Garden curbing vs. trench edging
……….which do you prefer?
We have both. I have posted pics of our yard with each of these styles of edging. Along the one side of our house, the garage side, we have garden curbing. I love the flowing lines my son designed when putting in our backyard. Garden curbing can create a false sense of security however. It does not prevent grass from growing into your planting or mulched area. It helps, but in order to improve upon that metal edging should be installed between the curbing and the mulched area. Garden curbing can be stamped and stained, too. Very attractive.
Trench edging is just digging a shallow trench that separates the grass from the planted area. I like this look, too, but it is more difficult to mow and easy to fall off the edge of the grass buzzing the lawn. I hate when that happens, and so does my husband. A way to prevent this is to install metal edging along the grass roots to prevent them from encroaching into the garden then backfilling the soil from the garden up to the metal edging. This works pretty well, not perfect by any means! There is still some maintenance to do as the stubborn grass roots find their way underneath the edging. I will post a picture with metal edging and without metal edging. The edging should be at least 6” wide in order to prevent most of the roots from invading. I say most. And if I were you, I would have the metal be 8” wide.
There are other options when edging your yard. Stone and bricks for example. Whatever architectural feature you choose I would definitely recommend sealing the deal with a metal barrier of some kind to keep the lines crisp and clean.
