How do you edge a flower bed

I generally have a blanket with me anyway so that works great! The wooden pieces in the flowerbeds can deteriorate. Protecting them with an outdoor sealer is a really good idea!

Thanks, will do that this year! This just shows how valuable the information you have posted is. I have used my inherited edger along the lawn which grows up to the city sidewalk. I just wanted to add that, as well as sharpening your shears or grass-clippers, my grandfather used to sharpen that half moon edger as well. Makes it much easier to cut through the roots of the turf you are trying to cut, and I find stepping on and pressing down on the edger requires less effort than having to jump upon it.

Just a small detail to make life easier for those of us who have balance and stability issues to deal with. I think these ideas are great. Thanks fotr giving me something to think about. Thanks good work.

Hi Suzanne! I just keep cutting until it looks right. Thank you so much for the tips. Every year I struggle for that professional look. Now when the hubby mows if I can get him not to spray the grass into my edged area argh! But still not sure what you mean on how mowing the edge.

Wish I can see a video! You tube perhaps???? Thank you so much to you and your brother for sharing such and easy but a great idea, you are the best. How do I edge a stright line for a flower bed, between my yard and my neighbors yard.?? Is it solely buy eye,??

That would be tough, Al. Maybe edge against the side of a ladder, and keep moving it along? You can place a stake at each end of the flower bed, then you could tie a cord or twine between the two stakes, and edge along that. Wow, your flowerbeds look amazing! It is so crisp and clean. And I have to say, your grass is so green! I like what you said about keeping your curves pretty wide, for the sake of your lawn mower.

I love that your dog is so happy with it, that is so cute! Thank you for your pictures and illustrations. Your gardens look meticulously kept and still have a rustic, sort of they-grew-like-that appeal about them….

Hi, Love your blog and edging technique. Want to warn you that moneywort can be highly invasive. It fell from flower baskets my previous neighbor had here, marched through the garden, through the lawn, down the banks of my brook, and into the forest on the other side, pulling down ferns and obliterating all streamside plants on its way. I spend literally work-weeks trying to keep it in check, as that is all that is possible once this cute little monster has taken hold.

Just trying to save you some future time. Cheers Marian. I have a feeling that may be something I have in my garden now. I have come back to this post via Pinterest multiple times because I am planning on edging my front garden area this way—it looks so beautiful!

I was just wondering, I am getting new soil as well as mulch to put in the area I plan on edging. Or should I lay down the soil, do the edging, then the mulch?

You still may need to trim up a few areas after adding your soil anyway. Have fun! Hi, great article! Question on maintaining the grass on the edge. Or is picking out all the clippings just part of the process? Thanks in advance! But more times than not, I just allow it to fall on the soil, and I gather it up by hand, or slightly bury it into the soil so it naturally fades away on its own. OK, thanks for the quick reply!

I was thinking the stray blades of grass would cause new sprouts, but I guess not even though we have mulch over the topsoil? Hi, great site! How do you keep the blades of grass from flying in the mulch bed and trench when trimming with hand shears…or is there no trick to avoid this? I spend almost as much time picking grass out of the trench and bed as I do trimming it!?

Hi, Donna. To minimize grass clippings in the bed, and to keep the grassy edge at the same height as the lawn, track two wheels in the trench edge, then adjust the wheels in the trench to raise the blade height even with the lawn so as not to scalp the edge. Perhaps something to try? I am doing this in front of my house this year! Thanks for sharing this doable trick! You saved my day! Owesome work! Thanks for sharing! Thank u! You truly have inspired me with all of your great projects and creativity.

Thank you from one funky junker to another. My hubby is always threating to haul all my good junk to the trash. NO WAY!!! Thank you for this post! It truly made a huge difference in your garden. Looks fabulous! I thought it would take digging and installing that plastic edging, etc. Thank you and your brother!! I love this and tried it on my first project but now that it is complete, it kind of disappeared. Does this work on a slope where the downward side ends in your lawn?

I am very afraid the mulch is going to end up all over my lawn. If not, what else would you do? Hi Connie! Downhill can be a little tricky, but I think it can work, as long as your soil is mounded back far enough.

Your perfectly awesome edging motivated me to do mine. Did a small part of my garden this morning after reading your tutorial. Took me an hour to edge about 12 feet! Looks great! Will spend an hour each morning to get it all done. What a great job. I am a gardening and love it. I love your edging. I find your process very easy. I would like to know the full scale of making a kidney shape bed around a hot tub area. Hi Norma, weekly weeding is the key to keeping any flowerbed up imo.

