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Fall is a little about futility; with all the leaves blowing about, it’s hard to keep a tidy yard no matter how much you work at it. One thing that helps, though, is garden edging: a raised liner that goes around the edge of your garden beds. It creates clean lines and helps “hold in” the dirt, mulch, and leaves in the bed itself. It’s quite easy to install and now, when the ground is soft from the rain but not frozen from the cold, is the perfect time to install it.
Choose the materials
One of the things I like about edging is that you don’t have to choose expensive materials to get a great effect. There are wooden, rubber, and composite edging products, although in commercial settings, you tend to see Corten steel. Metal definitely has some benefits in terms of longevity and toughness, but it’s also inherently less flexible, and flexibility is something you may want if your beds don’t have right angles. You’ll also want to think about the overall height of the product you choose, since they tend to vary.
Measure the beds you want to add edging to, and make sure you order an extra 10% of length—and I’d advise ordering extra supports as well (they’re specific to the kind of edging you purchase).
Prepare the bed
All the edging has a serrated edge or stakes that go into the ground, but if you were to just use the serration or stakes to stabilize and secure the edging, it would sit too high above the rest of the bed. You could fill the bed to that level, but you shouldn’t—this will require a lot of material and will bury your tree trunks.
A better way to install the edging is to dig a trench around your beds, and plant the edging into that trench, so enough rises above the bed to act as a border and “hold in” the materials in the bed. The best tools for this job are a trenching shovel, which digs a narrow channel, and a flat spade, which you can stand on to slice down into the soil in a straight line. This will give you the perfect place to set up your edging, and it should nestle right into the space left by the spade. Use the trenching shovel to place the dirt back around the edging, and use your feet or a tamper to compact the soil around the edging (ask your neighbors before purchasing a tamper; it’s the sort of rarely used tool someone always has stashed in a garage from a project).
Make sure the edging is straight up and down, not leaning over. Use the appropriate amount of supports; each kit will tell you how often to use a support. Even if the edging looks solid, over time the weight of the garden and shifting soil can affect the shape the edging takes, and that throws off the effect. The supports will keep it in place.
Reinforce edges and corners
One of the keys to the edging looking clean and remaining effective is to make sure corners and where two pieces of edging join are solidly fastened together. Different systems use different methods for this. Some steel edging has notches that attach one piece to another, while composite and rubber edging pieces usually just overlap at a support. Since you don’t want the pieces to overlap at a corner, plan accordingly as you lay out the edging. For steel pieces that fit together, fasten them before you fit them into the ground; it’s easier to manipulate when they’re free.
Don’t leave any sharp corners
For Corten steel, if the edging doesn’t meet itself (for instance, it dead ends at a walkway), make sure the metal is not taller than the walkway—it would become very easy to trip over or get scratched on. A better solution is to cut the steel at an angle so it meets the sidewalk or ground.