Lawn Edging

Can I have some advise on lawn edging please.

It is now my job to cut the lawn at home as well as at my Mum's house and both lawns are a reasonable large size.

I am going to have to cope with having to mow the lawn every week but it would be nice if I did not then have to tidy up the lawn edges as well.

I have looked at many things like those log-rolls but they stand proud of the lawn and I don't want that look.
I have even thought of doing a proper job and laying / cementing bricks on their sides, then the lawnmower could just go over the stones and not be anywhere near the plants in the flower bed...

Any ideas would be welcome except those log-rolly things. I don't like the look of them :-)

I know that continuously edging the lawn with a spade makes the flower bed bigger and bigger and I don't want that either.

It's just that if that work was reduced I could spend more 'enjoyable' time in the garden doing what I like instead of dealing with the lawn.

Many thanks

 

I got fed up with edging the lawn, you tend to get "border creep" as it needs a lot of concentration doing it with an edging tool or a strimmer which I have, which can be turned 45 degrees and has a wheel to help you keep a straight line. But I didn't always keep it straight, so I occasionally got a little "scar" in the edge of the lawn.
I think those corrugated green plastic lawn edging strips look naff.
So earlier in the year I bought some more brick pavers. I put hardcore in the trough already there at the edge of the lawn, set the pavers in some bags of ready-mixed concrete and then pointed up the gaps between the bricks. Now I can run my Flymo half over the pavers and half over the edge of the lawn. Perfect finish, quick and easy.
I did both the front and back lawns (just one border in each ) for less than fifty quid. The dearest materials were the five bags of ready-mixed concrete. They look a bit "bright" here, but this was taken on the day I'd pointed them, they've darkened down since. The whole job took just two afternoons.





These are a bit hard to see, as I didn't have the camera high enough.



I already had brick circles I built last year, round two acers and an almond tree in the lawn.





Err.. It's a perfect circle, it's the camera that makes it look like an egg..honest!



Cutting the lawns is a doddle now.

 

i go round the edges with a strimmer and then follow up with edging shears if these are kept sharp you will allways get a good clean edge.
blocks look good but after a time the grass will creep over it and it doesnt look so good.

good luck

 

I've got brindle blocks set on their edges but there's still a certain amount of grass which naturally grows/creeps over them, especially if you don't have time to cut the lawn more than once a week. My advice to someone like Shobhna would be, rather than putting down lawn edging, invest in a small electric grass trimmer - they're less than £10 in places like Homebase and B and Q.

 

My last photo shows "the worst" my grass does to my blocks. Every couple of months in the summer I cut round the edge with an old bread knife. As the outside edges are "clean" I get a perfect finish. Beats frequent strimming and no chance of mistakes. Grass can't grow between the bricks as they are "flush pointed." The new ones have been down a couple of months and there's yet no encroachment of the grass.

But each to their own.

 

Many many thanks for the advise.

Most probably in a few months time at the most, I will be looking after my garden on my own plus I also have my Mum's garden to look after too. So two lots of lawns to cut, hence the question of not having to do lawn edging as well.


I know where to get the ready mix concrete from but can you, Doghouse, please explain what you mean by brick pavers...are these what people use for doing thier drives and will the builders merchants understand if I ask for block pavers?

Sorry, it sounds like a silly question but if I don't ask I will never find out.

Second question, will I be able to do this myself? I'm not a weakling, so the question is all to do with getting the levels right, digging out the trench to put the block pavers in.. etc..etc..

 

Yes! Put simply, they're a special type of 'brick', roughly the same size as house bricks, but without the 'frog' - the dented bit you get in house bricks. Builders merchants, garden centres will all know what you mean if you ask for 'brick pavers' or 'block paving'

No reason why you can't do it yourself.

I'm sure someone will give you more detailed advice, but my suggestion would be:

1 Visit builders merchant, garden centre and pick out the blocks you want (they come in a few different colours)
2 Measure the size of the block you've chosen
3 Decide whether you're going to lay them end to end (i.e. shortest ends together along the edge of the lawn) or side by side (shorter end facing the lawn - as in Doghouse Riley's picture of his acer). First option will be less expensive.
4 Measure the distance along the edge of the lawn where you're going to lay the blocks and work out how many you're going to need (always more than you think!)
5 Order the bricks and pay for delivery - they weigh a ton
6 Unless you're digging up grass, it shouldn't be too difficult to dig the 'trench'. It'll need to be just wide enough to take the bricks and sufficiently deep to accommodate the brick, leaving the top fractionally below the lawn's surface.
7 The easiest way to get a level is, having dug your trench, use the longest spirit level you can, or are prepared to, afford and ensure the bottom of the trench is level. A lot will of course depend on whether the garden you're in is level - if it slopes you'll need to ensure the trench slopes at the same angle.
8 You can lay the blocks straight into your trench or lay them on a bed of sand, which is often easier to get flat and level.
9 Begin laying your blocks. Keep using the spirit level to ensure the upper face remains in line - adding or removing small amount of sand (or earth) as necessary - tamp each block down well either with a rubber hammer or an ordinary hammer but with a block of wood over the paver.
10 Cement them if you wish, some people do, some put sand between, some people just lay them touching one another without the need for anything in between.
11 Run a hot bath and soak in it for as long as possible - this job can cripple your back!