Just a wave from Alberta! Well I got my soil, sleeves rolled up, ready to go! I am thinking of having my dog employed to do the digging, darn should of trained the dog properly! Oh well, I guess, I will have to dig in my garden myself.

Thank you Donna for such a great awesome site, without it, I would be scratching my head wondering how to go about my garden project, Wish me luck! The edging looks beautiful!!! I have the half moon edger…. AND I covet the birdhouse with the knot hole on the chair!!!! Where can I find one??? Loved your edging project. Looks great. We have 2 acres in Florida, and I loved some of your ideas of putting bird houses, rustic items within the landscaping. I may try this. Thanks for the hints. Great job.

Going to redo my flower garden this weekend! Great, thank you. Do you have an idea for my backyard? I needs some ideas, stones with a fire pit? Hi Janet! Sounds to me like a great sitting area! Covering it with planks to create a ground floor deck? Love the fire pit idea and even an outdoor kitchen of sorts! Try a google search on outdoor living for some ideas!

Thanks for the tutorial on edging, I really need to do this in my front yard. HI, I posted on here about a year ago and had asked you about a way to keep grass out of flower beds when cutting with grass shears. Well, I just found a great pair made by Troy Bilt with a grass guard that catches the blades of grass as you cut!

I just received them last week and they work great! Please tell me what hedge shrubs are on both sides of the dog in the picture that is just above the shed. Your gardening is beautiful!! Hi Marie, thanks! To the left of the dog is honeysuckle, to the right are grapevines. Be careful when laying a pallet walkway. I have old beams in my veggie patch as paths and we covered them with wire because they were so slippery.

They have lasted a long time though. Your how to edge a flower bed post is great information and on my plans for spring which is here now but how in the world do you keep grass out of your flower bed, from blowing in it when you mow and growing in it. When I re-trim the grass edges, they do fall in. I just scoop them out with my hand. When doing the edging, I look for bare spots in the lawn and use the grass chunks as plugs.

If not flip upside down and let sun dry out soil and shake it off on beds before mulching. Hope you find one! Gosh Donna , that brings back memories.. I will be looking out for the seeds.. I love this edge. I learned to make this edge with the deep trench since I was a little girl.

I learned this from my farmer dad. Yours is a real beauty though with the use of the shear and so on. Great job!!!!! I have been doing this for years! Also, trenching on a slight angle will help keep the grass from growing in. Funky Junk, You have created a beautiful edge to your flower beds! I had just wondered if I was missing something like an actual barrier to keep the grass from growing over and aiming for the soil again. I see now that what I am missing is keeping at it, e-v-e-r-y week!

Light bulb moment! Many thanks to you AND your awesome brother! Beth, you and I think the same way. So glad you found us to inspire you by! I just wanted to say that a hundred years later I STILL reread this post every spring to get stoked to edge my garden beds. I love all your posts but this is the one that brought me to your blog all those years ago. Haha, I agree! I read this post and think, I need to re-edge! This summer I hired that part out as I had a pro gardener come in for other things as well.

That was a real treat! Thanks Vivian! I edge once a year in the spring. If I keep them up well all summer, they only need to be done that much or less. If you let them go, you may find it easier to re-edge rather than attempting to play catch-up. The first time takes a little muscle, however you will just not believe the results!

Well worth the effort. I first mow as close to the edges as I can, then will stop and turn the lawnmower so it overhangs the edges, tap down, then straighten up again. Move forward and repeat.

I say do whatever works and looks good! Stay tuned! It would help the soil stay in place thru hard rains and watering. Great suggestion! If you fluff it up enough, the rain penetrates well. Mulch is certainly an option, however I prefer to work with straight soil as I find the mulch eventually disappears or mixes with the soil anyway, making for more of a lumpy removal of the weeds.

Thank you soooo much for this post. Best description of edging I have ever read. You have taken something that seems to me to so overwhelming to do and simplified it so that I do believe I can do it! Thank you sooo much. My pleasure Diana! It is easy however does take a little bit of muscle first time around. I am disabled so I must have lawn guys.

My lawn looks great but none of them seem to know how to edge the flower beds! Can you tell me how to explain to them how to hold a weed trimmer to make that nice clean edge around the garden edges?

