Garden Edging

Garden Edging and Borders
Garden Edging defines borders within your yard, between a lawn and a mulched garden bed. Garden edging also goes by the names, "lawn edging" or "landscape edging". These simple, attractive borders will keep grass from invading your garden and eliminate the need for edge trimming.

The simplest type of garden edging is a shallow trench cut at a lawn's edge. But trenches must be re-cut periodically, and most homeowners prefer a type of garden edging that doesn't require so much maintenance.

There are various garden edging products sold – metal edging, plastic edging, wood edging or brick edging. They are all installed in the ground between lawn and garden, to your garden the look of a clean edge. These are the practical reasons for separating a lawn from a planting bed with garden edging:
1. Many lawn grasses spread via stolons. Without garden edging, you'll be constantly pulling grass out of your planting beds.
2. If you don't contain the mulch in your planting bed, it will spill over into your lawn (and you'll end up distributing it even further afield when you mow).
3. One form of garden edging is a "mowing strip". When mowing, you run the wheels on one side of your mower right on top of the mowing strip. This allows you to mow borders up-close, so as to avoid having to use string trimmers.

Garden Edging Style Tips and Pointers
Edging is related to your overall garden landscape design and layout of hardscape and plantings. If your landscape is a formal design you will want planting areas or flower beds with straight edges and geometric shapes. These are easily edged with standard materials. If your landscape design is informal, you will have curves. These require an edging that is flexible or is installed in short increments so it can be fitted or formed to shape. When you lay out the beds, use sweeping curves rather than squiggles. This will result in a more pleasing design and make edging and subsequent maintenance easier.

The edging can either be unobtrusive and nearly invisible or it may complement the flower bed or add a decorative element to the landscape. This is a matter of personal taste.

Garden Edging that Works: Functional Requirements
In functional terms, the edging should keep the lawn grass out of the flower bed. It should be high enough to keep mulch in the bed. The edging should stay in place and be trouble free. And it should be designed and installed so that it does not frost heave if you live in a cold winter area. Finally, you may prefer an edging style that allows you to run your mower wheel on it and mow completely along it, thereby omitting the need for weed trimming after each mowing.

Different Types of Garden Edging or Border
The simplest and most subtle borders that effectively separate your lawn from a garden are 4-in.deep strips of steel, aluminum or plastic. They all bend easily into smooth, graceful curves and stop the spread of grass roots. The Painted aluminum and steel offer the most refined look, as they almost disappear against the grass and garden bed. The plastic types have a prominent black bulge along the top edge. All work best on fairly even terrain; if you have a lot of dips and rises, it's easier to install a paver border.

Purchased pre-made edging is available in garden centers and home improvement stores. There are many different kinds to pick from.

Steel Edging
Steel edging is the most common metal edging, although you might not find it at local nurseries. Look for it at larger garden centers or at landscape suppliers, which is where most pros get it. Keep in mind that it'll eventually rust, especially in a salt environment. It's heavy, floppy stuff and needs almost full support when you transport it.

Aluminum Edging
Aluminum edging, besides being lighter and stiffer, won't rust and is also available in a wide variety of colors. Look for it through landscaping suppliers, although it might be difficult to find. You might have to order it. Be sure stakes are included with your purchase.

Black plastic edging
You'll find black plastic edging at every garden center and home center, sometimes in both regular and heavy-duty thicknesses. Buy the thicker material. It better withstands those inevitable bumps and hard knocks that go with lawn mowing.

Concrete and brick pavers
Both concrete and brick pavers make a simple, handsome border and work well as edging material too. They're ideal when you want a wide border that keeps grass out of the garden, yet allows flowers and other plants to spill over without intruding onto the grass. You're less likely to chop them up with the lawn mower. Paver borders work well for straight, formal gardens but even better for informal yards with gradual curves and varying slopes. You can easily adjust them to follow the contours of an uneven yard. But they won't fit as well on tighter curves unless you alter the design and are willing to cut them to fit with a diamond blade saw.

Wood
Many kinds of wood edging material are available at home-and-garden centers. Some of the easiest to use are readymade sections in various lengths that can be placed around beds picket-fence style. They usually come in lumbers of 2x4s, 2x6s, etc. — in redwood, cypress and cedar. They are naturally rot resistant and can be used to fashion attractive edgings. If those woods are too pricey, go with pressure-treated lumber that is rated for soil contact.

Landscape timbers and railroad ties are also popular, durable and relatively inexpensive. They can be used individually to outline straight beds or stacked one on top of another and secured with long nails. Railroad ties are extremely heavy. Timbers and ties do a fine job of defining straight borders, but they can't handle curves.

Edging with Plants
Don't overlook plants as an edging tool. When planted in one long mass of draping color, low-growing plantings of alyssum, veronica, bouncing bet, Artemisia, or candytuft soften hard edges.

Flagstone Edging
Define the space between bed and lawn by stacking rocks. Flagstone and bluestone feature wide, flat faces and lend a romantic English country feeling to a garden. Irregular in shape and thickness, flagstones are durable and stack securely in gardens.

Brick Mowing Strip
Use flat edgings that are flush with the ground to make mowing easier. If you choose brick, use paver edging strips, available at home stores, to hold it in place.

Cast Concrete Edging
Concrete edging eases mowing and its serpentine shape can create a winding path through a garden. Varying heights add interest and allow for a smooth transition on a slope or uneven landscape

Rock Edging
Mix and match rock shapes and colors for a natural edge. These large rocks can be gathered by any family member to complement the garden's informal style. If positioned in a winding pattern, the round boulders can allow alyssum to creep over and between the rocks, creating a lacy, scalloped look.

Raised bed Edging
A stone wall does more than make a clean border along your lawn. If you have poor or clay soil, just fill the interior with topsoil and compost and you'll have a wonderful raised planting bed. It also provides good drainage, making it a great solution for low-lying, soggy gardens. And it's a good way to terrace a sloped yard and create nice, flat gardens.

There are pro’s and con’s to every bed edger or border material, ranging from cost to looks to durability. Raised planting beds or planters offer many benefits and are easy to build. Learn how to plan and construct your own raised garden bed to enhance your landscape.
Using Edger to Outline Flower Bed and Border or Separate Lawn

Your landscape and flower garden look neat and professional with the right edging to border the flower beds. There are many good reasons to establish a garden edge to border your flower bed, and there are many different kinds of edging available.

The purpose of using planting bed edging or edger or border is to separate the flower bed, shrub bed or groundcover area from lawn grass and keep grass out of the planting bed; garden edging may also be used to outline and define a specific area in the landscape. Flower bed edging and borders help contain mulch and prevent it washing off onto the lawn or adjacent paving. When installed next to a lawn area, the edging directs your mower away from precious flowers and also protects them from weed trimmer damage.

Tools & Materials List
Required Tools - Garden Edging

• Hammer
• Tape measure
• Level
• Wheelbarrow
• Spade
• Utility knife
• You'll also need a hacksaw for a metal border, and safety goggles and a cold chisel for stone.
• Border material
• Landscape fabric (for pavers and raised-beds)
• Top soil (for raised-beds)
• Gravel (for raised-beds)
• Sand (for pavers)

By now you should have a good idea of the many uses for edging or edger in the landscape and garden, either along lawns, flower beds and borders, shrub beds, or ground cover areas; information about some of the benefits and drawbacks of different kinds of edging; and be ready to select and install the right edging or border for your garden.