Shed Building Plans: edging

Showing posts with label edging. Show all posts

Island Bed and Edging

Well, since I am on vacation with no where to go, I thought I would tidy things up around my yard and garden. The chicken house consumed so much time, that some things were neglected this summer.

Here is the island bed with things growing very well. I planted all of this in the heat of the summer last year when the bed was new. I just could not wait until fall. I lost very few things and everything else is doing well. I finally did cut back the huge daisies that were falling over and that really opened it up. I will use some kind of grow rings or supports next year. You can even see my chicken house in the background. I love that thing. The pretty red door is open to try and cool it off this morning.

Same bed from a different angle. I am only going to plant a few things into this bed this year because I want to see how the spacing is in year two before I add anything else. I know I planted some things too close at the onset. That should be easy to remedy before this bed is too full.

Here is one more shot from the corner of the boomerang shape. I still want to add a decorative small tree in this corner to anchor it a little but I can do that at any time. Maybe in the fall.

I am just loving this bee balm this year. It is so pretty even if it is 3 feet taller than the instructions said it would be. I have about six of these in several colors and one is a scarlet double. I like it too but it did not photograph well this morning. Not enough coffee yet.

This is a different bed that lines the edge of the raised bed garden. I edged it and top dressed it with new bark mulch. I love that stuff. I have one bed left to do and then all of the finished beds are done for the year. Better late than never. I think that edging everything really makes it look clean and tidy. I love clean and tidy, even if my plantings are a mess. My lupine got powdery mildew this year and I ended up chopping it off to try and keep it from spreading. This area might be getting too much water being right next to a raised bed veggie garden. I am off to work on the butterfly garden bed and then I will be done until someone (Doyle) get the skid-steer over here to put more dirt in my newest bed in progress.

Island Bed and Edging

Edging Idaho Style

Many posts back I asked How on Earth you make a bed look like this one. Not so much the peonies but the edge itself. Clean and neat. I have done everything but this until just recently. Several people commented on how to get this done. Anna from from Flower Garden Girl blog suggested cutting in strait down from the lawn side and angling the cut towards that cut from the bed side. I drew you a picture to illustrate what I think she meant by that. And no, when I say I drew you a picture, I am not being a smart alleck. I really did draw you a picture with the paint program on my computer. Someone really ought to come up with a better program for all my garden drawings, that program is junk. But for todays lesson it will suffice.

The dark black lines indicate the angles of the shovel or edger you use to cut into this area. I did this on several of my beds so far and it works like a dream. It looks nice and clean and I cant wait to see how it holds up and how often I will have to redo it. I also plan to back fill the area a little with my super fine bark mulch just to give it a completed look. I did some research today on edgers themselves. Flowrgirl1 from Live To Garden suggested a tool she found at Kmart several years back. It is a half-moon shaped edger with a T-bar handle that she says works very well. The one she uses is made my Martha Stewart. I also found a huge assortment of them on Amazon and the one I think I will order has a foot shaped top that you step on with your whole foot and not just your toes.Kind of like taking a big step with a built in spine on the sole. It seems less likely I will hurt myself with that kind than the traditional. You can also cut your main edge with a power edger and go back for your second, angled cut with a shovel. I used a shovel for the whole thing. It worked fine. I still have the island bed to do but the rain wont seem to let up long enough to get that done. Maybe tomorrow morning.

This is similar to what I mean by a step-on edger. This one was sold by Gardeners Supply but is no longer available. Dont know why but I like the idea. I will have to go in search of just the right one and let you all know what I find.

This one is an example of a Half-Moon shaped edger. I thing it looks wide enough to do the job without breaking the arch of your foot if your lawn is like mine. Very dense and hard to dig in. This one has a round handle as opposed to a T-bar handle but it ought to work the same way. Funny how garden tools are finally starting to be designed with ergonomics in mind. Took them long enough.

Edging Idaho Style