I edged a garden last year by using a half moon edger and cutting the lawn about 6 inches away from the garden. This creates a sharp edge on the lawn side and then a little slope raising into the garden. Because of the sharp edge along the lawn, the lawn and weeds just stop there. This 'edge' is about 5 inches deep.

This bed required very little maintenance along the edge for the rest of last year and so this year as I clean the other gardens I am edging them the same way.

They use professional gardeners, lol!

Seriously, though, I use an edger tool like tiffy, a half-moon kind of blade, to make nice edges, but I do find that they take some maintenance, as the soil tends to fall into the little trench. And since my lawn is the pits, it never looks like in the pictures, lol.

I've tried some other kinds of edging, including one using large rocks in those trenches, so the soil seems raised a bit and it is like a small raised bed. The farm where I saw this had pea gravel paths and it looked beautiful. However, my weeds and so-called "grass" just crept in between the rocks and made it more difficult.

Anyway, the edger I use is similar to the one in the link below. I also have a friend who just uses a flat, squared-off spade to edge, but I prefer the edger.

:)
Dee

Here is a link that might be useful: edger

I just use a spade and elbow grease. LOL. It looks best when done yearly...sometimes twice a year. Some grass still creeps in, so it does need periodic weeding.

I'm with dee...my lawn isn't the best in places, either, so the edges don't look like the magazine photos. IMHO, the better the lawn, the better the edging will look.

I have this issue of FineGardening, it's from a while ago, but the info is timeless...

Here is a link that might be useful: edging

Now all this really surprises me. I thought there was a magical preen or something everyone sprayed on it. I didn't imagine that it was just straight digging down. Hmmm, now that really makes me think. Thanks everyone! Gotta go dig now.

Just to give another perspective . . . my husband, the one who mows the lawns in our family, doesn't like this kind of edge because he can't mow up to the edge since the wheels of the lawn mower fall into the ditch, and neither of us wants to weed whack the edge. I like a well done cut edge, but I'm not about to start mowing the lawn, so we reached a compromise. I used commercial grade black plastic edging, tucked down deep enough so that it is hidden behind the grass and lined on the inside edge of the garden bed with a single course of brick. It allows him to run the wheels of the lawn mower on the brick and gives me a bit of a masonry edge to slow down any crawlers trying to get into the garden from the "lawn" like clover or various weeds. It looks tidy, though not perhaps as nice as the trench style, and is a compromise we can both live with. We have not had problems with the edging lifting in three years (but we don't have much clay in our soil.) It does require paving brick, not wall brick which will crumble when it freezes.

nhbabs brings up an excellent point. The trench style edging does not lend itself to easy lawn maintenance. One usually has to go along with either a hand clipper or one of those hand-clipper-types with a long handle, to keep the edges neat. Not something a lot of people want to do, and it does add to the maintenance.

I face the fact that if I want this type of edging, I am going to have to devote several hours to sitting on my butt, using a trowel to dig out the fallen soil and toss back in the bed, and using the hand clipper to maintain the grass edge. Several times a year.

Like I said, they use professional gardeners, lol - at least for those fancy photographs!

nhbabs, that's a good idea with the black edging. I've used fieldstone, and seen brick used as edging, but as I said grass tends to creep into the cracks. The black edging must help with that aspect, I would assume?

:)
Dee

You can dig out the trench, and then refill it will mulch. Then the mower wheel can ride on top of the mulch.

I used to have edges like that. Then the neighbor did some demolition, and I scrounged the used brick. Right now at my volunteer garden, they are busy digging enormous trenches for the edges. Since the garden uses grass paths, it just looks incredibly dangerous to me. In the past, with smaller trenches, there have been real issues with scalping the grass near the edges, as the mower wheel drops into the edge.

I use a heavy duty weed eater- A shindaiwa - turned on it's side. It cuts nice trenches. This is very powerful and makes quick work of lots of beds.

I use a straight edged shovel to make my edges.....do it about twice a year......the hardest part if you wanted to call it that is contouring the soil again on the slanted part towards the border.....its not hard really just not much fun.....:).....And once you get going its goes pretty fast... and like most things when you're finished you're always happy you took the time to do it or at least I am.

Paul from Alabama

Here is a link that might be useful: Middle of the long border/ Hummingbird Island