The Best Way to Edge a Flower Bed and Suppress Weeds in 4 Steps

There are several ways to improve the aesthetics of your yard, but one of the best landscaping ideas suitable for beginners is edging flower beds.

Garden edging is a great way to highlight your flower beds with a variety of styles, shapes and designs, and is also a great way to prevent weeds from growing.

Borders, such as mulch, separate the flower bed from the rest of the yard and block the sunlight needed for weeds to grow. Besides the aesthetics of your yard and its ability to kill weeds, garden edging is also important for separating your flower beds and lawn so that your yard remains pristine while mowing.

Given its many benefits, you might think that creating an advantage is difficult. However, creating an advantage is easy and can be done in just four steps.

When is the best time to prune a flower bed?
Technically, you can edge a flowerbed at any time, as long as the ground does not freeze. However, most gardeners consider late spring or early summer to be the best time of year as the peak growing season comes to an end. This is also the time of year when the soil is easiest to work around the edges.

Instructions

How to Edge a Flower Bed to Suppress Weeds

01 Outline the edges
You will need to cut the outline of the edge along the flowerbed, which can be done using a spade or edger.

Edge cutting tools cut through dirt lines easily, saving time and effort. While an edger makes it easier to create an edge, you can use a shovel to create an economical version of an edge.

Whether you use a shovel or an edger, here’s how to trim an edge:

Shovel: Stick the tip of the shovel into the soil along the edge of the flowerbed. Do this along the flower bed until you reach the point where you want to stop.
Edge Hog: Push the Edge Hog along the edge of the flowerbed until you reach the end.

02 Remove the Turf

Once you have drawn the outline, use a garden shovel to cut deeper and remove the grass. Grass removal is necessary for lawn fencing to separate the bed from the rest of the yard.

Using a garden spade, deepen the cut 4 to 6 inches and pull the sod upward at a 90-degree angle. This angle is important for the next steps.

03 Trim the Grass

Trimming the grass is an optional step, but it adds sharpness to the edges, which enhances the aesthetics of your flower bed.

To do this, use hand scissors to trim the grass along the contour. Mow the grass vertically rather than horizontally to maintain the 90-degree angle you created in the previous section. Cut the edge around the entire outline to add definition to your flower bed.

04 Fill With Mulch

The last step is to add mulch around the edge of the flowerbed. Mulch is used to suppress weeds by blocking sunlight and adding rich color to the aesthetic.

Once you have determined how much mulch you need, place the product 2 to 3 inches into the flowerbed and bring it to the edge to create a downward slope. The top layer of the coating should be level with the turf and begin to smoothly go down.