The key to easy maintenance in the flower garden is preventing different materials in the landscape from commingling. You’ve got to keep soil, mulch, and flowers in the bed, and keep the adjoining lawn out. Edging can solve this problem as well as provide a decorative finish to the flower bed.

Edging Types

Whether you prefer sharply or softly defined edges is mostly a question of personal taste, and fortunately, you have many different types of edging from which to choose. After you decide on the look you want, consider the practical side of edging. When a flower bed borders surfaces, such as patios or driveways, your goal is to stop the garden’s contents from spilling out onto the pavement. By amending the soil, you’ve probably raised the flower bed’s original elevation. So, unless you’re very fond of sweeping, you’re going to have to install some kind of barrier. You have two choices — up or down:

• Edge the bed with a landscape timber, a row of small rocks, or any other barrier that’s slightly taller than the bed itself.
• Dig a trench 6 to 8 inches (15 to 20 cm) deep and 1 foot (30 cm) wide the whole length of the bed to trap falling mulch and soil.

For effective edging that doesn’t obstruct regular lawn maintenance, bury a row of bricks at ground level around your flower bed. This type of ground-level edging gives your garden a border that you can mow right over.

Holding Back An Invading Lawn

Ask any gardener — lawn grasses are among the worst weeds. The same quality that you want in grasses — the capability to spread and fill in gaps quickly — makes them bad neighbors for a flower bed. Lawn grasses can invade and smother flowers with lightning speed. They become so thoroughly entwined into the crown of plants that picking out the grass is often impossible without digging up the whole clump and physically separating them root by root. Even the products that are marketed to kill grass but not flowers sometimes damage the perennials, too.

The only way to keep lawn and flower bed separate is to build a line and then stay vigilant. A trench works if you routinely clear grass out of it. Many inconspicuous metal and plastic barriers are also available. Because grass roots go down at least 6 to 8 inches (15 to 20 cm), choose the deepest barrier you can find.

Sharp edges can be dangerous to bare feet and pets’ paws. You can buy plastic capping strips that are designed to cover the exposed edges on metal barriers. Some metal edging has a turned-down top for safety.

A hose pulled across a flower bed can chop the flowers out of the ground as effectively as a hoe. You can find a variety of decorative and utilitarian hose guides. When strategically placed at the corners of the flower bed, these devices catch the hose, preventing plant mutilation. As an inexpensive alternative, blocks of wood or turned posts perform the same function.