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Using Edgings In Your Garden
You've planted the flowers, put in the shrubs and even added a bird bath
and a few garden decorations, but what's missing. Could it be the
edging!
Almost as important as the flowers, the edging is like the frame to
your garden. The picture can be interesting and beautiful, but it needs
a frame to really enhance its appearance. Just like a picture, your
garden needs it's frame to really bring out the
beauty of your living "work of art".
There are many different types of edgings and you must plan which one
will look best in your garden. One popular type of garden edging is to use a
low brick or rock wall, cemented together with mortar. This will create
a beautiful and permanent edge to your garden.
Of course, not everyone
has the means, money or desire to do this.
Another lovely way of edging is to simply
place bricks around the borders of your garden. You can put them in a
line, stacked in a double row, set on their edges or tip them diagonally
and lean them against each other.
In a similar fashion, you can use large garden rocks to edge your garden. Use
garden
rocks that are big enough to make an impact, but ones that you can
easily carry and move yourself. You can gather the garden rocks from fields,
the woods, or friends yards for free!
In your garden supply store, you will find many manufactured
garden edgings to
suite any style of garden. Miniature fences, fake garden rocks, plastic, metal
- you name it, they have it. I prefer a more natural type of garden edging, but if
you must buy one of these, choose a good quality product, and not
something that looks cheap and will only last for 1 season.
You can always create a living edging by using a border plant. Some
great border plants include alpine phlox which is suitable for most
climates and can be divided and planted again and again, gazanias,
pansies, petunias and violas.
If you pick perennial plants, like the alpine phlox or gazania, then
you can divide them and propagate them throughout the border. This will
help reduce costs as you won't have to keep buying new plants, but will
take longer to establish a full border.
For large gardens, comfrey can make a good border. It has thick growth
and will prevent grasses from encroaching on the garden. Also, you can
use the leaves for mulch around your other plants.
When blooming, the
tiny flowers will add interest to your border. Keep in mind, however,
that comfrey is not suitable for small gardens as it can easily
overwhelm the other plants.
One of my favorite ways to edge a garden is to use an herb border.
Even strawberries can be used as a border and their bright flowers and
lush fruits will add quite a bit of interest to any garden.
When
preparing meals, simply step out in to the garden and cut some fresh
herbs each evening!
Perhaps the simplest form of garden edging is to take a shovel and bevel and
edge all around the garden. The can be a nice subtle way to break up the
line between garden and grass. You can rent a gas powered edging tool if shovelling by hand seems like too much work. This type of
garden edging will need to be redone each year.
No matter what option you choose, your
gardens will take on another dimension with it's framed edging.
Author: Lee Dobbins
About the author:
Lee Dobbins writes for
http://www.backyard-garden-and-patio.com where you can learn more
about gardens. Visit their article database.
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