5. None of the above

I use a natural edge, cut in with a spade and maintained with a string trimmer held vertically

I'd love to put in brick edging on the perennial borders but it's too expensive.

None of the above.

Cut in edges filled with mulch in some beds and cobble-stone edging in others.

Patty

5. Trenched edges with mulch. Sometimes with native stone on top the mulch. Natural, inexpensive, can be attractive. Stops the approach of grass, for a while.

4. Brick, when I have them. Takes a line of two (one flat, one on the long edge) to make a decent edge for the mower.
The long edge one allows a slightly raised bed. Thanks for reminding me that I have a task that's waiting.

3. Timber, not landscape timbers, but old fence posts laid flat and almost buried; another mower edging.

I like flexible edging, for when I change my mind.

Nell

Most edges between beds and grass are as saypoint described.

5. Trenched and mulched.

3 and 4.
The brick mowstrip is nice, keeps it tidier. The timber edging requires string trimmer, but who ever gets around to that?

Natural limestone, harvested on the property and nearby. It's a pain in the patootie to trim around, but it looks really cool, since my house is built of limestone.

None of the above.

Like some others, I use the trench method, except where one border meets the straight sidewalk at a slight slope and for there, I use 6" width landscape timbers so that the border is level and there's a bit of height for plants to spill over. If I was certain the design would never change, I would probably do a concrete edging w/ natural designs (leaf forms, fern fronds, etc...) set in the concrete.

Where grass is on one side we always put in a border. Grass is too invasive and I'm not going to battle with that demon so I make sure a 6" deep border separates that from my garden bed. We put in a concrete & aggregate many years ago. Recently I dug up another section of lawn and put down 1/2" by 6" trex-like plastic bender board for edging. It's brown in color and made to look natural. I really like the 2" bender board now that I've seen that. A lot easier to install than a concrete mow strip so we're done with the concrete (which cracks). I love the look of brick edging, I sued that in one area but I didn't mortar the bricks together and now weeds and wildflowers and growing between them and out from under them. I laid them end to end. Bricks can get expensive as a border if you have a large area to cover.

So, what is your preference? What are you thinking of using? Are you looking for a border to control a lawn from creeping into a flower bed?

I have a very small amount of plastic edging, and a larger amount of brick edging (unmortared). For the most part, my garden is contained within walls, sidewalks, brick patio and planters, and a concrete drive, so not much edging needed. The hardscape is the edging, so to speak.

The plastic edging worked well for a bed with a tight curve around a corner, too tight for the brick. It's virtually invisible.

The brick works as a mow strip along the base of a retaining wall surrounding a small lawn. It looks nice; the retaining wall is topped with brick, so it all fits together. Weeds and grass tend to grow in the cracks, but it's not a lot of work to remove them. It's a small garden.

Do not make the mistake I made. I started out small and bought that fancy plastic edging that looks like stone. As I expanded my garden I was buying more and more and more edging. $$$$$$$$$$$$$$. Not cheap.

Grass grew right under it and into my garden. The ground freeze in the winter would push it up and pop it out of the ground. Or I had to take it ALL up before winter and put it back again. PITA.

Had to hand trim around it when mowing since even the weed wacker didn't do a nice job against it.

It hid my low growing plants. And because it was plastic it always looked "dirty" and not "weathered" like real stone would.

Now I just trench around everything. I gave all my edging that has been stored in the garage, to a new neighbor who *wanted* edging. Hee-hee-hee.

I found the best solution for me was to take a spade and turn back a clump of sod towards the garden. That created a trench so that grass won't grow into the garden and adds a little bit of height as a border to define the area. I didn't like the look of *just* a trench like I've seen in some gardens. The little bit of height at the border gives a more *finished* look.

#2, in broken chunks from an old retaining wall we had to replace. Looks nice, helps terrace the more gently sloping garden beds (we're on a hill) but has to be reset every once in a while or they disappear down into the soil. We used those precast concrete blocks (gasp! horror!) to make the beds in the more steeply graded areas. Little chunks or standard edging couldn't help with those.

Here in the San Francisco Bay Area, lots are too small to trench. In fact, everything's usually bordered in concrete anyway: driveways, sidewalks, patios. Stone is hideously expensive out here, only old neighborhoods and rich people have it. Brick or more commonly, concrete brick, is cheap by comparison.

In my yard, I don't use any borders and I don't have a clean edge on anything... the mulch spills into the grass and the grass edges creep into the mulch... its a non uniform - natural looking edge - i just mow the grass...

In other people's yards I usually recommend a mulch trench edge... but will give them something else if they prefer.

1, Love it.

If we didn't have so much frost heave, I probably would use more plastic edging... Floridians probably don't have to stomp all the edging back down into the ground every spring...

haven't done much onmy new hosue yet, but I plan to use plastic edging. It is cheap and easy. If it doesn't work out, it is easy to swicth to fancy ones.

What does a trench edge look like? Sounds like something you can twist your ankle on. I'd love to see a photo of this method that even keeps invasive grasses from spreading. I'm sure I don't have the space for it but I'm still curious as to what you mean by it.

Flyingflower, search 'trench edging' on this forum for lots of info.