Hi Kathleen! The best way to achieve the look with a power trimmer is to first cut the edge, then maintain it by turning the head fo the weed trimmer upside down, and trimming the cut that way. It does a pretty nice job! The angled blades are perfect for this job.

Before string trimmers these were state of the art. Now, they are just quieter and nonpoluting and very relaxing. Thanks for posting your gardening tricks and ideas. Thanks for breaking it down step-by-step! I hope you report back with your progress! How would I apply pine straw mulch to this? Is this the best way? Or should I bring the edge of the pine straw to the edge of the grass border? One other thing. How much distance between the edge of the plants and the edge I am creating?

Once again, pine straw all the way to the edge or leave some dirt showing? If I should leave dirt, how much? Hi Barry! When I add mulch to a flowerbed, I have it resemble soil, so basically put, no soil shows.

You just need to dig out the soil a little more to allow for the topping. What looks good to you? One question…did you remove a lot of dirt from the existing flower bed so that it was lower then your lawn?

Hi Teresa! I have some spots like that too in certain areas. If I keep at it, it appears to still work! Tutorial very informative and that is how I edge BUT have plastic with mulch on top so am having a hard time making my trench. Should I pull mulch and plastic back, edge and then put plastic and mulch down to the very edge of my soil? Will my mulch all end up in the trench?

Its hard to throw soil back because my bed already goes uphill. I know I should have done edging before putting plastic and mulch down. Any ideas sure would be appreciated. Thanks so much.

I would do exactly as you suggested. Then place your plastic into place which should land lower than your edge. Replace soil and mulch. The finished results will be well worth your time! Just take it slow and do a little at a time. I hope you update how you make out! Hi Mary! I do that but find it annoying as some grass roots are quite deep and grow into the flower bed or at least into the groove of soil.

I dig and prod at the root as far as I can into the lawn which leads me to the question which grass is bed for a lawn. Thank you — have been struggling with this for a long time. None of my edging is curved so although it should work am just wondering how long the pallet wood will last before it breaks down.

Am so interested to hear your replies. That you. Hi Pauline! Your email address will not be published. Notify me via e-mail if anyone answers my comment. Soil is the same height as lawn. Grass has grown over the edge into the flower bed. Not enough breathing space between the lawn edge and plants. At least the flowers are pretty… However this overall flower bed has overgrown plants, and the flower bed edging needs to be redone. How to create flower bed edging like a pro. Supplies I used:.

Remove the turf. Scoop or dig out the cut chunks of turf. Mound up the soil. Trim the lawn edges. Your grass clippings can be easily scooped up by hand to clean things up or left to compost. My fav yard trimmer read post HERE You can also accomplish sharp lawn edging with a yard trimmer head twisted upside down, HERE is one similar to mine however you will not achieve quite the same quality as when cut with a sharp blade. The outstanding flower bed edging results!

Allow some soil to show. How to edge flower beds like a pro illustration. Above is an illustration of the flowerbed edging. How to maintain the flower bed edging.

Or just mow as close as you can, then follow up with a yard trimmer after mowing. How to edge flower beds like a pro video. Well done, Jenna!

What are your secrets? HERE Make this easy pallet wood garden walkway in minutes! Make this garden-themed reclaimed wood walkway 2 pallet outdoor sofa — so easy to make! Other current favs! Fall leaves tour of a colorful grapevine growing on a quaint shed and more! Pallet porch for a garden shed. Adirondack chairs makeover pallet-style!

Vertical Garden Shed sign with easy flowerbed edging using wood! Cedar strip garden labels with stencils. How to start a new lawn from seed with these epic lawn care supplies! Subscribe to projects! Categories: Gardening , Outdoors , Seasonal , Spring , Summer Tags: flowerbed edging , flowers , gardening , outdoors. I really need to do this with my garden beds. Thanks for the tutorial!

Stephanie at AM on July 16, Pro Donna. When can you come over to do mine? Linda at PM on March 28, Carolyn at AM on July 16, Joani at AM on July 16, Brenda at AM on July 16, Heather at AM on July 16, This is great! Who would have thought it would be so easy? Ruth at AM on July 16, Suelynn Sedor at AM on July 16, That looks fantastic Donna!!

Lisa Staaf at PM on July 16, Anonymous at PM on July 16, Kim at PM on July 16, I really need a garden. Yours is so pretty with that yellow ivy crawling around. Heaven's Walk at PM on July 16, What a huge difference that makes, Donna! It looks fabulous! Thanks for the great tip! Anne at PM on July 16, Elsie at AM on July 17, Your dog looks very content!

