3 Landscape Edging Ideas To Keep Weeds and Grass Out Of Your Garden

3 / 3

Raised Bed Border

A stone wall does more than make a clean border along your lawn. It’s a handsome visual statement in itself, a great way to add depth and texture to a flat, featureless yard. It’s practical, too.

When looking at paver lawn edging ideas, be sure to explore the variety of stone materials, sizes and shapes to create your ideal landscape border. It also provides good drainage, making it a great solution for low-lying, soggy gardens. And it’s a good way to terrace a sloped yard and create nice, flat gardens.

To reduce maintenance you can add a 4-in. deep trench lined with plastic edging and filled with mulch. The lawn edging keeps grass roots from creeping into the stone wall, and the mulch provides a mowing track for lawn mower wheels. With taller types of grass, you can mow right over the plastic border and cut the lawn edge cleanly. There’s no need to trim the grass.

Design your raised bed to blend into the contours of your yard like a natural feature. You can handle slopes in one of two ways. Either let your wall follow the slope of the yard for an informal look, or level the stones as we did and step the wall up or down as the slope requires to maintain approximately the same height.

The exact size of stacking stone for walls varies considerably by region. Visit a local landscape supplier to check types. For lawn edging, limit the height of your wall to two courses so you won’t have stones falling out. Measure your wall length and make a sketch.

The stone dealer will help you figure out the quantities of all the materials you need. The stone will probably be sold by the ton or pallet, and it’s heavy. Have it delivered and unloaded as close to where you’re building your border as possible.

Get started by laying out the border with a garden hose or paint. The trench width will vary depending on the width of the stone. Add 6 in. to the stone width (2 in. for the mowing edge plus 4 in. extra). Pack in and level a bed of gravel or sand.

Generally it’s best to keep the bottom row of stone an inch or so below the original soil level, but this will vary if you keep the stones level and the yard isn’t level. If you’re considering this lawn edging idea, just know that you may need to step the stones up or down, or use thinner or thicker stones depending on aesthetic and fit. There’s no rule here. Experiment when you lay the stones for the best appearance.

Lay the stones that have the most irregular faces in the first row so you can place the irregular face down in the gravel and level the top. Vary the sizes and colors for the best look. Chip off irregularities with a maul and chisel. Then add the second row. Make this row as stable as possible so the stones won’t rock and fall off. As a last resort, stabilize the stones by shoving stone chips into the gaps.

Lay landscape fabric against the back of the wall before backfilling it with top soil. That will keep the dirt from washing out through the stone. Then, install the plastic edging in front. Add organic mulch to finish up the mowing edge.

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7p63MoqOyoJGjsbq5wKdlnKedZLmqv9Noo5qvnmKypbPIp55moZSarrR7