Once upon a time, my gardener brother showed me how to edge the flowerbeds in the garden. And I’ve been doing it ever since.
Every so often I get asked how I do it and maintain those edges. So I’m sharing my (brother’s) secrets today.
Does this look familiar? It happens to the best of us. Mess meets sunken treasure.
And just like my pallet walkway post, you’ll do it if you blog about it, yes? YES!
Not pretty. Everything’s a little overgrown and the soil is the same height as the lawn. Let’s fix it!
(my bad for taking photos in the bright sunlight; overcast days are better, I just didn’t want to wait)
How to cut pro edges for your flower beds
1. Cut a fresh edge on the grass side of your flowerbed with a half moon edger.
Just like cutting cake. I like to hop on both sides at the same time, one jump at a time like a pogo stick.
2. Scoop out the cut chunks of turf.
I like to beat off as much soil as possible, then flip them upside down in the compost pile. If upside down, the grass will die and the works will turn into mulch/soil. If right side up, you’ll grow a new chunk of lawn in the compost. Then you’ll have to edge that… (kidding) (sort of)
Here’s the big deep dark secret. Trench your soil on the side of the cut, then hill it upwards.
A trench creates a place for water to drain and soil to fall. And offers a shadow for a nice clean look. You wait and see!
3. With hand held clippers, trim your grassy edges horizontally and vertically for a nice sharp haircut.
Yes, you can do it with a weed wacker upside down but you will NOT get this quality of an edge. Ever. It’s like using a steak knife to give yourself a haircut.
And then stand back and GASP at your awesomeness.
Ok, and water the soil too before you take pictures so it looks rich and full of nutrients.
Tip #1: when you cut edges, attempt curvy shapes vs. straight. Round is more natural, just like nature.
Tip #2: if you curve, ensure the curves will accommodate your lawnmower size. If your curves are too tight, you have to keep repositioning the mower.
Aren’t those flowerbed edges pretty?
Here’s a little illustration in hopes that it makes more sense if my first try didn’t fly.
How to maintain
Keep the edges trimmed every time you mow. And if the edges get overgrown a little, you can always recut new edges to start over again.
How to mow? I push the lawn mower along the edge, stop, rotate towards the soil, touch down, then straighten again. I do this all along the edges to reduce the need to edge by hand horizontally.
If Jenna’s happy, I’m happy! NEXT.
I think you should blog about your work. It appears to be… working.
Take my 2011 FULL garden tour (as seen above)
Do you edge? What are your secrets?
I really need to do this with my garden beds. Thanks for the tutorial!
Pro Donna. When can you come over to do mine?
wow, you did an amazing job. It looks like a magazine shoot. Thanks so much for the step by step tut. I think I can do this.
What a timely post! I’ve recently noticed that the garden needs new crisp edges, but rather than digging in, I’ve ignored it, preferring to take bike rides instead….promising to get to it later. You’ve given me the incentive to get to work. Thanks to you, and to your brother for sharing!
So glad to see this!! I will be trying it your way. Now, do you have a really easy, great way for getting rid of Monkey grass gone wild? Have a great week, Donna! Best, Vicki
I fell in love with your edging technique when you shared it many moons ago but I don’t think I caught the trimming of the grass by hand part – THANK YOU for sharing. Can’t wait to get outside and give it a try! xo
http://www.NorthernCottage.net
It’s really beautiful. I wish I HAD grass to edge and blog about. I live in Phoenix and have a rock yard. Yuk.
Great tutorial. Thanks for the info. I would love to know the names of some of the flowers that you have in this area. Thanks for sharing. Have a great week.
I edge all of my beds too. I use a shovel – it just works easier for me (maybe it’s th soil too). It takes a while but sooo worth it! Thanks for the tips on trimming – I will certainly be doing that. What a difference!
Brenda
This is great! Who would have thought it would be so easy? Thank you so much!
We did this with an “edger” machine we rented when we first did our garden beds, but they have slowly grown back. Great tip on how to refresh that look again! I’m gonna go do that today.
