed, long‑handled, long‑reach or telescopic, to suit each gardener’s height and allow comfortable standing use without stooping, angled‑head models specially designed for vertical pruning of stalks of herb, or fitted with a rotating head for horizontal as well as vertical pruning of lawned areas. Easy to handle, this type of cutting tool is generally fitted with non‑slip handles to improve grip comfort.

Straight grass shears with telescopic handle, long‑handled angled grass shears and telescopic grass shears with rotating head

Weeding knife

Once your lawn is well established, undesirable herbs and moss can appear in a scattered and unpredictable way. This tool will allow you to remove undesirable herbs and moss from your green tapetum manually. Its sharp steel blade dislodges adventives from the root for targeted weeding in the short grass meadow. It enables precision work. Angled‑head models are available that slip into tight spots. Our weeding‑knife models offer an optimal grip and, thanks to their well‑sharpened blades, penetrate easily into any soil.

Some weeding knives

→ Discover our range of weeding knives

Edger or border trimmer

Here is an indispensable hand tool to enhance the lawn! Edger or border trimmer is used before mowing or using shears. It was designed to cut herb cleanly at the edge of paths, terraces or flower beds, and to achieve immaculate lawn edges. It neatly defines the perimeter of the short grass meadow. Depending on model, it features a hardened steel head mounted on a long handle, shaped as rectangular, as a half-moon (very effective on curves) or as a cutting wheel (for working precisely over long distances, on curves or along a straight line). In all cases, it is a robust, manoeuvrable and easy-to-use tool to perfect your short grass meadow.

Edgers in rectangular, half-moon or cutting wheel

Lawn broom

Sweeping the lawn… a gesture that may seem a little absurd! Yet it quickly becomes indispensable to keep the short grass meadow looking neat, especially after mowing or in autumn when trees shed their leaves. With its characteristic fan-shaped head (there are also straight-headed versions) and hooked tines, the lawn rake is the ideal companion to gather mower clippings, papers and dead leaves with little effort for an immaculate short grass meadow. More flexible than a garden rake, it is a tool both sturdy and light, with pruning, number of tines and materials varying by model: round-tine or flat-tine, fitted with 12, 20, 22, 24 or 25 flat tines, with wood or fibreglass handle. For narrow and hard-to-reach areas, prefer narrow-head lawn rakes; round-tine lawn rakes can also be used to scarify the lawn as they aerate the soil effectively without pulling out the herb, while flat-tine lawn rakes are specially designed for sweeping.

Narrow-head lawn rake, round-tine lawn rake and flat-tine lawn rake

Scarifier

Like us, roots of herb blades need to breathe. Scarification is essential to preserve good health of short grass meadow and restore all its vigour. Over time, from rain, mower traffic and trampling, short grass meadow ages; moss and plant debris mingle and form an impermeable thatch that eventually smothers it, blocking light, air and water essential to grasses composing the turf. Your herb so green becomes asphyxiated, turns yellow, gradually giving ground to mosses, clovers, plantains and other unwanted, persistent dandelions. Fortunately, scarifier is here!

This garden tool with a barbaric name has teeth that lacerate the surface of the soil to rid it of this smothering thatch. Scarifying involves making incisions in the soil to break up this felt. This operation is carried out on a short grass meadow well established for 2–3 years. Use a manual scarifier twice a year, in spring after last frosts, then in autumn before arrival of winter. At first, short grass meadow will seem quite bare but rest assured after using scarifier, herbs will quickly regenerate, come back stronger and regain a lush, green appearance. Scarification is also useful if you wish to refill a short grass meadow that is too damaged.

Manual scarifier

→ Learn more with Olivier’s article on using a manual scarifier and with Virginie in How to scarify short grass meadow?

Rake

To stay green and attractive, your lawn needs a soil amendment : a good rake will help add organic matter it will feed on. To keep your lawn’s colour, it is recommended to spread once or twice a year a thin layer of topsoil or well-rotted compost. Properly nourished, it will remain thick and attractive. To carry out this beneficial topdressing, a rake is the ideal tool to spread and refine surface soil and to level the soil. This garden tool can also be used to scarify the short grass meadow to aerate it, and to dislodge young undesirable herbs.

Lawn rake

Learn more

• Sowing a lawn: when and how?
• Thicken a lawn
• Topdress a lawn
• Get a beautiful lawn: 10 questions and answers
• How to choose the right lawnmower?
• Robotic lawnmower: for or against?

Also read:

• Replace the lawn: ideas and solutions
• Alternatives to lawn: 10 groundcovers to replace short grass meadow
• Lawnmower breakdown: benefits of letting herb grow
• 5 good reasons to adopt a manual lawnmower