Hard work but it looks great. Donna …The edging looks great. Thanks for the tips! Max Green at AM on July 19, Anonymous at AM on July 20, Ann Shade at PM on July 28, REally excellent tutorial and great pics to follow. You are right, the shadow really makes the pop POP! Anonymous at AM on August 2, I am off to do it right now!

So excited! So many projects! Pam Jackson at PM on September 12, Beautiful yard and garden area. Peggy Eiland at PM on October 19, I hand pull all my weeds. No landscape cloth in sight! Thank you So much for this, Donna! Shaun in Seattle at AM on November 5, Anonymous at PM on January 13, Donna, Love your illustration and photos of the process!

Jessica at PM on March 16, Thanks for this! We just edged our flower beds following this method and they look beautiful! Virginia at AM on April 2, Fanny at AM on April 7, Terri at PM on April 11, Guess I lucked out!

Tammy Stewart at PM on April 14, Pam at PM on April 14, Jackie at PM on April 15, Tiffany at AM on April 20, Barb at AM on April 20, Thanks for keeping it simply. Looking forward to more tips and info! Lynne Christy at PM on April 26, Just get on your knees and go for it! Colleen at PM on April 27, If there are borders around your flower bed made of plastic, metal, or some other material and you no longer want to use them, pull them carefully out of the ground.

Discard this old material. If you cannot pull this up by hand, try working a small hand trowel or pry bar under the bottom edge and levering it out. Sometimes the edging is anchored with stakes, so be sure to remove them first. Decide where you want the edge line to be.

If there is an existing border, and you want to keep the edging where it is, then you are ready for the next step. If you want to change where an existing border is positioned, or if you are making a completely new one, then you will need to mark on the ground where you want the border to be.

Straight lines can be fine. Many people prefer curved edges, however, and they may make your flower bed look bigger. Make a guide to follow when you start cutting the actual edge. You can use a garden hose, string, or chalk. Put the hose or other marking material on the ground where you want the actual edge to be. Part 2. Use a sharp tool to cut into the dirt and mark the edge. For best results, use a half-moon-shaped edging hand tool on a long handle. If you'd rather not buy a new tool, use a sharp trowel or spade.

A long bladed knife e. Follow along the existing edge, if applicable, or the line you have marked out with the hose or other material. Cut down inches into the soil. Hold the tool firmly, push it into the sod, then use a sawing motion to avoid any stones in the soil. Cut all the way down along the line marking where you want the edge to be. Remove some of the dirt. Push a trowel or spade into the line you have cut in the soil, then pull toward yourself at a 45 degree angle.

Scoop away the dirt that is pushed up and discard. The goal is to create an edge that goes down from the lawn a few inches at a 90 degree angle. Repeat this step all the way along the line you have cut in the soil to mark the edge.

Slope the soil in the bed upwards and away from the base of the edge. This will help keep your flower bed maintained. At the same time, it will help to visually define the edge even more. Part 3. Use shears to trim the grass along the edge. This will give you a very exact edge and improve the look of your flower bed. You will probably have to repeat this step periodically during the growing season if you want to keep the edge perfectly trimmed.

Spread a inch thick layer of mulch from the edge to your flowerbed. This will deter weeds, and keep your edged bed neat. It will also help to draw attention to the contrast between your lawn and the flowerbed, increasing its aesthetic appeal. If the flower bed is not overgrown, consider installing weed fabric around the plant before adding mulch. Check the flower bed periodically to keep the edge defined.

First, go around your edge and string trim it as you normally would when you cut your lawn. This first pass is to trim grass growing straight up and down as normal. After that first pass, make a second pass, only this time turn the edger on its side so the string will be cutting at an angle perpendicular to the edge.

The idea in this step is to cut any grass that is encroaching into the newly created edge. Go slow and try and have a steady hand as you trim the grass. I like to tuck the end of the trimmer against my elbow and forearm to keep it steady. This takes practice but once you master this technique you will have the trick to creating really clean edges.

Maintaining a clean landscape edge is much easier then having to reshape edges that have been neglected. After you edge a garden bed, the next step is to add mulch or stone, or any other aggregate you plan on installing. No matter what material you use, just make sure you leave it a couple of inches below the top of your edge. This will show a sharp contrast between your edge and mulch or stone. Advantages of Drip Irrigation. When to Cut Back Perennials. Beautiful Shade Garden Ideas.

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