I was wondering about a good way to get a nice mowing edge for a large lawn ... while avoiding the use of metal or plastic edging and coming up with something I can do on a budget which will be very little maintenance in the future.
I am installing large new lawn in future, and my yard is simply dirt and a blank slate to start with.
I am think about having using a trencher (set fairly shallow) and then carving the edge for the yard with the trencher ... and then filling in the trench with some kind of weedproof liner and then installing bricks or pavers as the actual edging material.
This is a fairly common technique to edge a bed or lawn. It is also quite expensive since it takes alot of bricks. The result is a very neat and formal look and gives your lawn mower a place to ride one side of the wheels on.
I've used many different materials for edging through out the years. I really like Trex bender board or deck board. This is a plastic/wood composit that lasts for 20+ years. The bender board will make great shapes and is paintable. The deck board doesn't bend as much but it's much thicker and wider.
You may also look in the phone book for concrete curb makers. I had this done at a school I maintain. We had a 328 foot bike path made .... so 656 feet of curb was made. Looks nice and it's quite strong and it wasn't way expensive. These guys mixed concrete in a machine and it shot out the back it the curb shape we wanted. Kind of like play dough. Was really cool to watch.
The trex is about .90 cent a foot for bernder board, the decking is about
This might depend to some extent on the type turfgrass you are installing. I know that my St. Augustine would sent runners through every nook and cranny.
Depends on how deep you build the brick wall, and how aggressively the type of grass used sends out runners.
A wide barrier will only delay how long before the grass pops up on the other side. A deep, solid barrier will stop most of the runners. It's not the top growth that needs to be retained. It's the roots. When you say "fairly shallow", I hope you mean "fairly shallow" as in OSHA wouldn't require you to shore it up before climbing into it.. In my opinion, a brick edge needs to go down at least two courses below the surface, and have additional help to block the cracks. A cloth barrier would only be a temporary solution. Either a solid barrier, like plastic, metal, or even wood, would last longer, or the bricks should be mortared together like building a wall.
I don't see a brick edge meeting your requirement of doing it "on a budget" unless by budget you mean predictable costs, and not inexpensive.
If you're looking for inexpensive, and easy maintenance, don't use edging. Leave enough room outside the edge for a gas or electric edger (with gas, you don't need to worry about an extension cord), and run the edger every time you mow. If you run the edger every time you mow, you'll be able to keep a fairly snappy pace, with very little effort. Edging only becomes a chore if you let it go long enough that you have to cut through lots of mature roots in an slot that has already filled with compacted soil, and there's no room to fit the edger on the outside of the lawn.
Edging can also be a chore if you've put in a decorative looking, but ineffective edging material. And if your choice is running the edger either over the turf or a raised edge, you won't be able to get it cutting deep enough, which will make your edging ineffective, too.
In my opinion, shallow, brick and budget just don't go together for this project.
To edge my lawn, I used a balling spade with a straight edge and cut a V-shaped trench all around, about 3" wide and 2" deep. I kept the trench clear of all vegetation. Every so often, I renewed sections with a hand trowel. Not only did this keep the lawn out of the flower beds and ground cover from the beds out of the lawn, but it also aided drainage.
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