I pulled out this brick edging that’s been driving me crazy for 5 years without any actual plan. I like the look of a garden bed that just transitions without any edging but not sure how to do that. Some areas of the garden are quite a few inches higher than the lawn. This garden gets full of ferns and hydrangeas and some others (all of which I’m clueless about).
by Megdalin
8 Comments
Straight down edger for the lawn side, then jump to the garden bed side and angle cut down to the bottom of your straight edge.
Think of it like you’re almost making a half shaped V
*yard side* |/ *garden bed side*
EDIT: The brick edging you pulled out is already your straight down cut (just clean it up). All you have to do is jump into the garden bed side and make the V.
You pulled the bricks but left a dirt cliff behind. Gravity and rain are going to wash all that mulch and topsoil straight into your grass the second a good storm hits. If you want a natural transition you need an English edge which is just a clean trench cut into the turf line. But since your bed is sitting several inches higher than the yard you cannot just leave a vertical wall. You have to pull the soil back into the bed and grade it on a gentle slope down to the trench. That gives you a clean line and stops the mulch from migrating.
Right now you have a couple of shrubs sitting out there by themselves like polka dots. A good landscape needs structure and root systems holding that raised soil together. You want sweeping connected masses of your ferns and hydrangeas flowing into each other to create visual calm and lock down the slope. Run a photo of this dirt through the GardenDream web app before you do anything else. It acts as a blueprint to help you visualize the plant masses and edge transition so you avoid an expensive headache later. Get that soil graded and start planting in groups instead of single spots.
I really appreciate this! That explanation/visual helps.
Were your bricks sticking up, because I like bricks as a border but flush with grass. Allow lawn mower to ride on them and less trimming.
If you want just a natural edge, you have to remove extra dirt and mulch from the bed. Then dig a 6-8 inch wide ditch, about 4-5 inches deep. Then feather the bed to the grass edge keeping grass edge as deep as you dug. If the grass edge is fairly vertical, it will be a clean edge for a cpl years. Once you grade is set, then fill with mulch, not higher than grass. When you remulch, rake the mulch out of the edge next to the grass, so it get all new mulch. Trim edge if you need to before mulch.
Don’t use weed fabric if you are mulching with wood mulch. It will be an issue in a few yrs.
Looks like a penis
Boulders stacked as a retaining wall or just natural rock.
Contradiction of terms. Natural would suggest a transition from garden to lawn – no artificial barrier/edge
The problem is that this is bell shaped. The part that cures out is too large. A much gentler curve would be more attractive.