I will harrow the garden to knock down the weeds and prepare for planting. We tilled the field with the disc harrow just before the rain – now the drag harrow should smooth the ground enough to proceed with planting.

This was a harrowing couple of days of field work. (Harrowing to the tractor operator, that is; the field work that was done isn’t specified.)

My teacher keeps harrying me to finish last week’s assignment.

I could throw in “I harried to get my taxes done before tomorrow night”, but that would be wrong even if I was mis-spelling hurried, because I haven’t, yet. Hurried, that is.

But as for “the word is much milder than harrowing,” I believe that this is true in modern usage.

the word is much milder than harrowing.

Not always