Closer to the edge?
March 13, 2016 10:26 AM Subscribe
What kind of edging can I use to contain a garden that abuts a sidewalk?
The previous owner of my house had half-heartedly transformed the entire front yard into a garden. Though I much prefer this to grass, this does pose a lot of problems for me! In particular, the garden abuts a sidewalk. The garden "bed" is lightly graded towards the sidewalk, and while the former owner had laid a few flat rocks down along the sidewalk to form something like a barrier, they're totally unsecured. In a heavy rain, or even wind, my mulch just slides out of my garden onto the sidewalk, so I'm always raking it back up.
I want a bit more of a substantial barrier between the garden and the sidewalk, but I'm not sure of the best approach. There is some well established creeping thyme along a few feet of the edge of the garden, and I don't want to hack into that to get a border in (I've also planted a lot more thyme to hopefully fill in the rest). Plus, I don't want anything too tall or pointy as an edge, since it's a high-traffic sidewalk and I wouldn't want to be known in the neighbourhood as "Mrs Rattery the Impaler." However, I'm not sure that the kind of hammer-in edging, like this, would actually contain anything? And it would probably look weird along a sidewalk, right?
Anyone have suggestions for what to do? For reference, the garden runs the entire width of our house, so that's maybe...40 feet? Does anyone else have general advice for a garden that runs up to a sidewalk? Thanks!
The previous owner of my house had half-heartedly transformed the entire front yard into a garden. Though I much prefer this to grass, this does pose a lot of problems for me! In particular, the garden abuts a sidewalk. The garden "bed" is lightly graded towards the sidewalk, and while the former owner had laid a few flat rocks down along the sidewalk to form something like a barrier, they're totally unsecured. In a heavy rain, or even wind, my mulch just slides out of my garden onto the sidewalk, so I'm always raking it back up.
I want a bit more of a substantial barrier between the garden and the sidewalk, but I'm not sure of the best approach. There is some well established creeping thyme along a few feet of the edge of the garden, and I don't want to hack into that to get a border in (I've also planted a lot more thyme to hopefully fill in the rest). Plus, I don't want anything too tall or pointy as an edge, since it's a high-traffic sidewalk and I wouldn't want to be known in the neighbourhood as "Mrs Rattery the Impaler." However, I'm not sure that the kind of hammer-in edging, like this, would actually contain anything? And it would probably look weird along a sidewalk, right?
Anyone have suggestions for what to do? For reference, the garden runs the entire width of our house, so that's maybe...40 feet? Does anyone else have general advice for a garden that runs up to a sidewalk? Thanks!
You could dig out a narrow trench along the sidewalk and install pavers on edge to create a more durable barrier.
posted by COD at 11:33 AM on March 13, 2016
posted by COD at 11:33 AM on March 13, 2016
I completely agree with Verdani's post re edging. I wanted a clean edge and fought (seriously) with various brands of edging all promising ease (lies all lies) of installation and the only thing I accomplished was entertaining the neighbours. Inset bricks with landscape fabric, bark mulch etc in whatever design you think would look best would be my recommendation. ...Mrs Rattery the Impaler, lol.
posted by RelaxingOne at 11:35 AM on March 13, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by RelaxingOne at 11:35 AM on March 13, 2016 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Hmm...I hadn't considered bricks or pavers....Verdani, when you did this, how tall is the finished edge (in other words, how much of the brick sticks out of the ground)?
Also, is there a tool that would make digging a narrow trench easier? I don't want to upset the neighbouring plants' root systems too much...
posted by Mrs. Rattery at 12:06 PM on March 13, 2016
Also, is there a tool that would make digging a narrow trench easier? I don't want to upset the neighbouring plants' root systems too much...
posted by Mrs. Rattery at 12:06 PM on March 13, 2016
Pavers/bricks are going to be the most durable, and IMO the nicest looking--a Google image search will give you lots of examples. If this is a straight edge, another option, which would be cheaper, easier to install, and rather less durable, would be landscape timbers. This would give a more rustic and informal look than pavers, if that would suit your landscape style better.
And I would not worry for a moment about hacking into the creeping thyme; you can transplant any dug-up chunks elsewhere in the garden, and in my experience it would take a helluva lot more than a little hacking to slow down well-established creeping thyme (maybe something along the lines of a flamethrower . . .).
posted by Kat Allison at 12:17 PM on March 13, 2016 [1 favorite]
And I would not worry for a moment about hacking into the creeping thyme; you can transplant any dug-up chunks elsewhere in the garden, and in my experience it would take a helluva lot more than a little hacking to slow down well-established creeping thyme (maybe something along the lines of a flamethrower . . .).
posted by Kat Allison at 12:17 PM on March 13, 2016 [1 favorite]
If you use that plastic hammer in edging, beware, weed whackers can chew that stuff up.
posted by Splunge at 2:25 PM on March 13, 2016
posted by Splunge at 2:25 PM on March 13, 2016
Best answer: Oh, and as for tools, I've found a drain spade to be immensely useful for this kind of tight-range precision digging.
posted by Kat Allison at 4:45 PM on March 13, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by Kat Allison at 4:45 PM on March 13, 2016 [2 favorites]
The finished edge is about 3"ish up from the sidewalk. It doesn't seem super tall, and the nice part is that it looks "natural", as in, it seems like part of the surrounding sidewalk.
posted by Verdandi at 6:22 PM on March 14, 2016
posted by Verdandi at 6:22 PM on March 14, 2016
This thread is closed to new comments.
We had this kind of situation when we moved into our house, with some minor differences. In our case, we already had some hammer-in edging in place, and it looked horrible - according to one of the neighbors, it was only a few years old. We ended up ripping it out and usingthese stones to create a barrier between the mulched area and the walkway that it meets.
Basically, we dug a divot about 2 inches down, planted the brick (sand to even things out if needed), and filled in around it with dirt. It looks great, took only a few hours, and kept the mulch in.
posted by Verdandi at 11:14 AM on March 13, 2016 [3 favorites]