Natural Landscaping, Creating an Edge
by James P. Engel, © 2003
One must separate the natural landscape from the lawn area.
This is accomplished by constructing a landscape edge at the lawn/landscape
interface. The edging outline is defined by taking a garden hose or other semi-flexible
object and laying it down where you want the edge to be. You should create sweeping
curves. No sharp corners. Then take a square edged spade and following the curves
of the garden hose cut through the sod several inches deep. After the outline
has been traced in the sod with the spade; cut a one sided trench 3 or 4"
deep along the outline of the bed. Spread the soil and sod from the trench inside
the planting bed. This trench, vertical on the grass side and sloping on the
bed side separates the landscaped bed from the lawn. One can install plastic
landscape edging around the perimeter but this is optional. When installing
bark or other soil mulches, spread the mulch up to the trench.
This page posted September 10, 2004