Hey Donna! the garden edges look wonderful.
So… what if you don’t have grass?
we have a brick side walk out front and a concrete patio pavers in the back… would you cut next to the brick and make that straight? and hill up towards the dirt/ or grass? away from the concrete?
I’m going to try this. It can’t hurt and hopefully it will make it all look so much nicer!
Pat
Yes, absolutely I’d try that! A trenched edge really looks smart against any surfaces. You’ll be amazed at the difference.
That looks fantastic Donna!! Thanks for sharing!
Suelynn
Oh how I wish creeping charlie would follow the rules! (or die already!!) I trench. It still does what it wants! Someday I will win the battle! Great post and truly a fantastic idea.
Wonderful step by step and just what my gardens need! As soon as it cools a bit (weather wise) I’ll be trying this – Thank You So Much!!!!
I noticed your garden bed edges in the background of your “pallet walkway redo”. I had garden edge envy, thanks for the tutorial on how to achieve this. clean crisp look.
I really need a garden. Yours is so pretty with that yellow ivy crawling around.
What a huge difference that makes, Donna! It looks fabulous! Thanks for the great tip!
xoxo laurie
Donna,
This is brilliant!!! Now can you come and do mine?Seriously I must be doing something wrong.I do this every year and it never looks as nice as yours.What kind of edger is that?Where did you buy it?Maybe I am using the wrong kind.
((Hugs))
Anne
Thanks Anne! It’s nothing fancy, just a standard schmandard half moon edger. Stomp down straight down for nice clean cuts further into the grassy side and you’ll achieve your desired edge.
Donna that is the way my daddy edged. I learned from him and that is how my flowerbeds look too.
I edge far enough out so my hubby can mow and then you never have to weed eat. O.K. rarely.
Your soil looks so loose and rich, not like ours at all. Your beds and walkway look very nice and neat. Good job!!!
This is a really helpful post! I always wondered how master gardeners always get and maintain that perfect edge in their lawns!! How often do you mulch your flower beds? Is there a rule of thumb there?
Just like my Dad has always done his! They look amazing!!! Your garden is lovely, too! I am so jealous. Here is So Cal everything is a dry and crispy brown color unless it’s being watered by underground sprinkler systems.
I love the grape leaf looking plant on the right in the last photo. Are they grapes, ir some type of grape ivy?
Your dog looks very content!
xo-Lisa
Hard work but it looks great.
Donna …The edging looks great. Thanks for the tips!
Francine
You have no idea how helpful this is! I hate to admit it, but my yard looks so bad that all my neighbors love it since it makes theirs look better by comparison! LOL! Between keeping up with my job at Dish and the rest of the household, I can never find the time to even hire landscapers. You’ve laid out all the steps so simply that I don’t have an excuse anymore. It’s time to give my yard a facelift! Thanks for including detailed tips and instructions too. Most gardening blogs only show you the finished product, which is annoying for people like me who rely on instructions to do anything! I usually get all my gardening information from HGTV just so I can record it and rewind if I missed a step or good tip. Luckily, I have the Hopper DVR with tons of money to house all my shows and everything else the rest of my family wants to record, since I am the only one interested in home stuff. I’ve never tackled a project this big, so I’m a little scared. Wish me luck!
Love the tutorial. You must not have snakes! I love this look but because we’re in the South have many wild animals that like to creep and hide under things. I do keep my liriope trimmed somewhat like this when I can avoid the intense sun we have. Jealous!!
I take it that this is bad to do if you have snakes but am wondering why? I use a shovel to do my edges but they don’t look nearly this great. I want to try it but I do live where there are snakes. What do you think? To do it or not to do it?
We indeed don’t have snakes so I’ve never considered that!
