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Constructing Bed and Border Edgings
Finish your flower beds and borders with attractive edgings that match the style of your landscape and home.
Border edgings—low lines of brick, stone, concrete, plastic, or wood set along a flower bed’s or border’s perimeter—usually are either flush with nearby pavement, turfgrass lawns or raised up to 6 inches (15 cm) higher than the finished grade of your landscape.
Select border edging materials that coordinate with your garden’s look.
Here are ideas that make nice matches: brick or painted wood for formal gardens, natural stone or aged wood for a more casual style, concrete pavers or tiles for a modern look, and poured concrete for clean and crisp curved edges.
To coordinate with a natural garden, seek out local materials such as flagstone for a southwestern look or rocks found at the site.
Take clues from the finish details of your home, nearby structures, or regional appearance, such as desert rock in the Southwest states.
Edgings add decorative accents and simplify maintenance.
Crisp rows of brick give beds and borders a tidy appearance even when plants are dormant, as in winter.
Edgings set along walkways discourage feet from straying into the plants, and beautifully divide beds from crisply mowed lawns or flowering ground cover plantings.
Where lawn meets perennial beds, grass must be edged by hand or with a power edging tool because power-string trimmers too easily damage perennial blooms and foliage.
A solid masonry edging is perfect for setting the blade of the power edging tool and working quickly.
To install a wooden post, brick or paver edging, dig a trench the desired width and depth plus 1 inch (25 mm). Pour 1–2 inches (25–50 mm) of sand in the bottom of the trench.
Set the edging materials in place and tap them into alignment using a rubber-headed mallet for solid placement and correct fit.
In regions where soil freezes in winter, use grouted joints.
Constructing a masonry edging [see Step-By-Step Instructions, opposite) provides a permanent and distinctive outline around perennial planting areas. They also make a solid, level base for mortar-and-grouted pavers, coping stones, or tiles.
With masonry, you can control the exact shape of the edging to precisely match your garden plan.
Use masonry edgings to install mow strips between your true edging and nearby grass.
Mow strips are set at soil level where turfgrass meets the planting bed edging. They’re just wide enough for a mower wheel to traverse, cleanly edging the lawn as you mow.
Step-By-Step Instructions
Working with concrete allows you many options for a flower bed or border edging with different shapes, colors, and patterns.
Add interest by texturing the concrete. Use split shingle forms, brush the concrete as it dries with a stiff broom, add color tints, or press in stones for surface decoration.
Gather together straight-edged shovel, hammer, wooden or plastic bender board for forms, a bundle of stakes, nails, a mixing trough for concrete, and a spade.
To build the forms and pour the concrete, follow the steps shown:
Constructing a Masonry Edging
Layout the edging’s course and mark it using flour or stakes and string.
Use a straight-edge trenching shovel to dig a trench along the edge of the bed or border 6 in. (30 cm) deep and 2 in. (5 cm) wider than the edging.
Position form boards on each side of the trench.
Set the forms with 1-in. (25-mm) clearance from the bottom and both sides of the trench.
Square and level the tops of the forms.
Support the form boards with a 1 x 2-in. (19 x 38-mm) stake spaced approximately 2 ft. (60 cm) apart.
Square straight runs of forms, or bend the forms to make curves, as needed.
Use your foot and a sledge hammer to brace each stake during nailing.
Nail diagonally into the sledge hammer to stop the nails and clinch them tight.
Mix concrete in batches according to its package instructions.
Shovel concrete from the mixer or mixing trough. Fill the forms to the top.
Use the shovel to vibrate the mix as it is poured, settling it into the form’s sides and bottom and removing air and voids.
It’s normal for 1–2 in. (25–50 mm) of concrete to bulge out of the bottom of the form.
Seesaw a striker board diagonally across the top of the form, filling any hollows and removing any excess concrete.
Rest the striker on the top of the forms to make the surface roughly smooth and level with the top of the forms.
After the concrete’s water of formation is reabsorbed, but while the concrete is still workable, use a straight steel concrete float to finish the top of the poured concrete along the form.
Use a curved steel edging tool to round the top corners of the concrete where it meets the form.
At 4-ft. (1.2-m) intervals, crease the concrete to provide control joints.
If desired, add surface texture effects. Mist the concrete or spray it with light oil to hold moisture in the mix.
Allow the concrete to cure for 8–12 hours, remove the forms, and cure for 7–10 days.