Maro

A trench wouldn't do much here but take up space - the St Augustine grass has very long, fast-growing runners that would cross it in a couple of days. If I had the dough and was sure that my edges are exactly where I want them to be, I'd go for brick or stone. In the meantime, I'm also using the flexible black rubber edging - it doesn't actually stop the grass, just gives me the 'line' to go back to on mowing day. The edging is sunk all the way down, we don't get frost heave, it's cheap, and it is barely visible, since we mow high. That is the advice here, a way to use less water and shade out weeds and Bermuda [AKA devil's grass].

Annie

I had a fescue lawn in my previous house and edged with a flat blade shovel twice a year.
I now have 1500' of landscape edge with bermuda grass. I installed plastic edging last winter. It is low enough so it is mostly hidden by the grass and I can mow over it without damaging. So far, so good.

My preference would be a trench, but I don't do the mowing, and DH, who does, hates the mower wheels falling into the trench. So, I use tacky black plastic set low so the grass hides it on the edge of the sod, and recycled brick, gotten mostly for free, just inside the plastic on the garden side. The plastic hasn't heaved (my soil is well drained and has no rocks) and it keeps the grass from growing between the bricks.

I fill the trench with mulch so the wheel doesn't fall into it, and anything that comes up in it is easy to pull.

I've been getting by with hand-spading the edges of borders and beds to keep grass from encroaching - at least until I can find a good-quality half-moon edger with which to do the job.

I use interlocking pound-in black plastic edging for one slightly raised border that adjoins a front walk.

I used a trench in my other house and hated it. Mostly becasue I had a small lawn mower and the cutting edge was not far enough outsdie of the wheel base. I could not understand how anyone could recommend this method.

I now have a larger property, and a riding mower with a much larger cutting deck. I now have no trouble cutting the edge and keeping the wheels on the grass. So far it is working fairly well.

Weeds are starting to grow in the trench, so I will probably start adding some mulch to it, but I think this will just encourage grass to spread into the bed?

I have also switched over to the mulch filled trench edge. I run the lawnmower such that the wheel runs along the mulch. Sometimes the mower kicks up some mulch pieces, but in general it makes mowing pretty easy. Based on a tip I read, I picked up a cheap butcher's knife and used that to cut my edge this spring. It worked as fast as a spade but I did feel a little odd out working in my front yard with the knife. I do have to keep any eye on the clover to make sure it does not reach too far into the bed, but I had that same issue with plastic edging.

- Brent

trench edging and river rock. bricks when i can get them for free

I LOVE my concrete edging. I added dye to the mix to make it pale green, and trenched down a bit so the concrete is only a couple of inches above grade, and used the curb style (flat surface) with a simple pattern. It hasn't cracked other than a couple of hairline cracks, hardly noticable, does a great job of keeping grass and mulch separated, and looks much, much better than plastic edging. Plus, it is super easy to trim against, and I don't have to re-trench every year like I did with the trench and mulch method. Why do I feel like the lone ranger?

kkelley: can you post a picture?

- Brent

I just got concrete edging put in today and it looks great. It will keep the mulch off the grass and the grass out of the bed. I can post some pics this weekend.

I'll post some pics this weekend, too.

Stone or other natural materials. Granite cobbles (oblong or square blocks of rough hewn granite) are easily available here, and I use them frequently for a neat look in both formal and informal gardens. Also flagstones set on edge, tree limbs (with the bark intact, but branches removed)set in a shallow trench, and any other item that lends itself to an appropriate formal or informal look. I've seen photos of big scallop shells, set on edge. It was very fetching in a whimsical garden.

Well here are my pics , I still have lots of planting to do and other stuff but you gte the idea of the edging...

{{gwi:27976}}
{{gwi:27977}}
{{gwi:27978}}
{{gwi:27979}}
{{gwi:27980}}
{{gwi:27981}}

Mondai, our edging is installed at sort of an angle. Can you still mow right over it, as with a typical "mow strip", or do you have to weed-eat it?

Mine also has an angle to it. I don't *have to* weed whack it. I can just use it like a mow strip but since its at an angle it won't be mowed evenly. It just looks a little more neat to trim it. I guess it depends on how anal I am feeling when I mow the yard :)

Oh, typo, I actually meant Your edging. I was wondering why the manufacturer and/or installer created the angle, instead of making it flush to mow over? Having it function as a flat mow strip would seem to be the primary advantage of poured concrete edging.

yeah they make a "Mower style" like this:

{{gwi:27982}}

...but I was not that thrilled with the look. I have to bust out my trimmer anyway for my other beds. My neighbor has the slant style like mine also and he does not trim around and it looks fine.

Cool,

Thanks for your input.

So what do you think of this flush, almost zero maintenance square profiled edging?

CLICK LINK BELOW...

Here is a link that might be useful: Flush mower & border edge

Flyingflower, Your comment was interesting. The above photo is imprinted concrete which is very close to the real thing, inexpensive and has "rebar" to prevent cracking.

I saw this flexable metal (I think it was aluminum) edging in a britsh gardening magazine that I really liked the look of. It was practically un-noticable but gave a really clean edge look. Currently we don't have any edging (natural edge) but I think we may do some sort of edging next year. Still undecided.

I have a new house, and they left almost a whole crate of leftover bricks. What is the best way to use them for edging? I want something that won't buckle and swell when the soil shifts. Has anyone used brick with rebar and mortar? Is there any particular technique that seems to work well? I want to edge a flowerbed and put rings around my trees in the front yard.

If you have a new question, you should start your own thread. Even though this thread isn't sending responses to the original poster, it is still a bother to new readers who might read through the entire old thread en route to your question.

KarinL