What a great idea! THanks so much for sharing.

I have used old asphalt shingles on the right side of my shed where I keep the garbage cans, wheel barrow, wagon, etc. No weeds grow there now and it used to be a weed haven. Wish I had some more to try your idea. I may call a roofer and ask if they have left overs I could have. Thanks for sharing the idea.
TrowelGal

Wow, glad I read this! We're putting horseshoe pits in the back yard and need to keep the grass from coming into the sand. The first 2 choices for edging had problems. The shoes break bricks. There's too many tree roots to bury wood lengths (I also don't want any more edges I can't mow cleanly.)

I like the idea of using them for paths, too. My (not free) mulch has decomposed, was uncomfortable to walk on anyway which was a downer for a family of barefoot lovers, and people have always constantly asked, "can I step here?" "Is this a path?"

And... there's a variety of colors!

Does anything in the shingle leach into the soil?
Would tractor tires crack them?

Janice, I was wondering this also. My understanding is that there is petroleum in old shingles, not sure I want that poison leaching into the ground.

Robin

I mentioned this to my dad and he said some old shingles have asbestos. Has anyone else heard of this?

I believe that asbestos shingles were used as siding,not for the roof,they seemed like they were made of cement.Anything that would leach out of roofing shingles would be running on to the ground from your roof every time it rained anyway,so it must not be a problem.

Wow...I can't believe this post. Last night I found, and have in front of me at this very minute, the Sunset Magazine from February 1996. It has an article, wait, I'm turning to page 98, that shows an ingenius method of designing a garden. The article shows a design using colored crushed rock in a geometrical design using wood planking to separate the different colors. I am taking this wonderful idea and will be using bender board (inexpensive and the perfect width) to edge my nice field stone rock borders. I am going to create about an 8 inch deep raised 'outer bed' that will have the straight edge I need for keeping the lawn cut and weed-wacked while still keeping my beautiful rock borders clean and precise. I thought I could use ground covers of different colors and textures to create the same but a more striking effect. Such as creeping thyme, corsican mint, baby tears, sedums, etc...how cool is that going to be? And...I'll be able to keep it all trimmed up nicely with my 'wacker'... I'm terribly excited about this new project...what do you think? Jim

Asphalt shingles have to be disposed of in a special landfill in Florida because of the petroleum products leaching into the soil. So if you live in Florida, just make sure you don't get caught using them in your yard. Cover them well with mulch!.

I'm going to check on the shingle idea! We have some leftover and I've been racking my brain over edging ideas

Jim, It sounds really neat! A couple of years ago, I was visiting my aunt and she bought a bunch of different thymes to creat a persian carpet effect. I forgot to ask her how it turned out.

I did a quick search on asphalt roofing and soil contamination and didn't get particularly fruitful hits.

But, would these be any worse than and asphalt road or driveway?

House covering materials come in at least two flavors - petrochemicals, and asbestos.
The Petrochemicals kinds are sometimes called tar paper, shingles, etc. They are basically a fibrous material soaked in processed oil, perhaps coated with litle colored grains to add color and visual interest. They burn readily with a grest deal of black smoke. Animals (birds) should not be allowed to eat(peck) the little grains. However, it is not actually poisonous.
Asbestos is carcinogenic. It WILL cause cancer if it is breathed or ingested. It won't burn, but the cancer danger is felt to outweigh the fire safety benefits. Schools, offices, hospitals, etc, have spent millions getting the asbestos out of their buildings. It is illegal to dump without special precautions. It is no longer available commercially.
What most people have is some form of petrochemical product, or even synthetic petrochemical product. It is nasty but benign.
If you think you have asbestos, or if the product is really old and might be residual asbestos, get rid of it. You really DO NOT want to be sending showers of asbestos into your yard everythime you mow!
Sorry to be so alarmist but I went through the asbestos thing on an old house I am re-doing.
Nik

Whether it's toxic or not, it defines ugly. Why not just plant a yucca on your roof and add a couple of pink flamingos? It couldn't look any worse than roofing shingles on the ground.

hey...whats the matter with pink flamingos....(LOL)

One - I'd be mighty impressed with your gardening skills if you can get a yucca to grow in Georgia.

Two - They are not laying the roof tiles on the ground. They are using them as edging. Personally, I would install them vertically along the long edge, similar to installation of metal edging.

Three - Even if they lay them around, recycling leads to a far more beautiful world than does the "buy-new-use-more-resources-waste-more" ascetic that most gardening magazines seem to push.

Would roofing shingles really be more comfortable to walk on than mulch anyway? Seems like they'd get pretty hot.

But then, I'm from south Texas (zone 9) so maybe in my current climate that wouldn't be a problem.

Tara

Yucca most certainly will grow in Georgia. I had a huge one (Spanish Bayonet) in SC that bloomed beautifully every year.

It doesn't matter if you stand the shingles up, or lay them down, they leach nasty stuff into the soil. Illegal to use them here in Florida, so I don't have to worry about it.

