Flower Bed Edging: What To Know

Flower bed edging looks nice and can add curb appeal to your home. What are the best flower bed edging options and what should you know about this DIY project? Here are some points to consider before tackling the job.

Edging Protects Plants

Flower bed edging helps protect plants and flowers from encroaching grass, and lawns are protected from flowers spreading into the green area. Edging contains mulch and prevents it from washing away, and it protects flowers and shrubs from damage caused by lawn mowers and weed trimmers.

Create a Landscape Look

Whether flower bed edging is made of formal brick or more casual stone, landscape design benefits from a carefully thought-out edging plan.

For a more formal design, use straight edges and geometric shapes. Use standard materials such as recycled brick. For an informal garden, consider flexible plastic edging or materials that can be laid in short increments to be formed into a shape. Use sweeping curves.

Edging can be either unobtrusive to blend seamlessly into the landscape and seem to disappear, or it can be a very visible and as decorative as any other part of the garden.

Types of Flower Bed Edging

Popular edging materials include:

• Metal
• Iron fence edging
• Plastic fencing
• Pre-cast stone edging around trees and flowers
• Flexible plastic edging for sweeping curves
• Recycled brick
• Pavers
• Polished decorative stones
• Pebble rocks
• Garden pebbles
• Landscape stones
• Cedar mulch
• Crushed stone
• River stone

Edging Ideas

The look can be monochromatic with polished stones of oyster shape. These fill spaces more evenly than round stones and provide an even, pleasing color.

Tropical gardens may be edged with plentiful, eco-friendly bamboo or other materials. Create a country garden design with laminated plastic or white-painted metal fencing edging with finials and other decorative designs. Or take inspiration from an English garden and use formal brick edging. Go Southwest with strategically-placed natural stone boulders.

Copy the style of a golf course with deeply-trenched edging and flower beds filled with several inches of mulch. As for mulch, try different colors to accent or complement the rest of the landscape design. There are mulches in brown, red, gray and black, and the colors are resistant to fading for many months.

Lay Out Design Before Tackling Project

Whichever flower bed edging materials you select, it’s important to lay out the design on the ground before proceeding to tackle the project. Use chalk landscape tape, string or spray paint to clearly define the area.

Then lay out the stones, bricks or edging material and double-check the design to ensure it’s appropriate.

Finally, dig the trench or compact the earth, depending on material used and instructions. Set in the flower bed edging materials.