My own system is a little different. I have some sifted compost or sifted manure in a wheelbarrow. I put the milkcrate that I used (1/2″ holes) atop that. Using a flat spade, I make an edge with that and put the soil & weeds/sod into the sifter & shake & it falls atop the compost in the wheelbarrow. What doesn’t go thru the holes (sod/weeds/rocks/ plants) gets added to the compost pile/bin. Sometimes I find plants that I replant in empty spots. When the wheelbarrow gets pretty full, I mix it up and fill in the gouges I’ve made. I step on the soil mix I have put down & make sure it is level with the grass so my hubby doesn’t scalp the grass edges.
REally excellent tutorial and great pics to follow. thanks.
You are right, the shadow really makes the pop POP!
I used to use the ugly black plastic edger to keep the grass and weeds out of my flower gardens but found that bender board works and looks better.
I am off to do it right now! So excited! So many projects! Thanks for the tips!
Beautiful yard and garden area. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks, that looks gorgeous! My only question is how do you keep grass from growing around the plants? Did you hoe it all down or did you use landscape cloth around the plants?
Hey Peggy! Just good ‘ol hand pulling weeds is how I maintain it. Nothing fancy. I loosen the soil with a small garden shovel then pull them all out one at a time.
I hand pull all my weeds. No landscape cloth in sight!
Thank you So much for this, Donna! We need to do this~I love the way it looks
Yep, this is the only way to get that professional look. Our previous home was landscaped by a Master Gardener here in Seattle. Beautiful flower beds, but edging them baffled me for the first two years. Then we visited Bouchart Gardens in Vancouver, B.C. and I saw them edging their miles and miles of flower beds. The half moon edger is key. I keep the edges “tidy” with a line trimmer and ‘edge’ with the half-moon at the top of each spring or when necessary. Thanks for sharing this!
Just a word of warning. Do not try this if you have a slope to your flower bed. The rains took the soil down into the little ” valley”, and then followed the slight slope towards my paving stones and into my rock walkway and towards my water feature. What a mess to clean up.
Donna,
Love your illustration and photos of the process! I’m going to pin this to the Home Depot Garden Club Pinterest board @ pinterest.com/homedepot/garden-club/
Michael Nolan for The Home Depot Garden Club
Thanks for this! We just edged our flower beds following this method and they look beautiful!
I’ve seen this from a gardener before, but I’ve yet to do it. You’ve inspired me to get it done this spring.
Excellent! I’m going out now to trim the climbing vines! I have some “hints’ to add. You can use a garden hose to outline the area, Home Depot has this walk edger thing. It’s like a sharp blade on the end of this metal stick (so you just walk along stepping on the cutting thing). It cuts about 4″-5″ deep. Case abandoned run down properties (those that have the roofs caving in from 1810). You can dig up a bunch of neat plants there. I got a lot of ivey from the funeral homes overflow parking area
Also, this “trench” you speak of….. I wonder if you could add black mulch to keep it from weeding up (?).
Oh absolutely! You’d need to scoop away a lot of soil though to get the mulch thick enough to do much. Landscape fabric underneath would also be awesome.
Hi – the trouble with my flower beds/grass edge is that the grass seems to recede! so I am getting bigger and bigger flower beds! Any advice?
That indeed can happen! Perhaps every couple years you could fill in the edges, reseed and start a new edge again… that would certainly do it!
What I want to know is how you keep that beautiful Husky contained with a four foot fence!
Mine would be over that and off to the races!
Haha, she wasn’t a jumper at all. Guess I lucked out!
Thanks! Ever have one of those “why didn’t I think of that” moments? Now there’s going to be some purty borders in my garden this year. Thanks again!
Excellent tutorial, Donna! Thanks SO much for sharing your expertise! Step-by-step instructions with beautiful pics are so helpful! I can’t wait to begin!
Since moving into our house 2 summers ago I’ve needed to do some edging, but didn’t know how. Now I do! My garden thanks you much!
LOVE IT! Looks easy enough. I’m heading to Lowe’s to get an edger today! Thanks for the “pin-spiration!” LOL
I tried that but then when my riding lawnmower tires roll along the edge it smashes it all down and so it doesn’t work for me.
