Possibly OT: lawn edging

[Huge]

Can anyone suggest a material/technique for edging grass (principally adjacent to flower beds) such that;

- The edges don't have to be clipped.

- The grass can be mown right up to the edge (on a ride-on).

- The material is long-lived and easily installed.

- The material can do both straight and curved edges.

I've been thinking about burying bricks flat to the surface, or similar. We have some "log roll" edging, but it needs clipping to stop the grass growing over it and you can't mow right up to it.

[Chris J Dixon]

I'm not at all sure that anything will actually meet all your criteria. There are proprietary systems such as

but I can't see how it will do all you want. Grass is always keen to grow and spread. Whatever you use as edging will either be flush with the soil, and therefore allow the growing grass to spread over it, or will be higher, and therefore at risk of being hit by the mower.

Chris

[Andrew Gabriel]

Can you add outboard strimmers? ;-)

[Chris J Dixon]

Angle grinders!

Chris

[JTM]

Well, a technique, I used to use but only for about 12m of edging:

Each spring, edged the lawn with a half moon tool to a depth of about 15cm (6"), then with plenty of water, 'plastered' the exposed face using an old plastering trowel. Sad to say I enjoyed doing it and the edge lasted until the end of the mowing season.

However my lawn (then) didn't warrant a 'ride-on'

[mark]

If it straight you could put treated timber, say 4 by 1.5 inches on edge and a fraction below surface level.

mark

[Jules]

I've still found that grass tends to creep over bricks (or anything else level with the lawn surface), so it still needs going around with a trimmer - albeit less frequently than any kind of 'fence' solution.

cheers

Jules

[Jules]

Petrol powered, naturally. Then you can run model train track around the perimeter of the lawn, duct-tape the angle grinder to a flat truck, and just let it pootle around the edge doing its stuff. :-)

Sad to say I did actually cut a big semi-circular flower bed last year using an angle grinder as I didn't have a suitable edger tool handy at the time. Fun, if a bit messy!

cheers

J.

[Geo]

I tried plastic - it rotted after a couple of years. Wood lasted about 20 but the grass overgrew it. Bricks sprouted grass in the joins. My lastest attempt (about 3-5 years now) is a 4 inch wide concrete moat which is working well.

[Tim S]

Geo coughed up some electrons that declared:

I wonder how well earthcrete would work. Dig a 4" wide bit over, pour in cement, mix, flatten hard and trim, water. It would have the advantage it would go green with moss and stuff - not sure how robust it would be to the grass...

[Stuart B]

If anyone else wants a moat I know of an M.P. who has one going cheap!!!!

-------------- Any posting using my name and/or e-mail address but other than by newsindividual.net is not being posted by me and should be disregarded . Remove NOSPAM to reply by e-mail

[Chris Hogg]

I doubt if it meets all your wants, but I use feather boarding from the sheds for lawn edging. I think it's used for making your own fence panels. Comes in packs of, er.... several, and about 2m long. Cut a slot in the grass close to the edge of the flowerbed using a half-moon tool, and whack in the feather boarding narrow edge down with a rubber mallet until it's as deep as you want. Remove strip of grass on flowerbed side. It won't do sharp bends, but can be bent round gentle curves. Sharp bends are best done with short bits. Used them in my garden for about seven years, although some are just now beginning to break down.