Your Mini Guide to Great Garden Edges
The majority of our landscapes possess an range of materials — plants, mulch, gravel, grass — so how do you keep everything tidy and orderly? We want grass to remain in the lawn and out of those beds and compost to remain in the beds and off the pathway. There are many ways to separate, or edge, your different garden and lawn areas, from cheap and quick to costly and involved. Following is a rundown of some of the more popular edging materials, from less costly to costlier. Which one is right for your garden?
Matthew Cunningham Landscape Design LLC
Trench
The basics: Trench edging includes creating a fairly shallow trench between the grass area along with your landscape mattress, making a barrier for grass to grow over. It is a far more natural look, great for if you want the bed to appear more casual and relaxed. Now some may say this is not a”right” method to edge a mattress — not true. Gardeners have been using this method for centuries with fantastic effectiveness.
Price: Free, with the exception of the tools required to create it (a sharp-shooter shovel or trencher).
Benefits:It is free, simple to create and powerful. It’s also a very natural edging option for casual or informal gardens.
Cons: Slightly high maintenance, as you may have to freshen the trench many times each year to keep the line of the mattress sharp.
Maintenance: You’ll want to use your string trimmer regularly during the growing season to keep the borders neat and tidy.
OLIVINE Land
Steel
The basics: Steel trimming is a very common landscape option, but based upon your selection of color, it can make quite different statements. Black metal edging looks more formal; brown and green are more traditional; and unpainted (which starts out a gray color and weathers into a rusty patina) lends itself to more modern and contemporary gardens. It also comes in a selection of thicknesses, together with the thicker material becoming more costly (and more durable) than the thinner trimming.
Price: $2.50 to $4.50 per linear foot.
Benefits: Steel is readily available at home improvement stores, landscape supply yards plus some nurseries and is comparatively cheap, depending upon the depth of the material. It is fairly simple to install, a fantastic DIY homeowner project for all those who have fundamental skills and attention to detail.
Cons: The thinner and less costly material can rust and break down more quickly than the thicker trimming, but even so, it’s good for about eight to ten years or more.
Special concerns:Steel edging can be powder coated to have a color like brown, black, green or black, or left unpainted to get a natural steel color. The unpainted steel will develop a rusty patina with time, as will a heavier-duty steel for example Cor-Ten. This rusty shade is aesthetic just, but it’s important to remember that all steel trimming, after a period of years, can begin to rust and decay on the borders.
Samuel H. Williamson Associates
Bender Board
The basics: This really is a plastic lumber made from 100% recycled polyethylene plastic and is quite elastic and durable. It normally comes in 20-foot spans and frequently has a wood-like”grain” on the surface. If you’d like curving beds with a border that virtually disappears, bender board could be for you.
Price: $3.50 to $5.50 per linear foot installed.
Benefits:Bender board is quite flexible, which makes it perfect for creating sweeping curves. It is lasting (lasting 12 years or more) and fairly simple to install, ideal for a homeowner’s DIY project.
Disadvantages: It can be tricky to find bender board, particularly in the event that you live in a rural place. The long length of the boards also makes them hard to transfer for the typical homeowner. This material is double the cost of black plastic edging but infinitely more durable.
Special factors: There are types of bender board created from thin strips of wood (redwood, by way of example) for $3 to $4 each 10-foot section, available at home improvement stores and landscape distribution businesses. Even though the wood is rot resistant, it will not last so long as recycled-plastic bender board. The two types of bender board need that the separate purchase of stakes for installation.
Also, if you’re using redwood or another type of wooden bender board, it’s helpful to soak it in water for many hours or overnight to soften it up and make it more pliable during installation.
Concrete
The basics: Concrete trimming is kind of like a refined curb to specify your garden beds. It provides your landscape a very clean, finished look and functions well in formal, contemporary or traditional gardens. Due to the materials and skill needed to pour the concrete, this is a task best left to the professionals.
Price: $3.70 to $6.50 per linear foot installed.
Benefits : It is durable (possibly lasting decades) and quite durable, works nicely in various landscape styles and provides your garden a classy and upscale appeal.
Disadvantages: Depending upon where you live, it might be a more expensive option, and if you’re a gardener who likes to change things up every now and then, this permanent edging option may not be for you.
Maintenance: Because the floor beneath any concrete surface can change , cracks can occur. Some minor surface cracks are to be expected, but be on the lookout for important crevices and unsightly breaks.
Wood
The basics: utilizing wood to edge a bed instantly adds a casual, natural and rustic texture to the garden. Various types of wood can be utilized, from treated posts to landscape timbers, and there is also a wide selection in quality of materials. Less-expensive timber edging will endure for a couple of years, while treated durable wood edging will last 10 years or more.
Price: $5.25 to $8.50 per foot.
Benefits:This type of edging is a relatively affordable option, depending upon the type of wood used.
Disadvantages: Your timber edging will be in straight lines because of the material, so if you enjoy sweeping curves on your garden, this trimming may not be the ideal option for you. At some point wood will melt and begin to rot, but you can expect treated timber edging to last from three to ten years and beyond.
Maintenance: You may have to replace some timber bits after a couple of years, as they break down and rot. Perform an annual review to be sure your wood edging is still in great form.
Special concerns: if you would like to use timber to edge edible blossoms, you may want to use untreated, rot-resistant timber to avoid the leaching of substances from treated timber into your soil. In case you have an organic garden, this is especially important. And while some study is still being done on the security of using pressure-treated wood around edible gardens, most experts concur that using wood treated with creosote (typically found in railroad ties) is not advisable.
Arrow. Property + Structures
Stone
The basics: Mortared stone produces a very natural and rustic look, but based upon the type of stone you use, it can also seem very clean and complicated. Stone borders work well in nearly any style of garden, from cabin and informal to formal and contemporary. Because mortared rock edging requires a poured concrete footing for equilibrium, this type of edging ought to be completed by a professional mason.
Price: Up to $15 per linear foot installed, based upon the type of stone used.
Benefits : the sort of stone used for trimming is widely accessible, can combine into nearly any type of garden and brings a rustic or even contemporary look to the landscape. It’s also a fairly permanent option that, when built correctly, will remain in place for a long time.
Cons: This is a fairly costly border to install, because of the labor involved.
Maintenance: Perform periodic inspections to make sure that the mortar used on your stone edging is not broken or falling apart. Some surface cracks are to be expected as the ground shifts, but important cracks that create cracks mean that the edging is either old or in disrepair.