When we reroofed our house, we had to pay an extra fee for disposal of the shingles because they have to go to a special landfill.

I've got rocks edging most of my paths and beds. The weeds like to grow up between the rocks. My husband came up with the idea of putting about 6 layers or more of newspaper under the edging...had to roll them all back. He then filled the cracks with some leftover stonedust chips we had leftover from a path project, and covered any newspaper that showed. It's been one season so far and no weeds. In some areas he left a lip of newspaper covered with the stonedust which works as a mowing edge.

It will need more paper at some point, but newspaper is also a good source of safe edging.

~Alexandra

OK, here's an idea I've been playing with. Our little town has a recycling center that lets us pick up what we can use...buckets, pots, lumber etc.
I've seen lots of 2X4 sometimes quite long. My idea is to kerf a 2X4 (multiple cuts almost through the witdy) so it will bend to follow the contours of my beds. Sink it just inside my plastic weed barrier and let the mower wheel just ride along the 2X4. Sounds like the end result wouldn't be too different from the shingles.....and both are free!

This is my first visit to this forum and have enjoyed several postings. Especially the recycling things. I know I'm a little late seeing this one but I was wondering if used tires would work. If a person could find something strong enough to cut through the thick rubber to open it up into one long strip...then cut it in half all along the flat side you drive on you would have two 90 degree pieces. Put one side inside the edge of the bed, and let the other piece sit flat along the edge of the grass. If being used on a curved edge, the inside piece could be cut every 6" maybe to make bends, and lie flat. Could this work?

Last summer I read this post. and decided to try the shingle method, and it worked fine--no problem is mowing. One day I turned one over, and HORRORS==Slugs and snail abounded. I grow Hostas and slugs and snails are a nono to have. But a quick spray with the ammonia spray zapped them. Routinely I began checking, and soon wiped out my problem significantly. John

Hey all,

I've got some roofing tiles left over and wonder about using them for edging as per this thread.

Does anyone have photos of what they did/other uses?

It sounds like some of you just cut them and roll the mower over them. Others put them down then mulch over.

Did I get that right?
Would love to use what I have!

It was suggested on another forum or thread to use u shaped pins that you can buy or make your own out of coat hangers where you overlap one piece to the next. An advantage that the other forum mentioned for old shingles is that they get hot so grass won't sneak under it like it does other edgings.
I just asked my dh about the toxicity and he said they are bad, but not worse than asphalt, or asphalt sealer for that matter.
I use newspaper in my garden even the veggie garden, but something to think about is that some papers still use petro based ink. Our local paper uses soy based ink so its safe for the veggies. NY Times last time I paid attention used petro ink.
The thing that started the other discussion was my question about using strips of carpeting as edging, so I bring it up here as an idea also. One person said it works well, and they like to lay it upside down which I liked as it is more organic looking. In terms of chemicals in carpeting, the commercial grades are actually held to a stricter standard so that is something to keep in mind as well.

Thanks, Concretenprimroses. I put my shingles down as a temporary measure just to kill what's there. I need to figure out how bad they are! I'm not sure how upside down carpet would work...wouldn't grass/weeds just grow there? I guess they are big strips?

Does anyone have photos of carpet as edging? I am actually about to tear out a horrible, horrible carpet and would use it if possible.

thanks!

There is a rather long thread in Gardening in OZ about using carpet in no dig beds (from 06). They discuss using carpet as edge and weed killer too. And in Garden Junk in that thread I mentioned Nutty Idea for edging... Country living has done it the upside down way apparently. You could email and ask directly.
Also check out what i found when I googled carpet edging in the link below.

Here is a link that might be useful: Carpet cobblestone

Thanks. I'll check out those links. I looked at the one, but still quite don't get what they are doing. Hopefully gardening in oz will help.

Cheers!

i used the roofing tile for the edging, and i found a slug out there, it was cool, cuz he was dead, i used it around my plants. around my picnic table and such where the mower can't get. so i was happy to see that it had stopped the slug!! they can't go over the sandy part. Medo

Cool! We're looking to build on some land we've held for years...unfortunately in our absence some 'loving person' dumped their truckload of old shingles on our land rather than pay the dump fees....I love to recycle and now I know what to do with those babies. As for aesthetics,they can be covered with gravel between the grass and garden bed or inserted to stop the grass from coming through the garden.
Thanks!

Some people really get their butts sore over some things.

Asphalt shingles are fine to use for whatever you want. They have been on your roof for how long?? I don't see anyone complaining about the water running off of you singles and into rain barrels that you use to water your gardens or running off into your yard.

The funny thing is the little tabs left over from making them are sold around here for driveway material and playground underlay

Old tires are shredded and chipped for mulch and playground underlay.

If anything bad is left to leak out after years of sitting around im sure it is only very minor.

Yes the substance used to make shingle is almost exaclty the same as the stuff they use on roads.

Whats all the fuss about??

use them how ever you wish. keep them out of the landfill and recycle them.

With that said I would not use brand new ones around veggies. They have alot more petrol residue then ones that are 15 years old.