Placing an edging around your garden beds can enhance their look, keep grass and weeds from encroaching and boost soil retention. Materials for edging include metal, vinyl, concrete, stone, wood and brick. All edging sorts have specific benefits, but your final choices will be dependent on their effectiveness and look at your specific growing situation.
Steel Edging
Steel edging is manufactured in widths from 4 to 10 inches. Edging strips should be joined and fixed in place of spikes or staples. Since edging is constant, weeds cannot creep into a planting bed. Strips should be sunk at least 6 inches deep to dissuade spreading grass roots, one of the major reasons to install edging. Steel edging can be heavy and hard to work with on intensely curved or irregularly shaped mattresses with no professional setup. A rolled or plastic-covered top advantage lessens the chance of scrapes and cuts to bare feet, especially near play areas.
Aluminum and Plastic Edgings
Aluminum and vinyl edgings are often the types most easily found at garden and home-improvement centers. Pros caution that their light weights limit durability. They can easily be crushed or cracked if stepped on, and plastic edging can become brittle in winter cold. Further, they are most often marketed in 4-inch widths, which cannot be sunk deep enough to discourage grass roots. Above-ground borders can easily be damaged. Colorado master gardener Nancy Downs notes garden-bed edging is not a moat to include mulch, and too shallow an icy border lets both mulch and dirt wash out of the bed during heavy rain.
Concrete, Brick and Stone
All three substances could be sunk to a depth to keep grass roots from invading your planting bed. A concrete curbing may be slid at the exact shape needed along with the constant curb deters weed growth. Expense, the need for professional installation and durability factors cut both ways. Once completed, a concrete curbing lasts for many years, but it also commits you to a long-term configuration of planting beds, and concrete may not suit the style of your garden decor. Like mortared brick, concrete, with or without the inclusion of stones, provides solid, durable edging for raised beds along stairs or on slopes.
Rocks, Bricks and Pavers
An easy approach to coordinate the look of planting-bed borders with your garden style is to use naturally occurring stones or the sorts of bricks or pavers used elsewhere in your yard for paths, steps and patios. Sinking them to a grass-deterring depth may be an issue with bricks or stone, and the spaces between them will probably have to be maintained weed-free by hand. Pavers come in sizes from 8 to 16 inches and much bigger. Sunk from the ground on edge, they could keep grass and even tree or tree roots out of your beds. Spaces between them are still vulnerable to weeds.
Wood
Exterior timber provides a natural-looking edging for garden beds. Offered in many different widths and thicknesses, wood is most successful where it may be used in uninterrupted lines. Avoid having chemically treated exterior lumber to edge beds in which you develop edibles or at children’s play areas. Untreated lumber is going to have a shorter life than treated timber and may be completely unsuitable in regions with frequent termite infestations or chronic soil dampness.
Trenching
One of the easiest, least expensive edgings for planting beds is a hand-dug trench. A width and depth of 6 to 8 inches drastically slows or stops the spread of grass. A bare trench functions as a reservoir for water-runoff and can lessen the need for irrigation. Filling the trench with mulch retards weed growth and retains moisture. Trenches need periodic weeding but can be produced around beds of any shape and may be re-dug when eroded.