We have very little lawn area. It's so small Bob can mow it in five minutes. But edging with the string trimmer is not something he enjoys -- at all!

After installing metal strips to edge the gravel and paving stone area after the big tree was taken out Bob found out that just by running the lawn mower with one wheel on the gravel the grass was automatically edged. The blade is set to high, which is best for the grass anyway. Here it is just after mowing ...

So he recently installed metal edging several inches out from the rocks around the center bed and filled in the space with gravel ...

After the grass grows up to the metal edging the metal will not show ...
The Floratam St. Augustine grass tends to grow up instead of over when it meets the metal so with one wheel in the gravel the edge is neatly trimmed ...

Other areas have brick edging and the one wheel on the brick trick works fairly well, but a few runners will be missed. It's my job to pull them.

The brick laid flat for lawn mower edging is not a new idea. I've seen it in garden magazines, but hadn't read about the metal being used this way although I'm sure we're not the first to have discovered it. However, I thought the photos of our new project might be a reminder to those looking to make mowing and edging a little easier.

Yea Bob, the best 'mulch guy' ever! (Old G.W. joke ... :-)

Happy gardening!