Your Garden Edging 101

If you have a garden or a backyard, you know that taking care of those lawn edges with garden edging is essential for maintaining a tidy landscape. Garden edging can also help define a flower or shrub bed and the transition from a terrace to a garden.

Garden edging using corten steel edging for walkways, garden beds, and other landscape features is an easy and stylish way to achieve the landscape you want. The minimalist corten steel doesn't overshadow the plants and blends into the environment well.

Here are some tips and tricks to make your garden edging endeavours easier. 

Corten Steel Edging

One of the main benefits of corten steel edging is that it's durable, easy to set up and maintain. Corten Steel develops a lovely rust patina over time, giving your garden and lawn a rustic yet modern and minimalistic look without overshadowing your plants. 

This type of edging helps create a subtle separation wherever needed and looks smooth. It also prevents grass roots from spreading and subtly separates the lawn from the garden.

Corten steel garden edging also pushes back against eroding earth and ground movement protecting your land. Our metal garden edging made from high-quality corten steel is ideal for all these purposes! 

Metal Trend Garden Edging Collection

Check Out Our Garden Edging Collection

 This rusting steel garden edging is durable and robust, maintenance-free, effortless to install, fits perfectly into different landscape styles and will last you years.

Cortel steel is sleek and almost disappears in the garden and lawn bed. It also works for both curved areas and straight sections of the garden or backyard.

Garden edging 101

Anyone can set up their own garden edging, and it's even easier with a checklist that will allow the process to go smoothly and without any unwanted surprises like, e.g. accidentally cutting off utility lines.

• Tools

Here are the tools you will need for garden edging. The good news is that you probably already have everything at home!

• Tape measure
• Metal landscape edging
• Hand trowel or spade 
• Rubber mallet
• Hacksaw
• Wood boards and/or garden hose
• Chalk or spray paint 

• Make a plan 

Without a plan, it won't be easy to know where exactly to dig and place your edging. To know exactly where to put it, draw out your garden plan on a piece of paper and play around to find the best spaces.

Once you have that, use wooden boards for straight lines and a garden hose for curved areas to map out the lines of where you want your edging to go in your garden. 

Then, using a spade or a hand trowel, cut lines in the soil along them. You can also use spray paint or chalk for this purpose.

Once you have made your edging borders, measure them with a tape measurer to know how much edging to order. 

• Edging height 

One of the most common questions about garden edging is its height. 

Generally, the top of the border should be around 1.25 cm above the ground. Think not that high, so you don't hit it with your lawnmower, but not that low so it doesn't prevent roots from growing over. 

This height creates an almost invisible border for your lawn. Your edging blends into the environment and does its job without overshadowing your flowers or plants. 

• Getting to work 

Now that you have your plans and details figured out let's get to work! It doesn't require too much strength to prepare your lawn for edging, but make sure you wear protective gear and sunscreen! 

• Cutting the trenches

Use a spade or hand trowel to dig along the lines or a power edger to cut the edges along a flowerbed, walkway, patio or driveway. The power tool is much easier to work with and doesn't require a lot of effort, so if you have a big garden and big plans, you may consider getting one. 

The edge tool has wheels that provide mobility, so you simply walk behind it while it cuts a line into the soil. Make sure you check the cuts after you're done! 

Once you've established your edge, refine it, deepen the cut and remove the turf and any rocks. 

• Installing the metal edging 

To install your metal edging, you'll need a rubber mallet to sink it in. Don't use a regular hammer because it could damage your edging. Moistening the soil and removing rocks and branches in advance makes this task easier. 

When you need smaller pieces of your edging, simply cut them out with your hacksaw, making sure the corners line up. 

Once you've covered your area and installed your edging, backfill against it on both sides. For this, use the same soil from your garden or mulch, and to make the construction firm and sturdy, use small stones too. You can also use gravel or decorative stones to make the end result look nicer!

• Safety 

Before you do any digging in the garden or backyard, make sure to check potential utility lines and piping there first. Hitting them is dangerous, will cause many problems and take a lot of time to fix. 

If you're not sure if there are any, you can contact your local office for the information. 

The other safety issue to keep in mind when placing your corten steel edging is its sharpness. To keep yourself, your family and your pets safe, make sure to round the ending at the spots where someone could get injured. Remember, we often walk barefoot or with sandals in the garden, and nobody wants to walk into a sharp metal edge!

Ready to get to work? Order top-quality, Australian-made garden edging from Metal Trend!