Backyard Borders Keep Things in Their Place

By Paul Bianchina

Whether your backyard landscaping runs toward the formal and organized or the wild and free look, it's often helpful to have some type of border between the different areas to contain plants and landscaping materials, and to provide a visual transition. You have a wide variety of materials to choose from, some of which you may find for free, and most of them are great weekend projects for the do-it-yourselfer. Here are a few of the more common materials, available at most home centers and lumberyards.

Masonry

Masonry is a classic outdoor border material, offering strength, durability, and the ability to blend with virtually any type of backyard theme. Depending on your installation method, the same material - bricks for example - can easily go from casual to formal.

Rock: One of the easiest materials to install is rock, and depending on where you live, you may even be able to accumulate enough of them on-site. After determining how high you want your border to be, look for rocks that are roughly twice that size. Selecting rocks that are close to one another in size will give a more formal look, while random sizes will be more casual. Simply dig a trench to half the depth of the rock, set them into the dirt with the sides firmly touching, then fill in dirt around and next to them and pack it down firmly.

Brick: Individual bricks can be set into dirt in the same manner as the rocks, either on edge or on end, depending on how high you want the border. For a stronger bond and a more formal appearance, you can mortar the bricks in the traditional manner - start with a poured concrete footing, then build up one more courses of brick and mortar in an overlapping bond.

Precast Pavers: There are precast paving stones in a wide variety of sizes, shapes and colors that are perfect for borders. Some types are designed for end-to-end installation in a row that's one paver high. Most are approximately 12 inches long and 4 inches wide, and have a convex curve on one end and a concave curve on the other, allowing one paver to interlock with the next one in either a straight line or a gentle curve. The pavers can be set in dirt as with the rocks, or mortared to a poured concrete footing. Other types of pavers are designed for installation more like individual stones, either in single rows or stacked on top of one another.

Wood

Wood is another perfect border material, and once again you'll find a lot to choose from. Remember to use either preservative-treated material or naturally rot-resistant woods such as cedar or redwood.

Bender Board: If your border is curved, bender board is probably the easiest material to use. This is simply a redwood board that's milled about 1/4 inch thick, allowing it to bend easily to a fairly tight radius. Begin by anchoring the board firmly in place at the starting point, using wooden stakes driven into the ground. Form the board into position as desired, holding it in place with stakes as needed. End-to-end butt joints should also be reinforced with a stake on one or both sides of the connection - you'll find it easier to attach the board to the stakes using screws rather than trying to drive a nail.

Lumber: Pressure-treated lumber or railroad ties - which are treated with creosote, another type of wood preservative - are excellent for borders, especially larger ones that might be required on sloping ground or where the border has to resist more pressure from surrounding soil. To anchor them to the ground, the most common method is to drill holes through the board, the drive rebar or metal pipe through the hole and at least 12 inches into the dirt - spacing on the anchors and the depth they should be driven into the ground is dependant on how much the border has to hold in the way of surrounding soil. There are also spikes available in various lengths for holding the boards to one another.

If you intend to install more that one course of boards, stack each succeeding course on the one below so that the joints overlap instead of lining up. Do not build the courses up more than three boards high - once you start getting higher than about 12 inches you move out of the realm of border and into retaining wall, which requires a lot more in the way of structural support.

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