In simple words, edging refers to separation between lawn, garden, and pavements. But there’s a lot more to edging than just separating parts of ground. It is an important part of landscaping that serves to keep the garden neat, separate it into regions and provide a better appearance to the land. The choice of material used in edging depends on the budget, available time and whether it suits the requirement and looks of your garden. Below is a brief account of some materials used in edging.
Metal borders
Simple to install, durable and flexible to use are the strips of steel, aluminium, copper or plastic. They are sleek, durable and their top can be covered within grass or soil making them almost invisible and allowing us to mow over the top. They can be easily bent to give shapes of beautiful curves. Aluminium being the lightest and durable is more in use these days.
However they are only best used for level ground without much undulation, and their sharp top edge can easily cut bare feet. So, the top should be rounded off after installation.
Log edging
Log and Bamboo edging can be laid by keeping logs that are well seasoned upright and driven into the ground like piles. Combined with gravel backing, they not only help to retain the lawn soil that may be on the ground or raised, but also gives a seaside appearance to the garden. They can be modified or cut on the top portion to give a wavy appearance, and coloured varyingly to create pleasing looks.
Brick and concrete block edging
Bricks are widely available cheap and choice for landscape edging in many regions. Brick and block edging can be done in several ways.
They can be laid as pavers over a bed of sand, pushed together tightly so that no turf can pass through the gaps. Pavers provide wide border that keeps grass out of the garden yet allows the flowers to spill over them. They do not get mowed over and can be used as mowing strips.
Brick edging can also be done by placing them diagonally upward leaning one against the other. The diagonal brick edging gives a “domino” like appearance border. For laying each brick, a small trench is made and several inches of sand is laid to prevent heaving. The bricks are set in the trench with its half exposed and leaning against the next. Then the trench is filled with mud.
Edging plant
Plants like veronica, bouncing bet, Artemisia, sweet alyssum, candytuft or coral-bells when grown in strips can provide beautiful natural edging. The low mounding plants grown in patches or patterns of several colour gives a high degree of attractiveness to the border. However they should be regularly maintained as well to keep them low and confined.
Raised-bed border
To create texture to a flat featureless ground, raising bed is ideal. And what better serves the purpose than a stone or masonry wall to retain the bed. Raising the bed, we can create terrace, slopes, stepped land, and several other features. All one needs is a strong back and time, lots of time
Even the weak soil within a raised bed does not get washed away but drains as required. A plastic lining is provided to the wall to keep grass roots from creeping into the stone wall.
It is also stronger and durable than most of the other edging methods. It is best to keep the bottom layer of stone inches below the ground to serve as foundation. The stones can be painted, faced, or shaped or even kept irregular to match our liking.
Flagstone Edging Flagstone borders are both classy, elegant and provide a cottage look to the garden. The availability of choice of shape, thickness and colour gives us ability to tweak the way they look, contrast the plants and other features around the garden. They are cheap, readily available and durable as well.
Terracotta edging
Terracotta or finely moulded clay can be used in blocks and bricks of several sizes as edging material to aid to the beauty of the lawn. They are durable and found in large variety of shapes and sizes. Crafted terracotta tiles driven upright into the soil in strip serves as a beautiful border.