When considering a grass barrier for your beds, it’s often tempting to look closest to you first.
For many, this means considering home improvement store products – such as Lowe’s flower bed edging. Their options include wood, aluminum, plastic, concrete, and more landscape edging.
But will this do the trick?
First, let’s talk about why you want to consider landscape edging in the first place.
There are several benefits to installing edging around your flower bed. For example, landscape edging provides a cleaner, trim, line around the bed. This helps reduces required maintenance, keeps mulch in the flower bed, creates a root barrier, adds value to your landscape, and compliments your overall landscape appearance.
Sure, Lowe’s offers very practical prices on most of their edging materials. Yet, even at this big box retailer, some of their landscape edging options are more pricey than others. The total price of your edging materials also varies depending on the amount of supplies you’ll need to cover the entire border of your flower bed. If it’s a smaller bed, you may be able to manage something a little more expensive. On the larger side, you may want to consider some cheaper options if total cost is your biggest factor, so your bill isn’t enormous due to the large amount of supplies needed.
Edging Options Offered at Lowe’s
Wood
- Brown Wood Landscape Edging Section: This product has a 3.5 star rating out of 5, with a 63% customer recommendation. It is 5 inches tall and 1.25 feet long, with stakes attached for easy installation. This wooden edging option is only $4.98.
- Severe Weather Railroad Ties: Railroad ties are a commonly used edging material. This particular product is 7 inches by 9 inches with a length of 8.5 feet. The wood is also untreated, which is fine if you are wanting an all-natural edging option for your flower bed. You can purchase each railroad tie at the price of $14.98. Railroad ties cover a lot of ground but obviously don’t bend or mold.
Plastic
- EasyFlex 20-foot Black Plastic Landscape Edging Roll: This is a no-dig edging option, which is good for those who want to do minimal installation labor or have hard soil in your lawn, but it won’t block grass roots. It stands 1.7 inches high and comes in 20-foot rolls. There are stakes provided with the edging to stabilize it.
Concrete
- Geometric Red Straight Edging Stone: These stones are made to fit like puzzle pieces to the neighboring stone. These are good for straight lines, curves, and angles. The dimensions of these stones are 3 inches by 3 inches with a length of 12 inches.
These are only a few select flower bed edging options that Lowe’s has to offer. But the bottom line is really that you are getting the convenience of a walk-in store but the limitations of mass-produced, one-size-fits-all products that might not provide all (or many) of the benefits you’re seeking—especially over the long-term.
Isn’t a “Grass Barrier” a “Grass Barrier?” Aren’t They All Basically the Same?
Not really. Sure, every landscape edging option serves as a grass barrier to a degree. Yet, above ground edging products serve as less of a grass barrier, only keeping grass clippings out of the flower bed’s mulch. On the other hand, products that penetrate the soil up to 6 inches, not only keep the superficial grass clippings out of the flower bed, but also keep below-ground grass roots from invading your flower bed. Once grass has invaded your flower bed, it can be especially difficult to eliminate the unwanted grass without harming your ornamental plants that you’d like to keep intact.
What Other Options Do I Have for Landscape Edging if I’m Not Satisfied with Lowe’s Flower Bed Edging?
Actually, you have many other options. A quick internet search will show you that your options are only really limited by your imagination.
Two we stand behind and recommend are Edge Right and Grass Barrier.
Edge Right is a COR-TEN steel landscape edging sheet product with teeth that can be installed without digging. The teeth slice into the ground and can be further secured with a rubber mallet or hammer. Edge Right ages nicely – to a rustic patina finish – and looks better and better as time goes by, as opposed to other metal products that just rust. Edge Right is also malleable and can be curved as desired around your bed.
Grass Barrier is a HDPE high-density recycled plastic landscape edging that is extremely durable. While it’s economical, it’s nothing like other plastic edging products. Aside from its durability, it also goes two times deeper into the ground than most other products too. Further, even though it is a beefy plastic, it’s still flexible and can also create the curves you desire.