Tips for maintaining your lawn edge

Maintaining a clean lawn edge is a really simple way to make your lawn look tidy and professional. It's a small technique, but the frame for your yard makes your entire property look great!

If you don't install a paved mowing strip or another type of barrier, you'll need to maintain the lawn edge by cutting into the soil.

• This usually needs to be done at least once a year, in spring, but it's easy with the proper tools.

You can use a sharp spade or a special edging tool that has a half-moon blade with a flattened top and foot rest.

• You simply press down with the ball of your foot.
• Remember to keep the tool vertical, using it to slice straight down into the soil. Push it no deeper than the top of the edging tool, or about 10 centimetres (four inches) deep if using a spade.
• Draw the blade straight up or rock it slightly from side to side to keep from disturbing the soil and to leave a clean line.

There are several low-maintenance ways to keep lawn edges that abut mulched beds or patches of groundcover looking tidy without constant trimming and edging. A lasting solution is to install a mowing strip of bricks, lumber, flat stones or concrete pavers.

• Set the mowing strip into the ground with its surface flush with the soil, so that the wheels of your mower roll over it.
• A mowing strip adds an attractive visual element to the landscape and lets you achieve a clean cut without the need to follow up with an edger or string trimmer.

For a less visible barrier, you can pound thin, hard plastic, rubber or metal edging into the ground along the edge of the turf, leaving just the very top sticking above the soil.

• Some edging material requires you to dig a narrow trench or at least loosen the soil with a sharp spade.
• Others, however, are designed to penetrate the soil when pounded in with a rubber mallet.

If the edging heaves out of the ground as the soil freezes and thaws in late winter, simply pound it back in when the soil is moist.

• These edgings are particularly useful in discouraging enthusiastic grasses with running stems, such as Kentucky bluegrass, from creeping into adjoining beds, as well as preventing aggressive ground covers or perennial plants from sneaking into the lawn.

Whether you choose a mowing strip or pound-in edging, be sure to leave a thin strip of mulch on the side opposite the grass.

• This bare area prevents damage to plantings from the mower.

In shadier areas, you may not need any type of lawn edging.

• If the dividing line between the lawn and a flower bed or a patch of groundcover coincides with a break between sunlight and shade, the sun-loving lawn grass will naturally retreat from the shaded area. What's more, the shade-tolerant perennial, annual and groundcover plants won't send runners or young plants into bright light.

Having the right tools will make the job much easier, and the results more attractive.

• Lawns that border a wall, or a raised planting bed or paved area may be difficult to mow. You will need to trim them to keep the grass looking manicured.
• Long-handled shears or string trimmers that cut the grass blades without digging into the soil work best for this purpose.

Keeping a clean lawn edge is an easy detail that makes your yard look manicured and healthy. Although it can be a little bit of work to start, the results are more than worth it!