Whether you have a small urban garden or a sweeping country estate, keeping the edges of your lawn in tip top condition can be a time consuming task. By adding lawn edging to your garden you can keep the edges of your grass defined, maintain crisp edges to flowerbeds or pathways, and protect planting areas within a lawn from damage.
What is lawn edging?
Lawn edging is essentially a hard edging material that is used to create a defined boundary between a grassed area and a flowerbed or pathway. It comes in a variety of formats and some of the most popular are:
- brick edging
- railway sleepers
- steel edging
You'll often see rolls of plastic lawn edging in DIY stores but we don't recommend using it. It doesn't have the strength to be securely fixed in the ground, and isn't able to properly withstand mowers or strimmers.
You can read more about using brick edging and railway sleepers in our article on How To Lay a Gravel Driveway or Path, but for this article we'll be looking at a relatively new edging method - steel lawn edging.
Preparing your lawn for edging
Preparing your lawn to add lawn edging provides a great opportunity to reshape your existing borders. To mark out a straight border use a piece of timber or a plank, or alternatively use a taught string and pegs.
If you want to introduce long, sweeping curved edges to your bed or pathway, a great method is to mark the edge out with a hosepipe.
The best way to cut the edges of a lawn is with a half moon edging spade - this has a flat profile to produce a straight cut into the turf, however you can also use a regular spade with some extra tidying up of the edges.
Using steel edging
Steel garden edging is quickly becoming the preferred method of lawn edging with professional landscapers and home gardeners, and we now stock a full range of
CORE EDGE Flexible Steel Edging.
Steel edging has a number of advantages when compared to other lawn edging materials:
- quick and easy to install
- highly durable, weatherproof and long lasting
- resistant to mowers and strimmers
- easily creates long curves, or sharp corners
- variety of finishes from powder coated colours to galvanised steel and contemporary weathered corten steel
- low cost per metre when compared to brick or railway sleepers
The 1m lengths simply clip together and are driven into the soil, providing a sturdy and secure edge. For extra rigidity in unstable ground, optional 300mm galvanised pins can be attached to the edging and driven into the ground.
By sinking the edging to be flush with the soil, mowing the edges becomes simple as a mower (even a ride-on mower) will pass straight over the top of the edging.
To create long curved border edges, join the sections together first, then (with another person to help) fit the length of edging to your curve.
If you are enclosing an area with sharp corners, such as a patio, steel edging can easily be bent to produce a defined corner. Simply lay a piece of edging as a straight edge at 90 degrees over the piece to be bent into a corner. Stand on the edging piece and pull upwards to create a sharp corner.
Other uses for steel edging in the garden
Steel edging is a great material for edging lawns, but it can also be used for a variety of other garden landscaping projects:
- edge a gravel driveway or path
- create a defined flowerbed within a large gravelled area or a lawn
- create a raised bed
What are tree rings?
If you have a tree or shrub planted in a grassed area you will know how difficult it can be to mow around it, especially if you need to use a strimmer to get a neat finish. It's very easy to accidentally damage a tree with a strimmer, and damaging or removing the bark like this can let disease in, or even kill the tree.
CORE tree rings are pre-rolled garden rings that can be used to protect plants or trees that are situated within a lawned area. Similar in design to the CORE EDGE Steel Edging, the pieces of the ring are simply bolted together around the tree or shrub, then the ring is pushed into the ground.
However rather than pushing the ring down to be level with the soil surface, the ring stands above the soil level providing a hard edge to mow or strim around, protecting the tree.
Ask the experts
For further advice about your garden project don’t hesitate to speak to our friendly and knowledgeable experts at your local AVS Fencing & Landscaping Supplies branch. Our ranges of CORE EDGE and CORE Tree Rings are available from selected AVS Branches or for home delivery within our AVS Branch delivery area.