What I do to mow around the edges…
I’ll move the lawnmower forward, stop, then rotate towards the cut, tap down, straighten, and move forward again, repeating the tapping motions all along the cut edges. No issues with smashed down grass!
Thanks for keeping it simply.Looking forward to more tips and info!
Thank you for posting this! I am getting ready for my yardwork and am pretty excited. I think I always did this the opposite. I love the way your edging looks, I hope mine comes out this nice!! Does it take a long time to cut with the scissors? I have a lot of edging.
Lynne
I don’t find it that big of a deal, Lynne. Just get on your knees and go for it!
Hi
Love your pic’s and was wondering if you could tell me what the name of the plant in the picture that is red? It is in the last picture on the left hand side.
Thanks I am inspired!
Hi Donna I am re-reading this as I am gearing to get ready to do this.I have a question do you mulch or add anything or just keep the dirt? We have an open field next door to our home and we need to keep it mulched or stone.We decided on stone because we get allot of wind.Just wondering how to keep this neat looking with stone.Any advice would be greatly appreciated
xx
Anne
@ Anne: after having selected and prepared a location for landscaping, I added soil to create a slightly sloped mound, trenched out the edging as described by Donna and than laid down weed fabric all over the mound down to the base of the trench. Afterward I cut “X’s” into the fabric where I plan to plant something than I red cedar wood mulch a circle around the base of each planting Than I laid down large potatoe size white river rocks (mini boulders) all along the trench as a visual border, about 12-14 inches wide. I also used the white river rock to create a circle around the red cedar wood mulch of each planting as an added visual layer (about 5-8 inches wide depending on plant size). The final step was dumping 1/4 inch red rocks on the rest of the uncovered portions of weed fabric.
Hey Anne! With stone, you’d just need to remove more soil so the stone has room. I’ve done it with lava rock before and while it works, it is trickier.
Pirro’s comment to your question is really awesome! I don’t think I can better that advice.
Thank you! I’ve been looking for a how-to on this forever! This explained it so much in detail for a novice like. I can’t wait til morning to try this in my yard.
Oh I’m glad I found this! I have done this once, but needed a refresher..I’ve been upkeeping it with a weedeater/edger but it never looks as good as when you do it like this..especially when it’s grown out over the winter. I need to use mulch in my bed and prefer cedar mulch. Do you know where I should start the mulch? I suppose I should not put mulch in the trench or that defeats the whole purpose, correct?
Hey Katie! In order to put mulch down, you’ll need to dig away more soil. Definitely leave the trench empty then just mound the mulch up and away from the trench. Should work just fine!
This is supremely motivating. It is so easy and so logical – a little like “why didn’t I think of that”
Now I need the motivation. That is not hard, just needs the right time. Thanks for the lovely pictures.
Yes! The time… me too! All of mine need redoing so even a little at a time will eventually get the job done.
good morning I lve this look where do I buy the shovel for the edging to do the job right. thank you so much.
Any hardware or gardening type store should carry it.. it’s called a half moon edger.
Thanks a bunch, I just had some fantastic top soil delivered and cant wait to get dirty this weekend :0)
Just the inspiration I needed to get my beds under control!
Your garden looks great!
Thank you!
Thank you for the tutorial. I was so confused about, how to even begin! You explained it so well! I pinned it so other beginners with edging could use your site! Thank you, your blog is awesome!!!
Thank You, it’s what I have been asking everyone. Now I know, the trick will be if I can do it as nice as you have your garden
Thanks for the great tip!
I love all the great ideals I get from you, keep up the good work!
Love it!!! I used to do this, but I haven’t gardened properly for years due to back pain and post natal depression. I forgot what made me happy in the garden and this type of finish reeeeealy does. Your great at tutorials too . I’m now off to edge my compost bin lol
Thanks for the great info! Your edges are beautiful!
I am about to do a complete over haul of my front and back yard. This tip will make it soooooo much easier when I get the beds going. Thank you so much!