How to keep gardens from going over the edge

If you’ve found yourself wishing for green grass lately, perhaps your thoughts have wandered to the yard activities that revolve around tending to the lush blades of turf around your home – mowing, trimming, and, most of all, edging.

Ah, edging. While other turf duties in the yard seem to be on something of a regular – weekly, say – schedule, the task of making clearly defined edges around flower beds and vegetable gardens is more irregular. It’s a duty we perform in early spring, and, after setting everything to rights, expect to enjoy the benefits for the months to come.

But the grass and weeds have something else in mind. The battle to keep the yard nicely edged endures all season, every season.

Effectively edging can be one way to keep a yard looking tidy and unified. What is an edge? It’s a defined border created in the grass around beds or trees. An edge typically is created by spending hours with a half-moon edging tool cutting through grass and soil in an effort to create the definition. All the effort is undertaken to prevent grass from invading the garden: The idea is to dig straight down through the grass roots, creating an air barrier that prevents roots from gaining a footing and spreading inward to the bed. The edge must be at least 6 inches deep to eliminate penetration into the bed.

Hand dug edges can be uneven. In addition, the pounding action of rain can result in erosion, which sabotages the neatly trimmed effect of the edging tool. Worse, tenacious grass and weeds tend to grow in the wall of soil, creeping downward below the erosion-diminished “air line,” then cropping up inside the bed. Their invasion mars the area’s tidy appeal.

You see, left unattended, a naturally cut edge with no support will tend to sink and level out, and grass will fill the area. Some gardeners attempt to keep their edges defined by placing stone or bricks side-by-side along the edge. Other gardeners turn to coiled rolls of black or green edging to hold the soil in place and to physically limit the penetration of turf roots and weeds. Still other gardeners use synthetic herbicides to keep the edge intact, exchanging the unattractive dead brown grass barrier along the outer line of the bed for the reduced labor, keeping the unwanted plants at bay.

To what extent will you go to keep your edges looking fine? You may cringe at the thought of wrestling with another 25-foot-long coil of edging. All things considered, one of the most effective edging products is a rigid plastic resin that comes in short segments that are easy to use. The segments measure anywhere from 24 to 48 inches in length and 4 to 6 inches in depth. The durable material easily can be hammered into the ground. It comes in lightweight, serrated and interlocking pieces that promise not to rust, crack, chip or fade. The segments are flexible enough to create curves and tree rings.

These edging materials are inserted through the soil profile along the edges of beds with a hammer or mallet. People sometimes find the soil too hard to penetrate. If that should occur, soaking the area with water sometimes will soften the soil enough to compete insertion.

Installed properly, plastic landscape edging may work for years and years without having to be replaced or reinstalled. As you await spring, head to your local garden center and peruse the selection of products they offer. Using professional landscape products to help reduce the perennial task of keeping unwanted grass out of your gardens will give you more time to tend to the plants you enjoy.

Diana George Chapin is the NEWS garden columnist. Send horticulture questions to Gardening Questions, 512 North Ridge Road, Montville 04941 or e-mail dianagc@midcoast.com. Selected questions will be answered in future columns. Include name, address and telephone number.