One last thing ... there's no such thing as a 'silly question' - if you don't know, you don't know.

 

If I can add a couple of points, mine are set in concrete, only about three inches deep, with a a bit of hard core below that. I've also pointed them to stop any grass growing between the blocks. This means they won't get moved if I tread on them. Not likely to happen with a "block" several bricks wide, but is likely with a single run.

I've mentioned this before. If the edge to be paved is to be level then the "rule of three" should be used when checking with a spirit level. Usually it's for when laying slabs, so often a straight piece of 3" X 2" about 5ft long is used with a spirit level on top. The slabs to be checked in two directions.
As each brick is added put the spirit level across the top of the new brick and the previous two. With pavers you can include more, but this will ensure that the finished line is level. It's also best to stand a fair distance away from them a few times and look down "the line" to see if they are straight, even with concrete you've plenty of time to make adjustments.

 

Excellent advice.

No matter how perfect something may be using a spirit level, the human eye is far more critical. When my husband 'half-tiled' our bathroom the top of each tile was in perfect alignment with his laser spirit level - until we stepped back, when 2 tiles (right in the middle of course) appeared to be crooked. We checked and checked again and they were still straight - according to the level - but s** the level, they had to come off the wall and 2 new ones put in their place at a slight angle but so that they looked level.

Perhaps I might hijack the thread for a moment and ask Doghouse Riley a question?

You've laid your blocks in/on concrete, I presume this was 'wet'? Only I've notice that there seems to be conflicting advice - some say put them in dry cement and 'water' it afterwards, some say bury them in wet (which we found needed shuttering to avoid seepage), while others suggest using 'blobs' of wet cement to each block. Over the years we've tried all 3 and weren't totally happy with any of them.

The benefit of your expertise would be welcome.

 

Gosh! I do feel flattered!

One of my concerns when laying these pavers was any cement coming in contact with the roots of the several azaleas and other plants along that border and particularly last year when I put that little semi-circle round the big Japanese acer. As I had some broken up pieces of York stone as a hard-core base beneath the concrete, the mixture needed to be wet enough for it to "key in." I know some say lay it "dry" but you are then relying on the humidity for the hydroscopic effect of the mixture to work. If I were going to lay it dry, I'd wet the base of the bricks. They can in certain circumstances, take a few days to "go off" this way, with the way I did mine, they were hard in less than 24 hrs.
With mine I don't put too much water in the concrete, so it becomes the consistency of "porridge" this makes the bricks workable but won't move once I fixed them in position. I also wipe the base of each brick with a damp sponge if the weather is dry and hot. The same with pointing I use a slightly damp cement mixture; I also add some plasticiser/frost-proofer to both mixes. If the mixtures are wet there's also the danger of getting it on the top of the bricks which would make it unsightly.


Digressing..

You mentioned tiling. I've done quite a bit in the past. We had a new kitchen fitted about five years ago.
But I put in a false ceiling (not the plastering) and fitted the new spots, moved all the electrics, did the tiling wallpapering and floor, to save on costs. We found these very hard-glazed metallic looking dark grey-green tiles, which have been fantastic. Using a charcoal coloured grout was a bit of a pig though.

 

Wow. Thanks to both Doghouse and Fidgetsmum.
I have a pretty consice bit of information on how to do this and will start making my plans. The front garden slops in towards the front door and the back garden slightly slopes away from the house.
So I will have some interesting work cut out for me.

 

Doghouse - is that Farrow and Ball's 'Eating Room Red' I spot on your kitchen walls? The colour scheme looks remarkably like my own, where I also chose that red to compliment my similarly coloured cabinet doors - and a right pain in the whatsit it was too, getting that straight line between wall and ceiling!

 

Doghouse Riley - can I borrow you? My house is looking a bit sad and you must be getting bored by now :D.

 

i want to marry doghouse now lol

an interesting thread

loopy

 

Clara and Loopy Lou...put him down. :thumb:I was there first. :luv:
I was just looking at the kitchen photos and thinking that I could do with borrowing Doghouse for a few jobs...mind, I'd cook a decent curry in return.:D