How to Determine Which Landscape Edging is Best for You


When you’ve decided that it is time to take the next step in landscaping your lawn, pay attention to the edging used around garden areas in town. This can help you get an image of something you may want to incorporate in your own yard.

There are a broad range of styles, sizes, prices, and materials of landscape edging to choose from.

All landscape edging is in place to generally make the border of the landscape element crisp, provide a barrier to keep grass clipping and roots out of the flower bed, and to keep the mulch in the lines. You can choose to have a plain and simple landscape edging to keep the attention on your ornamental plants or you can choose to have something a little more decorative to add a pop of design to your landscape. Either way, there are a few things you’ll need to consider before deciding exactly what landscape edging will work best for you.

Some factors to consider in choosing which landscape edging is best for you include the shape and design of your garden, your budget, how much maintenance you’re willing to do, and weigh some options.

1. Shape and design of your garden

If your garden bed has sharp corners and turns, you will need a material that can accommodate to your needs. On the other hand, if your garden is slightly rounded and won’t need much flexibility from the edging. Therefore, you can choose something stiffer. Also, analyze the design of your garden. Think about whether you would describe your design as something like formal, rustic, geometric, or comfortable? Defining it this way can make it easier to decide what will not only forms to your garden’s curves, but also looks great while doing it.

2. Budget

If you haven’t set a budget already, you’ll need to set a limit on how much you are willing to spend on your new landscape edging. Some materials are cheaper than others, a fact that can help you and hurt you. Cheaper materials such as plastic, help you budget-wise but can be prone to cracking, splitting, fading, or breaking. More expensive materials such as paving stones, will last longer but is more expensive. Of course, there are those in between – quality plastic edging materials like our Grass Barrier landscape edging – that are made from a durable, heavy, plastic that is both flexible AND durable. Grass Barrier is easy to work with, less expensive than many other options and stands the test of time. Please keep in mind that correct materials can increase the value of your home along with the benfits of decreased maintenance and a beautiful appearance.

3. Maintenance

Lawn edging allows you to lower to amount of maintenance that is required to upkeep that clean, crisp edge. Only small amounts of maintenance are required after installing landscape edging. For instance, a narrower edging will require more frequent trimming around the garden bed’s border. To lower the required maintenance even more, it is recommended to get landscape edging that creates a barrier 6 inches deep into the soil and a few inches about the lawn’s surface. This keeps the grass roots and weeds from sneaking into your bed. To have edging placed this deep, it may require a tad more installation labor, but is sure to reduce future maintenance. Again, this is another benefit of our Grass Barrier product.

4. Weighing options

By doing a little research, you can determine what the most commonly used landscape edging options are popular in your area. You can then weigh the advantages and disadvantages of each edging and have a better understanding of exactly what you want. Different edging materials can also be more durable in different climate conditions, which is why you should look for edging options that work well in your area. For example, some metals are prone to rust. Living by the sea, where the edging is constantly catching ocean spray, those metals will rust faster and last a shorter time period than it would have if it were being used in a dry environment.